Luke 24:50-51, When Did Jesus Ascend?
When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.
//Everybody knows the answer to today’s question. Jesus ascended to heaven forty days after the resurrection, as indicated in the book of Acts. Why, then, does Luke give a different story? Let’s trace the events through the final chapter of Luke:
Verse 1 tells us that “the women” went to the tomb early on the first day of the week, and found Jesus gone.
Verse 13 says that on the very same day, Jesus met with two men on the road to Emmaus. They soon sit down to dinner.
Verse 33 says that after Jesus disappeared from their sight, they got up and returned at once to Jerusalem, and met with the Eleven.
Verse 36 indicates that while they were talking about this, Jesus appeared to them.
Then verse 50, the very same day, Jesus leads them out to Bethany, where he ascends into heaven.
The most curious thing about this story is not that Jesus ascends on the day of his resurrection. After all, John’s Gospel says the same thing (see verse 20:17, where the present tense is clear: Jesus is ascending at that moment), before appearing back on the ground a week later. What’s curious is that scholars universally agree that the author of Luke also wrote the book of Acts. The same author has Jesus ascend the day of his resurrection and then has him ascend again 40 days later.
Were there two ascensions?
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the ascension in John 20:17, He was ascending as the first fruit, refer to Feast of Firstfruits ceremony, (Leviticus 23:10),
elaborate for me, p3tra! Are you saying Jesus ascended twice? Or that the ascension in John is of a different nature than in Acts?
Yeshua did ascend twice, the first was on the first day of the new week, which we call Sunday. This is also known as the Feast of First Fruits or Wave offering. The third feast of the Spring feasts. (the fourth being Pentecost) Yeshua fulfilled all the spring feasts ordained by YHVH in the Torah. (first 5 books of the Old testament. Yeshua closed Paradise, which means that all the Old testament saints were taken up with Yeshua and present to Abba Father as the First Fruits. Yeshua did not rise on the 1st day of the week, neither was He crucified on the Friday. Most Christian scholars ignore the Old Testament feasts and Sabbaths and the feast of of Unleaven Bread, which occurs the next day immediately after Passover day. This Feast which follows after the Passover is ALSO KNOWN AS A HIGH SABBATH. This is where the confusion comes in that Yeshua was crucified on Friday as most Christians scholars do not know that there are 7 biblical feasts ordained by YHVH and some are ordained by Him to be kept as Sabbath days. in the week that Yeshua was crucified on Passover there were 2 Sabbath days NOT ONE and the 3rd Feast fell on the very 1st day of the new week, our Sunday. Read Leviticus 27. Shalom
You are mistaken friend. In the time of Jesus, there were two time lines being observed. Time line No.1 was the Creation time line of 7 days with the first day being directly after the day of the New Moon. Time line No.2 was Julian time, which consisted of an 8 day week; the days of the week were identified by a letter from A – H. In 1582 the Gregorian calendar was introduced and reverted back to a 7 day week but the “days” were already lost. According to scripture the first day is the day after the New Moon and that day could fall on any day. To assume the seventh day is always a Sunday is mute. The Passover was always on the sixth day after the New Moon. There were 29 1/2 days each month with some months having 30 days. A new month would begin with the New Moon. This is why God said the Sun & Moon are for signs and for seasons and for days and years. The Moon indicates signs (New Moon for example) and seasons ( every 3 New Moon cycles was a new season) and the Sun shows each day and the cycle of a year. Remember there are two references for “time” in the Bible. A Time and a Season. You have Time, Times and the dividing of Time, and you also have seasons where waiting was indicated by a little season and so on. I would be almost impossible to find out the name of the day Christ was crucified as the bible only mentions days as “days” and months as “months. Although the Jews have a name for months, no name was mentioned.
You are both mistaken my friends!
But I trust you will find this explanation helpful.
The ancient Hebrew calendar defines the commencement of a day at sunset rather than at midnight. Therefore, a day begins at sunset of one day, and ends at sunset on the next day.
The ancient Roman calendar (and the Gregorian calendar) defines the commencement of a day at midnight. The result of this is that the ‘evening night’ and the ‘morning night’ of one day on the Roman/Gregorian calendar share the same darkness but midnight splits the night into two (2) dates.
The ancient Hebrew calendar defines the New Moon (i.e. the commencement of the lunar month), at the conjunction of the Sun, Earth, and Moon (i.e. when the Moon is not visible to the naked eye when viewed from Jerusalem). (Numbers 28:14; 1Samuel 20:5,18,24; Isaiah 66:23)
The ancient Babylonian calendar defines the New Moon (i.e. the commencement of the lunar month), at the appearance of the first moon crescent .
