In the NT the A. does not bulk largely as an independent event. In Mt it is not mentioned at all. In Mk it is found only in the dubious appendix (16"), and there it is narrated in UT words, a fact which suggests that the writer is recording what he believed, not what he had seen. The first half of the verse — ai'(\-/i/ji^6ri els rdf ovpayif — is from 2 K 2" ; and the second — (Kidiutf iK Se(iuii> ToD 9eov — from Ps 110'. The explicit reference in Lk 24" (dUjTrj dir' aiVii- ital ivttptprro tU rbv ovpavov) lias the last live words doubly bracketed in WH. 'The A.,' they say in a note, ' apparently did not lie within the proper scope of the Gospels, as seen in their genuine texts ; its true place was at the head of tlie Acts of the Apostles, as the preparation for the day of Pente- cost, and thus the beginning of the history of the Church.' The insertion of the words, aff/p^prro eis tAk Bvpa)'6i>, in I.k 24", would thus be due to some one who assumed that 'a separation from the disciples at the close of a Gospel must be the A.' Hut it can hardly be doubted that Luke means in these verses (24*°"") to describe the Jinnl sejiaration of Jesus from His disciples, so that the assumption in ques- tion would be justified ; and the dilliculty remains untouched, that this final separation, whatever its circuiiist-ances, seems to take place, on the most natural construction of the whole passage (vv.'""), on the evening of the Resurrection day, whereas in Ac 1 it is forty days later. In the I'ourth Gospel 'here are more explicit references to the A. than in any of the rest, but no narrative. ' What if ye shall see the Son of Man a.scending (ivadaiyovTa) where he was before?' (6"'). More notable still is the languageof 20", where ,Iesus suys to Mary .Miig- dalene, ' Touch me not; for I have not yet ivscended (di'o/i<'/j7)»o) to the Father : but go to my brethren and tell them, I ascend (di'a^aii'u) to my Katherand your Father, and my God and j'our God.' The
r resent tense in this last clause is not quite clear, t might describe what was imminent, an A. close at hand : but Westcott renders it, ' I am ascend *OL. I. — II
ing,' as if the process had actually begun. ' In one sense the change symbolised by the visible A. wa* being wrought for the apostles during the forty daj-s, as they gradually became familiarised witu the plienonieua of Christ's higher life' (Com. on Jn 20"). Rut it is confusing to combine with the visible A. the idea of something going on in the apostles' minds for six weeks before. Christ's manifestations of Himself during those weeks to His di.sciples, undoubtedly familiarised them with the idea that now He no more belonged to this world, but had another and higher mode of bein^ ; but the A., as a separate event, is more than this. It is the solemn close of even such manifestations, and the exaltation of Christ into a life where con- tact with Him may be more close and intimate than ever (this is the force of ' Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended '), but must be purely spiritual. In the Book of Acts ( l'"-) the A. narrative is most complete. Jesus had been speaking to the disciples about the universal destination of His kingdom, and the promised gift of the Spirit, and as He finished He was taken up (iw-fipBri — liere only in NT applied to the A.) while they looked on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Two men in white raiment assured the apostles that He would come in like manner as they had seen Him go into heaven.
The Epistles may be said to look at Christ in His exaltation, ' seated at the right hand of God,' and rather to involve the A. than to refer directly to it. Yet there are passages in several in which allusion seems to be made to the same event as is described in Acts. Eph 4*"'" is one. Christ is there spoken of as 6 ava^kt v-jrepivoj irivruv tw¥ ovpavQiv. Similarly, though there is perhaps a more poetic and less historical Havour in the words, we read of Him in He 4'^ as &u\i]\v0lna, toi>s ^payovt and in 7^* as v^p-qXdrepoi tuiv ovpavutv yevb^voi. There is less dubiety as to the reference in 1 P 3** it iariv iv bt^i^ diov TopfvBelt fit oupavdy, and in the hymn cited in 1 Ti 3" ive\-fip.ipeTi iv S6(t!, where the same word ia used as in Mark and in Acts.
It is quite true to say that the A. is not separ- ately emph.asized in the NT as an event distinct from the Resurrection, or from the state of exalta- tion to which it was the solemn entrance. But it is quite false to say that it is identified with either, or that Resurrection, A., and sitting at God's right hand, are all names for the same thing. Certainly each of them might be used in any age, and they might be used still as a comprehensive name for the glory of Christ, but this does not abolish the distinction between them. When .lesus rose from the dead. He 'manifested himself to His di.scijiles. Already He belonged to another world, and it was only when He would that He put Him- self in any relation with those who had loved Him in this. After each manifestation He parted from them ; how, we cannot tell ; the N't only sug- gests that it was not in that way which marked the A. When faith in the Resurrection was as- sured in the apostles' hearts; when He had ex pounded to them the Christian significance of the OT, and the universal destination of the gospel ; when He had again promised the Holy Spirit to endue them with power from on high, He parted from them for the last time in such a way that they knew it was the last ; He passed with some- thing like kingly state to the right hand of the Father. To ttilk about Copernicanisin in th'- connexion, and to object to the whole idea of tne A. because we cannot put down the heaven into which .lesus entered on a star-map, is to miscon- ceive the Resurrection and everything connected with it. The Lord of glory manifested Himself to Hi-i own, and at last put a term to these iiianifesta- tious in a mode as gracious as it was sublime ; but