Ascension of Jesus

The Ascension of Jesus (anglicized from the Vulgate ascensio Iesu) is the Christian belief, reflected in the major Christian creeds and confessional statements, that Jesus ascended to Heaven after his resurrection, where he was exalted as Lord and Christ, sitting at the right hand of God. The doctrine is also found in Islam, where Jesus is believed not to have been crucified but to have ascended while still alive. The Gospels and other New Testament writings imply resurrection and exaltation as a single event. The ascension is "more assumed than described," and only Luke and Acts contain direct accounts of it, but with different chronologies. In Christian art, the ascending Jesus is often shown blessing an earthly group below him, signifying the entire Church. The Feast of the Ascension is celebrated on the 40th day of Easter, always a Thursday; some Orthodox traditions have a different calendar up to a month later than in the Western tradition, and while the Anglican Communion continues to observe the feast, many Protestant churches have abandoned the observance. Although the ascension is an important article of faith in Christianity, only Luke and Acts contain direct accounts of it. In the shorter ending of Mark, in Matthew, and in John, it is only implied or alluded to. In the earliest Christianity, Jesus was exalted with his ascension to heaven and seated at the right hand of God with his resurrection. In the late first century, the exaltation had been separated from the resurrection, and moved to a final ascension into heaven after his appearances at earth. The Gospels do not picture resurrection and ascension as clearly separated in time. Other New Testament writings also imply resurrection and exaltation as a single event. Various epistles (, , , , , and ) refer to an ascension without specifying details, seeming, like Luke–Acts and John, to equate it with the post-resurrection "exaltation" of Jesus to the right hand of God.