Ascension of Jesus

In Christian theology, the death, Resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus are the most important events, and a foundation of the Christian faith.[12][13] The early followers of Jesus believed that God had vindicated Jesus after his death, as reflected in the stories about his Resurrection, Ascension, and exaltation.[4] The early followers of Jesus soon believed that Jesus was raised as first of the dead,[14] taken into Heaven, and exalted,[2][3] taking the seat at the right hand of God in Heaven, as stated in the Apostles' Creed: "He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty."[4] Psalms 110:1 played an essential role in this interpretation of Jesus' death and the Resurrection appearances: "The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." It provided an interpretative frame for Jesus' followers to make sense of his death and the Resurrection appearances.[15][4]

This understanding is summarized by the theologian Justus Knecht who wrote: "Our Lord went up Body and Soul into heaven in the sight of His apostles, by His own power, to take possession of His glory, and to be our Advocate and Mediator in heaven with the Father. He ascended as Man, as Head of the redeemed, and has prepared a dwelling in heaven for all those who follow in His steps (Sixth article of the Creed)."[16]

Ascension stories were fairly common around the time of Jesus and the evangelists,[17] signifying the deification of a noteworthy person (usually a Roman Emperor), and in Judaism as an indication of divine approval.[18] Another function of heavenly ascent was as a mode of divine revelation reflected in Greco-Roman, early Jewish, and early Christian literary sources, in which particular individuals with prophetic or revelatory gifts are said to have experienced a heavenly journey during which they learned cosmic and divine secrets.[18]

Figures familiar to Jews would have included Enoch (from the Book of Genesis and a popular non-Biblical work called 1 Enoch); the 5th-century sage Ezra; Baruch the companion of the prophet Jeremiah (from a work called 2 Baruch, in which Baruch is promised he will ascend to heaven after forty days); Levi the ancestor of priests; the Teacher of Righteousness from the Qumran community; the prophet Elijah (from 2 Kings); Moses, who was deified on entering heaven; and the children of Job, who according to the Testament of Job ascended heaven following their resurrection from the dead.[19][20]

Non-Jewish readers would have been familiar with the case of the emperor Augustus, whose ascent was witnessed by Senators; Romulus the founder of Rome, who, like Jesus, was taken to heaven in a cloud; the Greek hero Heracles (Hercules); and others.[11]

The cosmology of the author of Luke-Acts reflects the beliefs of his age,[21] which envisioned a three-part cosmos with the heavens above, an Earth centered on Jerusalem in the middle, and the underworld below.[22][23] Heaven was separated from the Earth by the firmament, the visible sky, a solid inverted bowl where God's palace sat on pillars in the celestial sea.[24] Humans looking up from Earth saw the floor of Heaven, made of clear blue lapis-lazuli (Exodus 24:9–10), as was God's throne (Ezekiel 1:26).[25] According to Dunn, "the typical mind-set and worldview of the time conditioned what was actually seen and how the recording of such seeings was conceptualized,"[21] and "departure into heaven could only be conceived in terms of 'being taken up ', a literal ascension."[21]

In modern times, a literal reading of the Ascension-stories has become problematic, due to the differences between the pre-scientific cosmology of the times of Jesus, and the scientific worldview that leaves no place for a Heaven above earth.[26][27] Theologian James Dunn describes the Ascension as at best a puzzle and at worst an embarrassment for an age that no longer conceives of a physical Heaven located above the Earth.[26] Similarly, in the words of McGill University's Douglas Farrow, in modern times the Ascension is seen less as the climax of the mystery of Christ than as "something of an embarrassment in the age of the telescope and the space probe,"[27] an "idea [that] conjures up an outdated cosmology."[28]

Yet, according to Dunn, a sole focus on this disparity is beside the real importance of Jesus' Ascension, namely the Resurrection and subsequent exaltation of Jesus.[13] Farrow notes that, already in the third century, the Ascension-story was read by Origen in a mystical way, as an "ascension of the mind rather than of the body," representing one of two basic Ascension theologies.[29] The real problem is the fact that Jesus is both present and absent,[30] an ambiguity which points to a "something more" to which the Eucharist gives entry.[31][note 1]

The Ascension edicule

Close-up of the Rock of the Ascension inside the Ascension edicule

The traditional site of the Ascension is Mount Olivet (the "Mount of Olives"), on which the village of Bethany sits. Before the conversion of Constantine in 312 AD, early Christians honored the Ascension of Christ in a cave on the Mount, and by 384 the Ascension was venerated on the present site, uphill from the cave.

Around the year 390 a wealthy Roman woman named Poimenia financed construction of the original church called "Eleona Basilica" (elaion in Greek means "olive garden", from elaia "olive tree", and has an oft-mentioned similarity to eleos meaning "mercy"). This church was destroyed by Sassanid Persians in 614. It was subsequently rebuilt, destroyed, and rebuilt again by the Crusaders. This final church was later destroyed by Muslims, leaving only a 12×12 meter octagonal structure (called a martyrium—"memorial"—or "Edicule") that remains to this day.[39] The site was ultimately acquired by two emissaries of Saladin in the year 1198 and has remained in the possession of the Islamic Waqf of Jerusalem ever since. The Russian Orthodox Church also maintains a convent of the Ascension on the top of the Mount of Olives.

• 
  Rabbula Gospels
  6th century
• 
  Drogo Sacramentary
  c. 850
• 
  Andrei Rublev
  1408
• 
  Pietro Perugino
  1496–1500
• 
  The Ascension, Dosso Dossi, 16th century.
• 
  Garofalo
  1520
• 
  Armenian Gospel manuscript
  1609
• 
  Rembrandt
  1636
• 
  Macedonian icon, Bitola, Macedonia
  19th century
• 
  Rosary Basilica, Lourdes
  19th century