Q. John 20:17; Matt. 28:9. Is it true that there was a private ascension on the day the Lord rose, fulfilling Lev. 16:17, besides the public one forty days after? So say some, to avoid the difficulty; and this they try to sustain by the reception of the Holy Ghost on the first occasion, as distinguished from His descent on the day of Pentecost. H. T.
A. There is not the slightest ground to suppose an ascension previous to that which is described in Acts 1. A little intelligence as to John 20:17 removes the difficulty, without having recourse to a supposed private ascension. Ἀναβαίνω is the abstract present, a common enough usage, not only in Greek, but in our own and other languages, often of the greatest value to remember in exposition. It is really ignorance to infer from the present that the action must be either actually going on, or so imminent as to follow immediately. The present may be used in the New Testament to convey certainty or permanence, but still more frequently perhaps an action eminently and emphatically characteristic as here. Take πορεύομαι ἐτοιμάσαι τόπον ὐμῖν in John 14:2; take ἔρχομαι and εὶμί a in the next verse, or ὐπάγαι in verse 4. Here, too, mysticising commentators tell us that this ἔρχομαι is began in Christ's resurrection, carried on in the spiritual life, further advanced when each by death is fetched to be away with Him, fully completed at His coming in glory, when they shall forever be with Him in the perfected resurrection state. All this style of drawing ever so many applications out of a word, which here means but one, the last of these alleged comings, enfeebles scripture, and injures the saint. So in verse 17 there is no need to change μένει (abideth) into μενεῖ (shall abide), with some of the old versions, or to understand it, with Euthymius Zigabenus, as the Spirit's then abiding in Jesus, who was among them. It really expresses permanence from the time He comes to abide, not an abiding going on then. In 1 John 1:7 we have examples of much moment doctrinally, and for the blessing and even peace of souls, where, from the structure of the sentence, as well as the truth declared elsewhere, we know that καθαρίζει means the cleansing efficacy of Christ's blood, without question either of repetition or of a continuous process. So again, in Acts 2:47 τοὺς σωζ., and in Heb. 2:11, οί ἀγιαζ., is not the historical present or fact, but the character or class. This is made certain in the last case by comparing Heb. 10:10 with 14, where we have the perfect and present used of the same persons—the one the fact and date, the other the abstract character.
The Lord then in John 20:17 meant, not that He was at that moment, or that day, ascending, but that this was the character of what was before Him; not staying to reign over Israel and the world, but going up to heaven, the model Man there, according to whom the children of His Father and God, now owned as His brethren, were to be formed in and according to the truth. (Compare John 17:19.) It was to be a new order of sanctification, which the believer, even if a Jew, once separated to Jehovah from the Gentiles, needed no less than the Gentile; a heavenly separateness, not fleshly, or monastic, nor mystic, but sanctification in truth. So we all, says the apostle, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit. And this seems to be the significant reason why Mary Magdalene was not permitted to touch the Lord. It was not in bodily presence He was to be known by the Christian, but ascended to heaven; and she who had known Him according to flesh must now know Him so no longer. She thus stands in contrast with the women in Matthew, who were permitted soon after to hold Him by the feet and pay Him homage, the type of those out of that nation who shall have Him to their joy reigning over them here below, and hence as seasonable a pledge in the first Gospel, as the Jew taken out of the earthly hope to know Him above suits this part of the fourth. Indeed a similar truth is taught in Thomas, who, absent on the resurrection-day and unbelieving, was caused in the most sensible way eight days after to learn and own the Lord risen from the dead. So will the Jew yet see and confess Jesus to be the Lord and God in a day still future. But “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” So the Christian knows Christ.
With this falls in Leviticus 16:17, which sets forth our Lord's presence on high ever since He ascended, and not some imaginary appearing there on the day of resurrection. When He comes out, it will be for the reconciliation of all things, as well as the forgiveness of Israel. We enter in spirit where He is meanwhile, identified with Christ, the great High Priest, instead of waiting, like God's ancient people, till He come forth. While He is there, the Spirit is come out to dwell in us Christians and baptize us into one body, giving us liberty to enter in boldly through the rent veil. The people meanwhile wait, but will have the blessing when the Lord comes out.
Thus the right view of these scriptures very simply illustrates and confirms the truth of the gospel and the prophetic word; so that we need not take up anything strained or fanciful to vindicate their harmony. On the day the Lord rose He breathed the spirit of life into the disciples, and the Holy Spirit acted in this as in new birth. The gift of the Spirit at Pentecost was power from on high.