THE ASCENSION in the TEXTUAL TRADITION of LUKE—ACTS I. Introduction

CHAPTER NINE THE ASCENSION IN THE TEXTUAL TRADITION OF LUKE—ACTS I. Introduction: The Ascension in the New Testament 131 New Testament passages that offer a narrative description of the ascension of the risen Christ as “an observable incident,”1 that is, as a physical, visible transfer from earth to heaven, are extremely few; those passages that refer to the ascension as a theological event, without specifying its temporal or physical aspects, are slightly more numerous; and those that assume the “heavenly abode” of the risen Christ without reference to an ascension at all are the most numerous. These data are well known2 and hardly require documentation, though a brief summary will provide the necessary introduction for this study. The exalted Christ. In the last category listed above are a number of passages that mention Christ’s resurrection and then affirm his heavenly, exalted position at God’s right hand, but with no reference to an ascension: Acts 2:33–34 (cf. 2:25); 5:31;3 Rom 8:34; 10:6; Eph 1:20–1; 2:6; Col 3:1; 1 Thess 1:10; 4:14–16; cf. 2 Cor 4:14. A similar set of passages refers to the exalted Christ, with his death— but not the resurrection or ascension—mentioned in the context: Phil 2:8–9; Heb 1:3 and 13; 7:26; 10:12; 12:2. Finally, though still in this same category, are passages that refer merely to Christ’s 1 This is C. K. Barrett’s apt phrase in The Gospel according to St. John: An Introduction with Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text (2d ed.; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978), 566. 2 The full range of New Testament references can be found in such treatments as those by P. Benoit, “The Ascension,” in his Jesus and the Gospel (2 vols.; New York: Herder and Herder, 1973–74), 1.209–53, originally in RB 56 (1949), 161–303; or by B. M. Metzger, “The Ascension of Jesus Christ,” in his Historical and Literary Studies: Pagan, Jewish, and Christian (NTTS 8; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), 77–87. 3 The “Western” text at Acts 5:31 reads tª dÒj˙ (“for his glory”) rather than tª dejiò (“on his right hand”); see B. M. Metzger, for the Editorial Committee, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (London/New York: United Bible Societies, 1971), 332. 212 chapter nine 132 present heavenly abode: Acts 7:55–56; Eph 6:9; Phil 3:20; 2 Thess 1:7; Heb 8:1; and Rev 3:21. None of these passages contains the language of ascension or describes the mode of ascension, nor does any one of them otherwise indicate how Christ attained his heavenly position at God’s right hand (since the use of the word “exalted” [ÍcÒv/ÍperucÒv] at Acts 2:33; 5:31; and Phil 2:9 does not specify the mode of exaltation, and an ascension by “going up” (énaba¤nv) is only implied by the use of that term in Rom 10:6 and by the use of the opposite term, “going down” (kataba¤nv), in 1 Thess 4:16. The language of ascension without a narrative of ascension. The second category of New Testament passages consists of those that employ direct language describing Jesus as “going up,” “ascending,” or being “taken up,” but which still fall short of describing the ascension of Christ as an objectified historical and physical event, or which in some other way involve an ambiguity about the ascension in spite of the direct language of ascension. The few passages of this type are in the Fourth Gospel, the deutero-Pauline letters, and the Catholic Epistles. The Fourth Gospel contains three passages in which Jesus predicts that he will be “lifted up/exalted” (ÍcÒv) from the earth: 3:14; 8:28; and 12:32–34; but in the third passage the author of the gospel explains that the term “lifted up” signifies Jesus’ death. Thus, whereas in the previous category ÍcÒv is used in Acts only of Christ’s exaltation to God’s right hand (2:33; 5:31), that is not its meaning in John—though the Fourth Gospel, as often with other terms, may very well have intended a double reference to death and exaltation. In any event, a reference to the ascension of Christ is ambiguous at best here in the Fourth Gospel, and certainly nothing of its mode is discernible from these passages. Two statements more specific in nature occur on the lips of Jesus as John portrays him. One is a question to his disciples, “What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending (énaba¤nv) where he was before?” (6:62; cf. 3:13), and the other is a post-resurrection saying in John 20:17, “I have not yet ascended (énaba¤nv) to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending (énaba¤nv) to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Clearly the reference in both is to an ascension, and in the latter passage to an ascension subsequent both 133 to his resurrection and to the post-resurrection appearances, yet nei- ther is a narrative of a specific, observable event. Other passages in the Fourth Gospel might be adduced, such as those in which Jesus announces that he is “going (Ípãgv) to the one.

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