Ascension of Jesus

== Views on the Ascension ==
[[File:Adriaen van Overbeke - Ascension of Christ.jpeg|thumb|upright|''Ascension of Christ'' by [[Adriaen van Overbeke]], {{circa|1510–1520}}]]

===Background===
Ascension stories were fairly common around the time of Jesus and the evangelists,{{sfn|McDonald|2004|p=22}} signifying the deification of a noteworthy person (usually a Roman Emperor), and in Judaism as an indication of divine approval.{{sfn|Aune|2003a|p=65}} 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.{{sfn|Aune|2003a|p=65}} 

Figures familiar to Jews would have included [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|Enoch]] (from the [[Book of Genesis]] and a popular non-Biblical work called [[1 Enoch]]); the 5th-century sage [[Ezra]]; [[Baruch ben Neriah|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 [[Book of Job|Job]], who according to the [[Testament of Job]] ascended heaven following their [[Universal resurrection|resurrection from the dead]].{{sfn|Munoa|2000|p=109}}{{sfn|Zwiep|2016|p=16}} 

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.{{sfn|McDonald|2004|p=21}}

===Theology===
In [[Christian theology]], the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus are the most important events, and a foundation of the Christian faith.{{sfn|Dunn|1985|p=53}}{{sfn|Dunn|2009|p=149}} The early followers of Jesus believed that [[God in Christianity|God]] had vindicated Jesus after his death, as reflected in the stories about his resurrection, ascension, and exaltation.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=114}} The [[Jewish Christian|early followers of Jesus]] soon believed that Jesus was raised as [[Firstborn (Judaism)|first of the dead]],{{sfn|Novakovic|2014|p=152}} taken into Heaven, and [[exaltation of Jesus|exalted]],{{sfn|Novakovic|2014|p=135}}{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|p=508, 591}} [[heavenly session|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."{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=114}} [[Psalm 110]] ({{bibleref2|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.{{sfn|Dunn|2009|p=218}}{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=114}}

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 [[Apostles' Creed|the Creed]])."{{sfn|Knecht|1910|p=729}}

=== Cosmology ===
The [[Biblical cosmology|cosmology]] of the author of Luke–Acts reflects the beliefs of his age,{{sfn|Dunn|2009|p=148}} which envisioned a three-part cosmos with the heavens above, an Earth centered on Jerusalem in the middle, and the [[underworld]] below.{{sfn|Wright|2002|p=53}}{{sfn|Najman|2014|p=93}} 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.{{sfn|Pennington|2007|p=41-42}} Humans looking up from Earth saw the floor of Heaven, made of clear blue [[lapis-lazuli]] ({{bibleverse|Exodus|24:9-10|KJV}}), as was God's throne ({{Bibleverse|Ezekiel|1:26|KJV}}).{{sfn|Wright|2002|p=54,56}} 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,"{{sfn|Dunn|2009|p=148}} and "departure into heaven could only be conceived in terms of 'being taken up ', a literal ascension."{{sfn|Dunn|2009|p=148}} 

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.{{sfn|Seim|2009|p=23}}{{sfn|Farrow|2011|p=16}} Theologian [[James Dunn (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.{{sfn|Seim|2009|p=23}} 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,"{{sfn|Farrow|2011|p=16}} an "idea [that] conjures up an outdated cosmology."{{sfn|Farrow|2004|p=9}} 

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.{{sfn|Dunn|2009|p=149}} 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.{{sfn|Farrow|2011|p=17}} The real problem is the fact that Jesus is both present and absent,{{sfn|Farrow|2004|p=3, 8}} an ambiguity which points to a "something more" to which the Eucharist gives entry.{{sfn|Farrow|2004|p=3}}{{refn|group=note|According to Farrow, this ambiguity of absence and presence poses central christological and theological questions concerning the identity of the church and its relation to past (death and resurrection) and future (second coming) events,{{sfn|Farrow|2004|p=8-9}} and to the present world, in which it is situated, but from which it is also different, through "its mysterious union with one whose life, though lived ''for'' the world, involves a genuine break with it."{{sfn|Farrow|2004|p=11}}}}

===Islam===
The same doctrine takes on another [[Jesus_in_Islam#Ascension|meaning for Muslims]]: most Islamic scholars hold that Jesus, the penultimate prophet of Islam, was not crucified or resurrected but his body directly ascended.<ref name="Hughes 2013">{{cite book |last=Hughes |first=Aaron W. |author-link=Aaron W. Hughes |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZmGrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 |chapter=The Quran: The Base Narrative |title=Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam |page=85 |year=2013 |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-53192-4 |jstor=10.7312/hugh16146.8 |s2cid=169663918 |access-date=24 October 2020}}</ref><ref name="Reynolds 2009">{{cite journal |last=Reynolds |first=Gabriel S. |author-link=Gabriel Said Reynolds |date=May 2009 |title=The Muslim Jesus: Dead or Alive? |url=https://www3.nd.edu/~reynolds/index_files/jesus%20dead%20or%20alive.pdf |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=237–258 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X09000500 |jstor=40379003 |s2cid=27268737 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617010816/https://www3.nd.edu/~reynolds/index_files/jesus%20dead%20or%20alive.pdf |archive-date=17 June 2012 |url-status=live |access-date=24 October 2020}}</ref><ref name="Lanier 2016">{{cite journal |last=Lanier |first=Gregory R. |date=May 2016 |title='It Was Made to Appear Like that to Them:' Islam's Denial of Jesus' Crucifixion |url=https://journal.rts.edu/article/it-was-made-to-appear-like-that-to-them-islams-denial-of-jesus-crucifixion-in-the-quran-and-dogmatic-tradition/ |journal=Reformed Faith & Practice: The Journal of Reformed Theological Seminary |publisher=[[Reformed Theological Seminary]] |location=[[Orlando, Florida]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=[https://journal.rts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/1.1-Final.pdf 39-55] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630042518/https://journal.rts.edu/article/it-was-made-to-appear-like-that-to-them-islams-denial-of-jesus-crucifixion-in-the-quran-and-dogmatic-tradition/ |archive-date=30 June 2019 |url-status=live |access-date=24 October 2020}}</ref>

===Nonreligious views===
Russian skeptic [[Kirill Eskov]] in his "Nature"-praised work [[The Gospel of Afranius]] argues that it was politically prudent for the local Roman administration to strengthen Jesus's influence by spreading rumors about his miracles via [[active measures]], with this story originating as a well-crafted deliberate lie.