That's a bit too vague to be helpful. Would you please be more specific. My question was a subtle way of pointing out the question of how the ascension is treated in Luke's gospel and (Luke's) Acts. Is that what you were referring to.
You claim the ascension happened 40 days after the resurrection. Can you point to the place in each gospel and Acts where this is stated, please.
As you are well aware it does not say this "in each gospel and Acts". It says it in Act 1:3 though.
Your turn.
Trying to read the relevant passages without confirmation bias, answer the following:
Does Matthew even mention the Ascension?
No, he doesn't. He last speaks of Jesus in Galilee.
What about John?
Him neither, at least not in the last chapter, though he does say in 20:17 , "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'".
If you read Luke in isolation (i.e. without Acts) what impression do you get of how much time passed between the resurrection and the Ascension? Be honest.
Yes, happy to be honest. Presumably you are happy to be honest too.
The end of Luke has a significant textual variant where the original reading of Sinaiticus does not have "and was taken up into heaven." Ehrman thinks this was added later by orthodox scribes as a means of arguing against Docetists. However, the N27 committee give that phrase a B for certainty, i.e. there is "
some degree of doubt". Let's look at whether it is troublesome for the orthodox view whether it is original and whether it is not original.
If it is
not part of the original text, that is handy, in one sense, as it then removes any claim about Luke saying Jesus ascended to heaven on the day of his resurrection and leaves the actual timing of it to Luke's second document, the Book of Acts. That would be very convenient.
If it
is part of the original text, then it leaves us with the question of whether 24:50, 51 says that Jesus did ascend to heaven on the day of his resurrection. The Greek is not as clear about as, say, the NIV English text. The NIV says, "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." The Greek, literally, says, "He led them out as far as Bethany and having raised his hands, he blessed them and it happened in his blessing the he parted from them and was carried into heaven". There is a δε at the start of 24:50 which is sometimes translated "and", but it is often not even translated into English.
I am not saying that 24:50, 51
cannot be read as Jesus ascending to heaven that same day, but there is some doubt about whether it does refer to the ascension at all (as Ehrman would argue) and it is not compelling that it even refers to the same day even if it does refer to the ascension.
Thus the only clear description of the actual ascension is in Acts 1.
