The NT is full of references to the Ascension. It is called an 'assumption' (dvd\T]^Ls), in the hymn quoted in 1 Ti 3'^ (' received up [dveXrjcpdT]'] in glory'), in the Appendix to Mk. (16'", dveX-^cpdi]) and Lk 9*^ (' the days of his assumption, 'dvaXiji/'ews), as in Ac P- "• '^'-^ (cf. vireXa^ev, v."). The same verb is used of Elijah (2 K 2" LXX, Sir 48") and of Enoch (Sir 49^'*), and also of the vessel received up into heaven in St. Peter's vision (Ac 10^"). On the other hand, we read of an ' ascension ' (dfd/Sao-is) in
* Augustine inserts the words once, and omits them once. Syr-sin is also quoted for the omission ; it reads : ' when he blessed them, lie was lifted up (ettrim) from them,' which seems to be an abbreviation of the fuller text, and, if so, to be a witness against the omission (the tr. 'taken away' is pos- sible but less probable ; D-Iat has ' discessit '). Syr-sin also omits 'and they worshipped him,' with 'Western' texts. •The Peshitta Syriac has the full text (with ethpresh, ' wai separated, 'for the first verb), as has the Latin Vulgate. The omission may be due to homoioteleuton.
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ASCE:N'SIOi^
ASCENSIOis^
Jn 6^2 20", and in Eph i^'-, where Ps 68^8 jg qiaoted, the first clause nearly following the LXX, the latter differing from it. St. Paul was probably guided by an old Jewish interpretation (Robinson, Com. in loc. ) ; so in Ac 2^* St. Peter says that David did not ascend (aui^-q) into the heavens. The Avord ' ascension ' has less of a mystical mean- ing than 'assumption,' and emphasizes the his- torical side of the matter; 'assumption' may be misinterpreted in a Docetic sense, as it is in the Gospel of Peter, 5, where our Lord's death is so called {dve\rj<pdT]) by the Docetic author. For this reason Irenanis speaks of the Ascension as an ' assumption in the flesh ' [ivcrapKov a.va\T)\piv [ffcer. I. X. 1]; see also Swete, Ap. Creed, 70). Other words are used elsewhere in the NT. Jesus is the High Priest who has ' passed through ' (die\ri\v66Ta) the heavens (He 4^*) — the reference is to the idea of seven heavens (cf. 7^*^ 'made higher than the heavens'); He 'entered' {elffijXde) within the veil as a forerunner on our behalf (6^"), not into a holy place {dyia) made with hands, but into heaven itself (912. 24J "pjjg Ascension was a 'departure' (Jn 16^, diriXdci}), a 'parting' (Lk 24", SUdT-q), according to many MSS a 'carrying up' into heaven (ib., dvecpi- psTo [see above], a verb used of the taking up of the disciples to the Mount of Transfiguration, Mt 17^ Mk 9-), a 'lifting up' (Ac P, eirripdr], a verb used of lifting up the eyes to heaven, Lk 18^^, Jn 17-"), and a 'journey' (1 P 3-^ iropevdels, used of the nobleman who Avent into a far country, a par- able looking forward to the Ascension, Lk 19^^).
The Ascension of our Lord was not a death. David did not ascend, though he died and was buried (Ac 229- 3^). So in Jn 3" those who had died had not 'ascended.' This verse would hardly have been recorded if the Evangelist had not as- sumed the Ascension of Jesus as a historical fact, and it is in effect a prophecy of that event ; it asserts the pre-existence (Acara/Sds), and points for- ward to the Ascension, though it does not assert that our Lord had at that time actually ascended [oLva^i^-qKev).
The Ascension is implied by the expected return or 'descent' of our Lord, 1 Th 4'^ (Kara^rjaeTai), a return called a 'revelation' {dTroKd.\v\j/is} of the Lord Jesus in 2 Th 1^ 1 Co l'. The disciples did not look for any other appearance such as had taken place in the Forty Days, until He should come at the end of the world.
2. Session and exaltation of our Lord. — In the passages given above, the Ascension is described as the parting of Jesus from the disciples at the last of the Resurrection appearances ; for there- after there were no such manifestations as those in which Jesus had been touched by the disciples and had eaten in their presence (Mt 28^, Lk 24^^ and probably w.^"- 35, Jn 202^— though St. Thomas perhaps did not actually touch the Lord when in- vited to do so — and possibly 20''') ; the appearances to St. Paul at his conversion and to St. John in Patmos were of quite another nature. In the de- scription of the parting a symbolical tinge is seen. The glorified body is received by a cloud as it gradually vanishes from the disciples' eyes. But ' up ' and ' down ' are sj'mbolical words ; heaven is not a place vertically above the Mount of Olives, nor is it a place at all, but a state ; the Ascension is a transition rather from one condition to another than from one place to another (Milligan, The Ascension, p. 26). The fact that men were accustomed to speak symbolically of heaven being ' above ' was doubtless the reason of the la.st dis- appearance taking the form that it did ; it would seem that when Jesus disappeared on former occa- sions during the Forty Days (for the Gospels de- scribe His Resurrection body as being not bound by the ordinary laws of Nature) He did not vanish