The ancient Hebrew calendar defines the commencement of the new year on the first (1st) day of the first (1st) month of Nisan (a.k.a. Abib, Aviv) (Esther 3:7).
To add to the confusion, the ‘unbelieving’ but highly religious Orthodox Jews introduced a Hebrew ‘civil’ calendar in which the new year commences on Tishri 1 rather than on Nisan 1. However, this has no bearing on this article.
During their 70–year captivity that began in the Babylonian empire, and ended in the Medo-Persian empire), the ‘unbelieving’ but highly religious Orthodox Jews were deceived into adopting the Babylonian method for defining the New Moon (i.e. the commencement of the lunar month), which was at the appearance of the first moon crescent .
So, PRIOR TO the deportations of the Jews from the southern 2-tribe Kingdom of Judah to Babylon in ~597 BC and ~586 BC, the High Priests declared the beginning of the new year (i.e. Nisan 1), at the conjunction of the Sun, Earth, and Moon (i.e. when the Moon is not visible to the naked eye when viewed from Jerusalem). However, AFTER the remnant (small proportion) of the exiled Jews returned to Judaea and Jerusalem from Medo-Persia, the High Priests (all of whom were corrupt at this time), declared the beginning of the new year (i.e. Nisan 1), at the appearance of the first moon crescent , which lagged by one (1) day in some years, and lagged by two (2) days in other years.
When the remnant (small proportion) of the exiled Jews returned to Judaea and Jerusalem from Medo-Persia, two (2) Hebrew calendars were used: –
The ‘believing’ Jews who were in ‘minority’ used the Hebrew calendar that defined the commencement of the lunar month at the conjunction of the Sun, Earth, and Moon.
The ‘unbelieving’ but highly religious Orthodox Jews who were in ‘majority’ used the Hebrew calendar that defined the commencement of the lunar month at the appearance of the first moon crescent .
Because the conjunction of the New Moon and the appearance of the first moon crescent in Jerusalem typically lags by 15.5 to 40 hours, the annual Passover was celebrated on two (2) different days of the year, separated by one (1) day in some years, and two (2) days in other years: –
The ‘believing’ Jews who were in ‘minority’ celebrated the Passover on Nisan 15 (see Note below).
The ‘unbelieving’ but highly religious Orthodox Jews who were in ‘majority’ celebrated the Passover one (1) or two (2) days later on Nisan 16 or Nisan 17, which varied from year to year (see Note below).
Note: The Old Testament law mandated that Passover be celebrated on God’s ‘appointed’ day of Nisan 15. The day of Passover actually ‘began’ at sunset on Nisan 15, however, the day of Preparation for removing the leaven from the house , and slaughtering the Passover lamb (or goat ) during the last hour of the day, was on Nisan 14 (Exodus 12:1-28). In Exodus 12:6 (KJV), the word ‘evening’ refers to the last hour of the day, which in this case was still during Nisan 14. However, the sunset of that evening time-marked the ‘beginning’ of Nisan 15. Therefore, the day of Passover was Nisan 15, and this is verified by several other passages of scripture in the Bible.
Christ and His twelve disciples celebrated the Passover obviously on God’s ‘appointed’ day for the Passover, which was on the TRUE date for the Passover, and was Nisan 15 (Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-23).
It is inconceivable that Christ would celebrate the Passover on a day other than God’s ‘appointed’ day for the Passover. However, in the year of death of Christ (but not every year), the ‘unbelieving’ but highly religious Orthodox Jews who were in ‘majority’ celebrated the Passover two (2) days later on Nisan 17, but they genuinely believed that Nisan 17 was Nisan 15. Odd, but true!
To recap for emphasis, in the year of death of Christ (but not every year), to the ‘unbelieving’ but highly religious Orthodox Jews who were in majority: –
True Nisan 14 was false Nisan 12;
True Nisan 15 was false Nisan 13;
True Nisan 16 was false Nisan 14;
True Nisan 17 was false Nisan 15; etc.
The above explains why Christ and His twelve disciples celebrated the Passover on a certain day (obviously on God’s ‘appointed’ day for the Passover on Nisan 15), and the ‘unbelieving’ but highly religious Orthodox Jews who were in majority, celebrated their Passover two (2) days later! Strange, but true!
