8 That is why it says: He went up to the heights, took captives, he gave gifts to humanity.

When it says, 'he went up', it must mean that he had gone down to the deepest levels of the earth.

The one who went down is none other than the one who went up above all the heavens to fill all things.

And to some, his 'gift' was that they should be apostles; to some prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers;

to knit God's holy people together for the work of service to build up the Body of Christ,

until we all reach unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and form the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.

Then we shall no longer be children, or tossed one way and another, and carried hither and thither by every new gust of teaching, at the mercy of all the tricks people play and their unscrupulousness in deliberate deception.

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow completely into Christ, who is the head

by whom the whole Body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each individual part to work according to its function. So the body grows until it has built itself up in love.

[Song of Ascents Of David] I rejoiced that they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of Yahweh.'

At last our feet are standing at your gates, Jerusalem!

Jerusalem, built as a city, in one united whole,

there the tribes go up, the tribes of Yahweh, a sign for Israel to give thanks to the name of Yahweh.

For there are set the thrones of judgement, the thrones of the house of David.