5. Modern objections to the Ascension. — The present article is mainly concerned with the facts, and the reader may be referred for an answer to objections from a philosophical point of view to A. S. Martin's article in DCG i., which is very full on this head. Here it is enough to say (a) that the objection that it is impossible for a body to disobey the la-vvs of gravity and to ascend instead of fall, presupposes that the Resurrection body of our Lord was under the same material conditions as His body before Easter Day, Avhich all the Evan- gelists' accounts show not to have been the case. Objections on this head are therefore really objec- tions to the Resurrection, not to the Ascension. (6) It is impossible to regard the account in Ac 1 as a myth unless we adopt the now exj^loded theory that the whole gospel story is such. The narrative bears the same stamp of truth as the evangelical records. For example, Sanday Avell points out the authentic touch about the disciples desiring the restoration of the earthly kingdom of Israel (v.^** ; see HDB ii. 643^). However we may interpret the narrative, there can be little doubt that it repre- sents what the eye-witnesses believed to have taken place.
But an allegation of Harnack must be briefly noticed here, as it deals with the facts. He says that the special prominence given to the Ascension in the Creeds is a deviation from the oldest teaching, and that in the primitive tradition the Ascension had no separate ]Aa,c,&(Das apost. Glauhensbekennt- niss, Berlin, 1892). He alleges the silence of the Synoptists, of St. Paul in 1 Co 15^''^% and of the chief sub-apostolic writers ; the placing, in some old accounts, of the Session after the Resurrection as if they were one act ; and the discrepancy noted above as to the interval between the Resurrection and the Ascension. These allegations have been ably answered by Swete (Ap. Creed, ch. vi.). The argument from silence (always precarious) is invalid in the case of Mt. and Mk., Avhich do not carry the narrative so far as the Ascension (the end of Mk. is lost) ; at best it hardly applies to Lk. (see above, § 1), and the mention of the Ascension in 1 Co 153ff. -would have been irrelevant to St. Paul's argu- ment. ISioreover, the Ascension belongs to the history of the Church rather than to the gospel narrative, and therefore it is not to be expected that it siiould be found there except in allusion. It is hard to see any force in the argument from St. Paul's silence in one place when elsewhere he so emphaticall}^ states his belief in the Ascension. As to the suh-apostolic writers, the Ascension is explicitly mentioned by 'Barnabas' (§ 15), by Justin [Dial. 38), and is i)robably referred to by Ignatius (Magn. 7). The allegation that the Session and the Resurrection were regarded as one act may be tested by Ro 8^^, where St. Paul names successively the Death, Resurrection, Session, and Intercession of Christ. If the second and third of these are one act, why not also tlie lirst and fourth? The argument from the interval has already been dealt with (above, § 4). For fuller details, see Swete, Ap. Creed. It is quite intelligilile that tliose who believe that our Lord is mere ^lan should find difficulties in the doctrine that He ascended ; but it is not really ])ossible to maintain that the discijjles did not believe it.
6. Importance of the Ascension for the practical life. — Tiiis has been indirectly pointed out aliove {§ 3). The Ascension shows that the work of Christ for man has never ceased, but is permanent, although He has never needed to repeat His sacri-
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lice. It has brought Jesus into closer touch with us ; He has never ceased to he Man, and in the heavenly sphere is not removed far away from us, but is with us until the end of the world (Mt 28-"). He raises our ideals from earthly things to heavenly; and, giving us through the Spirit the new life which enables us to follow Him, by His Ascension teaches us the great Sursum Corda : ' Lift up your hearts ; we lift them up unto the Lord.'
Literature. — W. Milligan, The Ascension and Heavenly Priesthood of our Lord (Baird Lecture), London, 1892 ; H. B. Swete, The Apostles' Creed, Cambridge, 1894, The Holy Spirit in the New Testament, London, 19U9, Appendix E, The Appear- ances of our Lord after the Passion, do. 1907, The Ascended Christ, do. 1910 ; j. Pearson, On the Creed, art. vi. ; J. Denney, art. ' Ascension,' in HDB i. ; W. Sanday, art. ' Jesus Christ,' ib. ii. ; A. S. Martin, art. 'Ascension,' in DCGi. ; J. G. Simpson, art. 'Ascension,' in SL>B; J. H. Bernard, art. ' Assumption and Ascension,' in ERE ii. ; B. F. Westcott, Com. on Hebrews, London, 1906 ; R. L. Ottley, The Rule of Faith and Hope, do. 1912, p. 82fE. ; A. J .Tait, The Heavenly Session of our Lord, do. 1912 ; S. C. Gayford, elaborate review of foregoing, in JThSt xiv. [1913] 458.
A. J. Maclean.
ASCENSION OF ISAIAH.— This is an apocryphon now extant in a complete form in the Ethiopic Version alone. It is composite in structure, and contains three separate parts of different author- ship, one being of Jewish and two of Christian origin, but all alike apparently composed during the 1st cent. a.d. It is thus of considerable im- portance in the light which it throws upon the views held in certain circles of the Christian Church of the apostolic period with regard to the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Seven Heavens, the Antichrist, angels and demons. It adds, moreover, to our knowledge of the internal and external conditions of the Church, and of the stage which had been reached in the development of its organization. In phraseology and ideas it presents interesting parallels with the New Testament.