Глава 24

1–12. Myrrh-bearing women at the tomb of Christ. – 13–35. The appearance of Christ to two disciples on their way to Emmaus. – 36–49. The appearance of Christ to the apostles on the evening of the resurrection. – 50–53. Ascension of Christ into heaven. On the resurrection of Christ, see comments on Matthew 28 and Mark 16. The Evangelist Luke, however, undoubtedly had his own special point of view from which he depicted this most important fact in the economy of our salvation. This is evident from the events on which he draws the attention of his readers. Namely, at first he depicts the journey of the myrrh-bearing women to the tomb of Christ and says that an angel told them about the resurrection of Christ and that they, in turn, conveyed this to the apostles and other disciples, but did not find their confidence in their story, only Peter hastily went to the tomb and found there only the shrouds with which the body of Christ had previously been shrouded (verses 1-12). He then depicts two appearances of the risen Christ on the day of resurrection: 1) to the two disciples going to Emmaus (verses 13-35), and 2) to the apostles and other disciples, to whom Christ convinced of the reality of His resurrection and to whom He explained the prophecies about the necessity of His death and resurrection, while promising to equip the disciples with the power of the Holy Spirit so that they could go out to preach the Gospel (verses 36-49). Then the evangelist Luke ends his Gospel with a brief message about the ascension of Christ (verses 50-53). Upon closer examination of this narrative, it turns out that the Evangelist Luke here, as in general throughout his Gospel, limits himself to reporting the most important facts. Without mentioning the covering of the tomb with a stone, he nevertheless reports (verse 2) that the wives “found the stone” already “rolled away from the tomb.” Of all the appearances of the Risen One, he mentions only two, although, as can be seen from verse 34, he also knew about the appearance of the Risen One to the Apostle Peter. But both phenomena described by the evangelist are of such a kind that they can be used to base firm confidence in the truth of the resurrection of Christ. This is fully consistent with the purpose of the Gospel of Luke - to give pagan Christians in general, and Theophilus in particular, a solid basis for faith in the teachings or preaching about Christ communicated to them. The Resurrection of Christ, as is known (Acts 17:32; 1 Cor. 15), met with little faith in pagan society, and therefore Evangelist Luke wanted to present such evidence of this basic fact of the Christian faith that pagan society could recognize as truly convincing. Such facts are the phenomena of the Risen Christ described above. The disciples, Evangelist Luke wants to say with his story, were extremely cautious and did not believe the women who told them about the resurrection of Christ. Only then did they leave their doubts when they were given the most valid evidence of the resurrection of Christ by the Savior Himself - first only to two, and then to all the disciples gathered in Jerusalem. Then, throughout the entire narrative of the resurrection, the Evangelist Luke conveys the idea that the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ completely agree with the prophecies that were made about Him. The Angel speaks about this to the wives (verse 7), and Christ Himself (verse 25 et seq., 44 et seq.). We do not find such indications of the fulfillment of Scripture in any of the other evangelists. It is obvious that Luke wanted to give by this, so to speak, historical proof that Christ had previously testified of Himself as the promised Savior of people, and in the present event of the resurrection He appeared precisely such a promised Savior. Luke 24:1. On the very first day of the week, very early, bringing the prepared spices, they came to the tomb, and with them some others; Luke 24:2. but they found the stone rolled away from the coffin. Luke 24:3. And when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. Luke 24:4. When they were perplexed about this, two men suddenly appeared before them in shining clothes. Luke 24:5. And when they were in fear and bowed their faces to the ground, they said to them: Why are you looking for the living among the dead? Luke 24:6. He is not here: He has risen; remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, Luke 24:7. saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. Luke 24:8. And they remembered His words; Luke 24:9. and, returning from the tomb, they announced all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Luke 24:10. It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and others with them, who told the Apostles about this. Luke 24:11. And their words seemed empty to them, and they did not believe them. Luke 24:12. But Peter, getting up, ran to the tomb and, bending down, saw only the linens lying, and went back, marveling at what had happened. The Evangelist Luke reports about the journey of the women to the tomb in accordance with Mark (Mark 16:1-8), but makes some additions, and in some places omissions. “Very early” (verse 1) – more precisely: “in the very early morning” (ὄρθρου βαθέος). "And along with them some others". Tischendorf, who here follows the most ancient codes, does not have this addition. “Two men” (verse 4). According to the Gospel of Mark, one Angel appeared to the wives, and moreover in the form of a young man, and not a husband. However, there is no insoluble contradiction here. Evangelist Mark speaks about one thing, because, of course, it was one, not two Angels who told the wives about the resurrection of Christ. The Evangelist Luke, speaking about the two angels who spoke, wants to