The last chapters of John are silent concerning the ascension. Now, as it is generally admitted by the best biblical critics that the last twelve verses of the last chapter of Mark are spurious, we have then only one of the four biographers of Jesus who mentions the ascension. It is utterly improbable that these three other writers should deliberately refuse to give an account of the greatest event they had ever seen. We must consider the discrepancies of the writers concerning the number of days that Jesus remained on earth after his resurrection.
According to Luke’s account, he did not remain on earth one day. “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise” ([Luke 23 : 43])—that is, in heaven; see [2 Cor. 12 : 4]. In this same twenty-third chapter of Luke, Jesus does not ascend until the third day after his crucifixion; and in [Acts 1 : 3], it is recorded that he was “seen of them forty days.”
Another slight discrepancy occurs in relation to the length of time Jesus was in the grave. Matthew says ([12 : 40]), “For as Jonas was three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” But as Jesus was only two nights and one day in the grave there is no analogy between the two, hence the statement is radically erroneous.
An orthodox clergyman critic explains this seeming contradiction in this way: “In regard to Jesus being only one day and two nights in the grave, the very same quantity of time ‘three days and three nights,’ and which according to our computation was one whole day, parts of two others and two whole nights, is termed three days and three nights in the book of Esther. There is no impropriety in this interpretation.” The word “interpretation” as here used is slightly equivocal, as is also the phrase “according to our computation.” It is peculiar to mathematics that it does not change according to our computation or any kind of interpretation. It is always true that two and two make four whether the book of Esther acknowledges the fact or not. And it not only damages the gospels to bring forth this sort of evidence, but it seriously derogates from the inspiration of the book of Esther, which thus attempts in defiance of arithmetic to make one day and two nights into three days and three nights.
No one saw Jesus come from the grave. When Mary Magdalene came to the sepulcher, “Behold there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the keepers did shake and become as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay.” ([Mat. 28 : 2–6].)
We have here the stone at the door of the sepulcher, and yet the body of Jesus had risen and departed from the tomb. There would seem to be no need in closing the grave after he had risen. But a more serious criticism must be made upon the fact that it is not pretended that there was any eye-witness of Jesus coming from the sepulcher. We have only the word of an angel, but as a story abounding with conversations of angels is legendary we are not permitted to take their testimony. Besides, we have serious contradictions concerning the number of angels seen. Matthew says there was one angel, and that he rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. Mark says that when Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome, had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him; and very early in the morning, etc. “And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And entering, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted.” (16 : 1–3.)
Luke also says the stone was rolled away when the women came to the sepulcher, and upon entering in, behold “two men” stood by them in shining garments. John says Mary saw two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. Besides, she sees the stone rolled away from the door. Matthew records the descent of an angel from heaven; the other biographers of Jesus know nothing of this starting point of the angel. Matthew here says that the angel rolled away the stone from the door, but Mark, Luke, and John say that the stone was rolled from the door of the sepulcher when Mary Magdalene came to it. Matthew here relates that Mary Magdalene saw an angel sitting upon the stone at the door outside of the sepulcher, but Mark says she saw a young man sitting down inside the sepulcher. Luke avers that she saw two men standing inside of it, and John affirms that Mary Magdalene sees two men sitting, “one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain;” but they do not tell her that Jesus had risen, as did the angel in Matthew, and the young man in Mark, and the two men in Luke.
According to John, Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene. But according to Luke Jesus did not first appear to Mary Magdalene, but to two persons traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus: the name of one of them we are told was Cleopas. ([Luke 24 : 13].) But this appearance of Jesus to brethren who were not apostles is clearly legendary. The other synoptics seem to know nothing of it. It is wholly improbable that Jesus should, after his resurrection, appear first of all to two unknown Christians after this manner and accompany them upon such a journey.
Now all the attendant circumstances of this event are mysterious, inexplicable, and improbable; and the closing paragraph removes the account beyond sober history. “And it came to pass as he sat at meat with them, he took bread and blessed it and broke and gave to them. And their eyes were opened and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight.” ([Luke 24 : 30, 31].)
“Their eyes were holden,” is superstitious, and as for his vanishing out of sight, we have the most unmistakable traces of legend—the fruit of ignorance and childish imagination.