ord
lifted up His hands, and blessed them; and while yet He spake, He rose
from their midst, and they looked upon Him as He ascended until a cloud
received Him out of their sight. While the apostles stood gazing
steadfastly upward, two personages, clothed in white apparel, appeared
by them; these spake unto the Eleven, saying: "Ye men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go
into heaven."[1399]

Worshipfully and with great joy the apostles returned to Jerusalem,
there to await the coming of the Comforter. The Lord's ascension was
accomplished; it was as truly a literal departure of a material Being as
His resurrection had been an actual return of His spirit to His own
corporeal body, theretofore dead. With the world abode and yet abides
the glorious promise, that Jesus the Christ, the same Being who ascended
from Olivet in His immortalized body of flesh and bones, shall return,
descending from the heavens, in similarly material form and substance.

NOTES TO CHAPTER 37.

1. Precise Time and Manner of Christ's Emergence from the Tomb Not
Known.--Our Lord definitely predicted His resurrection from the dead on
the third day, (Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; Mark 9:31; 10:34; Luke 9:22;
13:32; 18:33), and the angels at the tomb (Luke 24:7), and the risen
Lord in Person (Luke 24:46) verified the fulfilment of the prophecies;
and apostles so testified in later years (Acts 10:40; 1 Cor. 15:4). This
specification of the third day must not be understood as meaning after
three full days. The Jews began their counting of the daily hours with
sunset; therefore the hour before sunset and the hour following belonged
to different days. Jesus died and was interred during Friday afternoon.
His body lay in the tomb, dead, during part of Friday (first day),
throughout Saturday, or as we divide the days, from sunset Friday to
sunset Saturday, (second day), and part of Sunday (third day). We know
not at what hour between Saturday sunset and Sunday dawn He rose.

The fact that an earthquake occurred, and that the angel of the Lord
descended and rolled the stone from the portal of the tomb in the early
dawn of Sunday--for so we infer from Matt. 28:1, 2--does not prove that
Christ had not already risen. The great stone was rolled back and the
inside of the sepulchre exposed to view, so that those who came could
see for themselves