History records also prove that Jews celebrated two (2) Passovers each year, one (1) or two (2) days apart. For example, emperor Constantine wrote, “They [the Jews] do not possess the truth in this Easter question; for in their blindness and repugnance to all improvement, they frequently celebrate two Passovers in the same year. (Eusebius, Vita Constantine, Lib iii., 18-20) [Insertion added for clarity]
After celebrating the Passover during the night on God’s ‘appointed’ day for the Passover, which was on the TRUE day for Nisan 15, Christ and His ‘eleven’ (11) disciples (see Note below) exited the house shortly ‘after’ sunrise which was still Nisan 15 because Nisan 15 did not end until sunset of that day, and went to the Mount of Olives.
Note: The number of disciples who were with Christ during this Passover reduced from twelve (12) to eleven (11), because Judas Iscariot exited the house during the ‘night’ to betray Christ. Exiting the house during the night of the Passover was prohibited and punishable by death (Exodus 12:22). Therefore, when Judas Iscariot went out of the house when it was ‘night’ , he effectively signed his own death warrant (John 13:30).
In the late afternoon of Nisan 15, Christ went from the Mount of Olives to the garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James and John (Matthew 26:36-56).
Christ was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane in the early evening on Nisan 16 (after sunset which time-marked the beginning of the next day), and was abused and questioned in the palace of the High Priest Caiaphas during the night until the morning, which was still Nisan 16 because that day did not end until the next sunset .
After being transferred into the Roman Fortress Antonia (a.k.a. the Rock), and questioned by Pontius Pilate, Christ was abused further, then scourged and crucified, and He died in about the ninth (9th) hour of the day (~3:20 p.m. according to astronomical data).
Because in the year of death of Christ (but not every year), the ‘unbelieving’ but highly religious Orthodox Jews who were in majority, celebrated their Passover on the FALSE date for the day of Passover, which coincided with the weekly Sabbath on which no work, including burials, was permitted, Christ had to be buried hurriedly PRIOR TO sunset on the day of His death, which was approximately three (3) hours after He died.
Whenever the day of Passover coincides with the weekly Sabbath, that Sabbath is termed a ‘high day’ (i.e. a special day) (John 19:31). And because these ‘high days’ occur every three (3) years, the candidate dates of death of Christ can be calculated using astronomical data for the proleptic (calculated) Gregorian calendar.
Based on the Bible records of the birth of Christ, and Bible records of the number of Passovers He participated in during His 3-year ministry, combined with astronomical data, Christ died on April 7th of AD 30. The next candidate date for the date of death of Christ is April 3rd of AD 33, however, the evidence for the date of death of Christ on April 7th of AD 30, is overwhelming.
Another important consideration for determining the date of death of Christ: –
According to the Hebrew reckoning of the age of a person, Christ was baptised shortly after His twenty-ninth (29th) birthday, not shortly after His thirtieth (30th) birthday. This is because according to the Hebrew reckoning, ‘part of a unit of time’ (e.g. part of a year), was included in the total count of units of time.
Luke 3:23 states Jesus ‘began’ to be about thirty (30) years of age [when He was baptised by John the Baptist and received God’s Holy Spirit (Luke 3:21-22)]. According to the Hebrew reckoning, the word ‘began’ in Luke 3:23 infers that this event took place shortly after Christ’s 29th birthday rather than shortly after His 30th birthday.
According to Bible records, during His earthly ministry Jesus participated in three (3) Passovers ‘of the Jews’ (i.e. Passovers that were celebrated on the FALSE date for the Passover, rather than on God’s ‘appointed’ day for Passover): –
John 2:13-17; 2:23;
John 6:4; and
John 11:55; 12:1; 13:1; 18:28; 18:39; and 19:14.
The misinterpretation of Luke 3:23 in regard to the age of Christ when He began His earthly ministry, combined with the Bible records of the number of Passovers Christ participated in, has misled Bible scholars into believing that the date of death of Christ was on April 3rd of AD 33 rather than April 7th of AD 30.
The date of death of Christ was not accidental, but was purposefully designated to be on God’s ‘appointed’ day. And the primary purpose for God’s word including the details of the two Passovers that took place during the crucifixion week, is to enable the true disciples of Christ to determine the approximate ‘season’ (Greek: chronos) of the coming of Christ, as distinct from the highly specific God’s ‘appointed’ time of the coming of Christ which is highly specific and is not known to anyone but God, not even to Christ!