give the greatest assurance of the truth of the announcement of the resurrection of Christ, because two witnesses are better than one. As for the fact that in the Gospel of Mark the Angel appeared to the myrrh-bearers as “young men”, and in the Gospel of Luke the Angels appeared as “men”, this difference, in fact, is sometimes difficult to determine: to one a famous person seems to be a young man, and to another - already a husband. The evangelists could obtain information about this phenomenon from various myrrh-bearers. “They bowed their faces to the ground” (verse 5). This testified that the myrrh-bearers saw the messengers of God in the men who appeared to them. “What are you looking for”, i.e. you are looking in vain. "Live", i.e. the one who is alive and not dead (cf. verse 23). “Between the Dead”, i.e. in the place where it is fitting for the dead to be - as if Christ could remain where only an ordinary dead person could lie and remain! “Remember...” (verse 6). Evangelist Luke obviously has in mind here the words of Christ quoted above (Luke 9:22, 18:32 et seq.). His instructions from the Angel have a more general content than Mark’s. “To the Son of Man” (verse 7). This is how Christ called Himself only before the resurrection (cf. verse 26). “Men of sinners”, i.e. Gentiles (cf. Luke 18:32; Gal.2:15) 32. In the Evangelist Matthew this expression has a more general meaning (Matthew 26:45). “And on the third day to rise...” (see Matthew 16:21). “They declared” (verse 9). Here the evangelist Luke agrees with Matthew (Matthew 28:8, 10). Evangelist Mark says otherwise (see comments on Mark 16:8). “They were Magdalene Mary...” (verse 10) The names of the women that one evangelist Luke gives here (Matthew and Mark give the names of these myrrh-bearers earlier - see Mark 15:40, 47; Mark 16:1, 6:3 and parallel passages in Matthew’s Gospel). At the same time, according to the Evangelist Luke, there were other women. “They did not believe them” (verse 11; cf. Mark 16:11). “Peter... fled” (verse 12). This mention of Peter does not exclude the possibility that John also went with him (John 20:3; cf. verse 24). “And he went back, marveling at himself...” More correct: “and he went to his home” (πρὸς ἑαυτόν - “to himself”, depends not on the word “wondering”, but on the word “went” - Euthymius Zigaben; cf. John 20:10). Luke 24:13. That same day two of them went to a village sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, called Emmaus; Luke 24:14. and talked among themselves about all these events. One evangelist Luke tells about the journey of two disciples of Christ to Emmaus on the day of the resurrection of Christ and the appearance of the risen Christ to them. Evangelist Mark makes only a hint of this phenomenon (Mark 16:12–13). “Two of them” are not from the apostles, but in general from the disciples of Christ who are in Jerusalem (cf. verse 33), to whom there is a hint in verse 9 in the words: “and to all the rest.” "Emmaus" - from Josephus Flavius ​​Ammaus (Josephus. "The Jewish War", VII, 6, 6) is a small village 60 stadia (1.5 geogr. miles) from Jerusalem to the northwest, i.e. three hours' journey (there was also the city of Emmaus, or Nicopolis, in the Valley of Judea, but it was 176 stadia from Jerusalem 33. Of the two travelers, only the name of one is known - Cleopas (verse 18). In the other companion they saw either some unknown Ammaon (Ambrose of Milan), then Nathanael (Epiphanius), then Peter or Simon the Zealot (Origen, Cyril) and, finally, Luke himself (Theophylact). But all these are just assumptions. “And they talked,” more precisely: “and they themselves talked” (καὶ αὐτοὶ ὡμίλουν). The Evangelist obviously wants to say that their reasoning was of a different kind than that which Christ conducted with them, who approached them on the way. "These events". Which ones? Is it only those described at the beginning of chapter 24? Most likely, the evangelist here refers in general to the events of the suffering and death of Christ. Luke 24:15. And while they were talking and reasoning with each other, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. Luke 24:16. But their eyes were kept, so that they did not recognize Him. "And Jesus Himself" (καὶ αὐτὸς Ἰησοῦς). Those. Jesus Himself personally, about whom the travelers had just spoken to each other. “Approaching” – probably catching up with them. "Their eyes were held." This was a special miraculous act of God (corresponding to the “opening” of the eyes mentioned in verse 31). The Evangelist Mark explains this somewhat differently (Mark 16:12), but his message can be seen as explaining this miraculous divine action: the eyes of the disciples “were restrained” (Luke) because Christ appeared to them in a new form (Mark) 34 . Luke 24:17. He said to them: What are you talking about as you walk, and why are you sad? Luke 24:18. One of them, named Cleopas, answered Him: Are you really one of those who came to Jerusalem and do not know about what has happened in it these days? Luke 24:19. And he said to them: about what? They said to Him: What happened to Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; Luke 24:20. how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death and crucified Him. Luke 24:21. But we hoped that He was the One who was to deliver Israel; but with all that, it is now the third day since this happened. Luke 24:22. But some of our women amazed us: they were early at the tomb Luke 24:23. and they did not find His body, and when they came, they said that they had also seen the appearance of angels, who said that He was alive. Luke 24:24. And some of our men went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Him. When Christ asks what the travelers are discussing so passionately and what is the reason for