Ascension of Jesus

===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}}