That said, the coming of Christ on the cloud ☁️ to meet the raptured elect in the air will take place during the period of the sixth (6th) seal (Revelation 6:12 through 7:17; Revelation 14:14-16).
The prophetic scriptures in the Bible on the time of the end provide specific time values for certain events that include: –
The not widely known 360–day ‘year of the Lord’ which will take place after the coming of Christ on the cloud ☁️ to meet the raptured elect in the air, and will begin when Christ descends on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4) to fight ‘alone’ at several ‘winepresses’ (Isaiah 34:8; 61:2; 63:1-6);
The period of five (5) lunar months (or 150 days) for the fifth (5th) trumpet (Revelation 9:5; 9:10);
The period of one (1) lunar year, one (1) lunar month, one (1) day, and one (1) hour (total 391 days), for the sixth (6th) trumpet (Revelation 9:15); and
The period of 75 days (1,335 – 1,290 = 75 days) from the ‘end’ of Daniel’s 70th week to the ‘beginning’ of the New Millennium (Daniel 9:27; 12:11-12).
The total number of days for the above end time events is 901 days.
Hosea 6:1-3 infers that the remnant of the repentant descendents of Jacob-Israel will be saved on the third (3rd) prophetic day (which is 2,000 years from the death of Christ on April 7 of AD 30 (2 Peter 3:8). Therefore, Christ will definitely come NO LATER THAN April 7, 2030; i.e. two (2) prophetic days or 2,000 years from the date of death of Christ on April 7 of AD 30.
The calculated NO LATER THAN date for the coming of Christ on the cloud ☁️ to meet the raptured elect in the air is predicted to be NO LATER THAN 901 days BEFORE April 7, 2030. Therefore, the most likely NO LATER THAN date for the coming of Christ on the cloud ☁️ to meet the raptured elect in the air is October 19, 2027 (i.e. 901 days before April 7, 2030).
The one verse in Luke where Jesus ascends was inserted by later scribes who were attempting to counteract the Docetists view of Jesus being an apparition.
It is clear that what Luke 24:1-49 says all happen the same day itself. But, there is nothing evident in the words to claim 24:50-51 also happens the very same day. Luke may have considered it is not important to state the waiting period between Resurrection and Ascension; yet, both reported.
That’s possible, Jacob. Luke may have not been aware of anything else Jesus did or said in between. However, it certainly reads like one narrative: As he was preparing to ascend, he gave them parting words not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit arrived.
I’m unable to find any examples of the Church Fathers presenting the two-ascensions doctrine. So, I’m beginning to think that this is either a medieval doctrine or perhaps even more recent. In fact, Chrysostom seems to rule this idea out altogether:
“Why did He say: ‘Do not touch me’?…It seems to me that she wished to enjoy His presence still, in the same way as before, and because of her joy at seeing Him, had no realization of His greatness, even though He had become much more excellent in bodily appearance. Thus, to lead her to abandon this notion and to refrain from addressing Him too familiarly (for He does not appear after this conversing so familiarly even with His disciples), He elevated her thoughts so that she would treat Him with a more reverential attitude. Accordingly, if He had said: ‘Do not touch me as you did before, because things are not the same now, and I will not associate with you in future in the same way as before.’ it would seem somewhat harsh and boastful. But when He said: ‘I have not yet ascended to my Father,’ even though the words were without offense, they meant the same thing. BY SAYING ‘I HAVE NOT YET ASCENDED’ HE MEANT THAT HE WAS GOING TO DO SO WITHOUT DELAY; AND THAT, BECAUSE HE WAS ON THE POINT OF DEPARTING AND OF CEASING TO BE AMONG MEN ANY LONGER [The ascension in view would have to be consequent to Christ’s appearances during the forty-day period between His resurrection and ascension after which He sat at the right hand of God, thus ceasing to be among men any longer (cf. Mark 16:19; Acts 2:31–35)] she ought not to regard Him in the same way as before. MOREOVER, WHAT FOLLOWS MAKES IT CLEAR THAT THIS IS SO. GO TO MY BRETHREN AND SAY TO THEM. “I ASCEND TO MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER, TO MY GOD AND YOUR GOD.” YET, HE WAS GOING TO DO THIS ONLY AFTER FORTY DAYS. How it is, then, that He said this? In the desire to uplift her thoughts and make her realize that He was actually going away to heaven [context: after forty days].” —John Chrysostom (Commentary on Saint John The Apostle and Evangelist. Homilies 1-88)