162
ASCENSION
ASENATH
the whole series of events is one with which as- tronomy has nothing to do.
Neither is there any reason to argue back from the phenomena of the Epistles, tlirough those of the Gospels, to the conclusion that the Christian belief in the exaltation of Jesus created the beau- tiful myth of the A. Westcott and Hort may be ri^ht in their suggestion that the A. does not belong to the idea of a Gospel, though the sugges- tion does not of itself seem conclusive ; but even if the final parting of Jesus is referred to in Lk 24", and even if the date is not the same as in Ac I, it does not follow that the story in Acts is mythi- cal. Luke may have learned the details more accurately in the interval that elapsed between the composition of his two works ; and in any case it is highly improbable that a myth-producing spirit, wUich had the same motive to impel it from the fiist hour the Kesurrection was preached, should have suddenly (as it would be in this case) gener- ated an A. myth at the very moment when it would dislocate St. Luke's histories. Neither is there any reason to oppose to each other, as many do, the A. narrative and what is called the religious idea underlying it, as husk is opposed to kernel. The Christian faith certainly holds that ' Christ, as the transfigured One, is absolutely exempt from the limitations of earth and nature, and that He, the ever-living One, is the head of humanity, exalted in glory, in whom humanity is conscious of its own exaltation ' (Schenkel, Bibd-Lexicon, s.v. Himmelfahrt Jesu). But the A. story is not the husk of which this faith is the kernel. It is the record of the last and apparently the most impos- ing of those manifestations of the Risen One to which this faith owes its origin. No kind of ob- jection lies against the A. which does not lie also against the Resurrection. Its historicity is of the same kind, though the direct attestation of it is less ; and the manifestation of Christ, at a later date, under quite exceptional circumstances, to St. Paul at his conversion, while it is in harmony with the fact of the A., does not reallj' alFect its signifi- cance as the formal cessation of this mode of mani- festation.
In Itself the A. is no more than a point of transition : its theological significance cannot be distinguished from that of tlie Kesurrection and Exaltation of Chri.st. If we regard Chri.st merely as ideal man, the A. may be said to complete the manifestation of human nature and its destiny : this exaltation, and not the corruption of the grave, is what God made man for. Man is not revealed in moral character simply ; there is a mode of being which answers to ideal goodness, and the A. is our clearest look at it. If we regard it in relation to the work of Christ's earthly life, it merges in His exaltation as Go<rs acknowledgment of that work, and the reward bestowed on him for it (see Ph 2"'"). If we regard it in relation to the future, it seems to be, judged by our Lord's own words in Lk 2i*^, Ac P, and Jn 14-16, the condition of His sending the Spirit in the power of which the apostles were to preach repentance and remission of sins everywhere. It enthroned Him, not only in their imaginations, but in reality ; He was able now to exercise all power in heaven and on earth.
' Being therefore exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath
poured forth this which ye see andliear. For David ascended not into the heavens ' {ovk di-^/Si)). This is
the aspect of the subject which prevails in the NT.
LlTKRATtniB. — The subject la dis^uissed in all the I.i%-es of Christ : u t.vplc&l on onpoi!t« sides may be named Neander (p. 484fl. Eng. tr.) and Hose, Genchichte Jemi, 5 113. See also Swete, Thf ApostU^ Creed, p. WtT., the commentators on Ac l»f- ; Milli^an, Agcfn^ion and Utavenly Friestliood, Lect. I. ; WMl KnowUng, Witmu o/ th» BpitlUa, p. 397 tt.
J. Denney.
ASCENT is the rendering in AV of three Heb. words. 1. njii'? ma Yileh, used of the ' ascent (pass) of Akrabbim ' (Nu 34*), and the ' ascent of the Mt. of Olives ' (2 S 15**). Besides these two instance* (all that occur in AV), RV correctly gives the same rendering ' ascent,' where A v uses such
Shrases as ' the going up to,' in Jos 10" IS*- ' 18", g 8", 1 S 9", 2 S 15*, 2 K 9", 2 Ch 20" 32*', Is 15», Jer 48', in all of which the same Heb. term nbnp ia employed. The plural rit^-jip of the cognate fem. form occurs in the well-known title of several
Psalms
En nv, AV ' Song of degrees,' EV
' Song of ascents '). See Psalms. 2. .t?v '6lah, ia rendered ' ascent ' by both AV and RV in 1 K 10», ' his ascent by which he went up into tlio house ol the Lord,' although RVm ofTers as an altemativa rendering, ' his burnt-oll'ering which he ottered in,' etc. This last is certainly the usual meaning of nSv, and there appears to be no sufficient reason for departing from it in the present instance. 1/ Solomon offered sacrifices on the colossal scale referred to in 1 K 8", the admiration of the queen of Sheba was natural enough. This is the view of the passage taken by Kittel, Reuss, Kamphauscn, Kautzsch, etc., and it has the support of L.XX {i\oKa.irru(rip), Syriac and Vulg. 3. In the parallel pa-ssage 2 Ch 9'' we find rii^si^ 'altyyah. This word signifies elsewhere an ' upper chamber ' (inttpi^ov), and it is so rendered, or by ' chamber ' alone, in 1 K IT'"- «», 2 K 4i»- ", 2 S 18°, 1 Ch 28", 2 Ch 3», Neh 3W, Ps 104»- >», Jer 22"- " (in Jg 3»- » both AV and RV have ' parlour '). If we retain the MT, we must understand the reference to be to an upper chamber which Solomon was building (observe the imperf. nSj^;) upon the temple. This, however, yields an improbable and unsuitable meaning, and in all likelihood the text ought to be corrected from 'iP:Va to Vilify (LXX oXoKavTuimTa) in confoimrty witii I K 10" (see notes on 2 Ch 9* by Kittel in Haupf » Sacred Bks. of OT, and by Kautzsch in Ileil. Schr. d. A.T.). J. A. Sklbie.