Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47 or Psalm 93; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53
Thursday 21 May = Rev. Jerry Eve
Today, on the ‘Feast of the Ascension’, we have two versions of the ascension, and while there are a number of other references in the New Testament, these are the only two actual accounts as such. The one in Mark 16, by the way, is not regarded as authentic.
Reading these two passages (from Luke and Acts), you’ll notice one huge difference between them. This seems curious since they are both purportedly by the same person. We think this mainly because both Luke and Acts begin with, ‘Dear Theophilus’ (who may have been a real person, but may also just mean anyone who loves (philus) God (Theo).
The difference I’m referring to is that in Luke the Ascension takes place on the same day as the Resurrection, and in Acts it’s 40 days later. Why has the author of Luke-Acts revised the original timescale as they’ve moved from one book to the other? Are there maybe two different authors? Is it maybe one author, but two sources both of which he or she wanted to include? We don’t know, but it’s puzzles like this that, for me, tend more to confirm rather than deny the veracity of Scripture.
One of the exercises that has helped me in this respect was: at University we were given examples of transcripts of witness statements from a trial. And this may seem strange to say, but it was the differences between them – and these could be quite major – that authenticated them; for, when they were too similar to each other, it became quite obvious that the witnesses had collaborated with each other in producing them.
Independent accounts by eye-witnesses can and do differ from each other, even by as much as 40 days.
We might think there’s another discrepancy in the reference in Luke to Bethany, and in Acts 1:12 to the Mount of Olives. Bethany, though, was situated on the Mount of Olives. As with numerous other stories of Christ, there’s a shrine there today (Chapel of the Ascension), and this one purports to have Christ’s last footprint on earth – or at least the right one, the left having been removed to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Other Biblical figures who were (or maybe they weren’t) taken up to heaven like Christ, include:
Enoch (see Genesis 5:21-24 & Hebrews 11:5), who was Methuselah’s father, and lived to be 365 years old.
Elijah (see 2 Kings 2:11), and
Mary – who, although there is no actual Biblical account, this is a belief held by all branches of Christianity except the Protestant one. It’s a doctrine known as the Assumption.
Let us pray: GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end, Amen (Church of England Collect for today).