My thesis is different than what was offered in the notes.

Based on what I'm learning in this class and the incredible emphasis on the victory of the Messiah, seated high above all powers, and the gifts given to the living stone tree temple body to grow up to maturity into the head, it sure seems to tie in the "ascent and descent" of Psalm 68 into what the narrative of Eph 4 is saying.

Therefore I think it is only logical to view the "ascent' of Jesus to be going to receive His throne at the right hand of the Father (seated high above all heavens and powers) and that the descent must be the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost. The last verse of Psalm 68 is about God giving gifts of power. When we read Acts 2 at Pentecost the gifts come down in power. For what purpose? To take the 1 word of love to the diverse languages and peoples represented from the jewish diaspora gathering for feast of booths. 

Is it fair to not view the descent as incarnation nor burial? But the Spirit's descent?

If I were to begin a first attempt on my own of tracking a series of hyperlinks through the Hebrew Bible, what words might be a good starting point?  I was thinking about starting with some words from Jesus’s “I am” statements, like “vine” or “bread” and maybe seeing how those words have been woven through the Hebrew Bible quilt...or would it be better to start in Genesis and search forward...? I guess I’m feeling a little bit daunted in how to begin applying some of these tools on my own. 

I'm so glad we're going to study what Pail actually meant when he wrote about predestination. How important it is tu understand the author and cultural background. Do you thi k it's the same with the "women statement" in other letters ?

The cancelling of debts and the return to your family's original land strikes me as incredible, compared to how we attempt to help the poor today. It seems like the aim was to get everyone back on an even footing. If you had made bad choices or got a bad deal in life, you got to start back with no debts, land to farm, a house, a fresh start. I live and work in an area of deprivation in the UK and one thing our team does is to offer free maths tuition to kids who struggle in school. We are giving them the opportunity to work hard to get out of poverty - and that's good, but it's not the same as having a total fresh start like this, and an even footing with the privileged kids! That would mean being born into a family that trusted and supported the education system, parents that spoke the same language you were taught in.
Based on the jubilee model - what should helping the poor look like? Has anyone seen this 'fresh start, return to equality' model work in practice?

Why does the verse refer to the SPIRIT of Wisdom?  What is the Spirit of Wisdom? 

The understanding of "apocalypse" and bringing all things together under Christ seems to be a foundational understanding in viewing scripture- certainly NT understanding of the implications of Jesus life, death, resurrection.
However, it seems that this language has only surfaced in the past 20 years or so-
Has this always been present in theological literature and I just missed it?
Or
Has theological literature been lacking on this concept and then the question would be "How did they miss this?"