the sadness reflected on their faces, they probably, one after another, mutually replenishing each other, tell Christ about their unfulfilled hopes for the Messiah. But at first (verse 18) only one of them expressed surprise that the stranger who approached them was asking them about something that should be known to anyone who was at the holiday in Jerusalem (and the stranger, according to Cleopas, was returning home from the Easter holiday). The name Cleopas is shortened from the name Cleopatra (Κλεοπάτρος). This is not at all like the name Klopas in John 19:25. There, according to our Russian and Slavic texts, it is designated incorrectly: Cleopas. “Do you... not know...” (verse 18). Cleopas is completely occupied with the thought of the fate of Christ, and therefore he is surprised that the stranger still asks what they are talking about. “Of course,” Cleopas seems to say, “about Christ! What else can we talk about now? And your question seems to show that you have not been to Jerusalem, otherwise you would not have asked what we are discussing.” “And he said to them: about what?” (verse 19). Reville (vol. 2, p. 321) reproaches Christ somewhat that He “pretended” to be unaware of the events in Jerusalem. But the Lord simply gave the travelers the opportunity to express all their perplexities in order to later resolve them. In the same way, further, pretending that he wanted to leave them, He thereby gave them the opportunity to show the feeling of affection that had awakened in them towards Him. “Who was a prophet”, more precisely: “acted as a prophet” (ἐγένετο). Travelers do not call Christ the Messiah - obviously, the death of Christ entailed the fall of their hopes for Christ as the Messiah, but, nevertheless, they still consider Him a prophet (an honorable name), Who showed himself to be such in deeds, i.e. in miraculous signs, and in words, i.e. in teaching. And thus He revealed Himself both before God and before the people, i.e. He seemed not only to be a prophet to the people, but was also such in reality (“before God”, cf. Luke 1:6). “To be condemned to death” (verse 20; see Luke 23:24). “And they crucified Him,” since they were the true culprits of Christ’s death. It is remarkable that the travelers do not hold the entire Jewish people responsible for the death of Christ, but consider only the representatives of the people guilty. And in fact, the people as a whole were rather on the side of Christ, and only a crowd of trained Jews supported the high priests in their demands addressed to Pilate. “But we hoped...” (verse 21). The travelers, as representatives of the lower classes of the people - not the Jewish hierarchy - had hope in Christ as the Messiah-King, the restorer of the political power of Israel (cf. Acts 1:6). “It is now the third day...” Obviously, the travelers have in mind Christ’s prediction that He will rise on the third day 35 . “But also some women...” (verse 22), i.e.: but although our hopes in Jesus as the Messiah fell, nevertheless, a circumstance happened that somewhat revived them again: some of ours, i.e. belonging to the society of followers of Christ, women left us in amazement. They went early in the morning (on what day is not said) to the tomb of Christ and did not find His body there. They also told us that they had also seen the appearance of Angels announcing that Christ was alive. After this, some of ours, i.e. of the disciples of Christ (hence, not only the Apostle Peter, who is mentioned in verse 12), went to the tomb and confirmed that the body of Christ was really not there, but, nevertheless, they did not see Christ Himself, whom the Angels announced to the women as living. The travelers say nothing about the appearance of Christ Himself to women (Matthew 28:9–10) (see comments on Mark 16:6). Luke 24:25. Then He said to them: O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Luke 24:26. Is this not how Christ had to suffer and enter into His glory? Luke 24:27. And beginning with Moses, he explained to them from all the prophets what was said about Him in all the Scriptures. “Then He said to them,” more precisely: and He, for His part, after the disciples discovered such inconsolability, told them. “Oh, senseless ones,” i.e. incapable of understanding (ἀνόητοι – refers to the thinking ability), “and slow in heart,” i.e. incapable of living feelings and weak will. “To believe everything” - not only the individual points on which the prophets dwelled, but in general the entire course of the economy of salvation depicted by the prophets. They, the apostles, do not have such a broad horizon with which it would be possible to give a clear meaning to every event in the life of Christ and, in particular, to understand the meaning of His death. “Isn’t it so necessary...” More precisely: isn’t this (exactly what He suffered) Christ had to endure and then enter into His glory (i.e., become the King of His glorious Messianic Kingdom)? “And beginning from Moses, from all the prophets he explained to them” (ἀπὸ Μοϋσέως καὶ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν προφητῶν), i.e. Christ began His explanations of the history of the economy of human salvation from the books of Moses, and then, having finished with them, moved on to the prophetic books and indicated in them the places relating to Him as the Messiah and, thus, reviewed all the messianic prophecies found in the Holy Scriptures. Probably, by prophetic books here the evangelist understands all the other books of the Old Testament after the books of Moses, therefore, the psalms, the prophecies of which Christ could not help but cite here, since He brought them before (see, for example, Luke 20:42). Luke 24:28. And they approached the village to which they were going; and He showed them that He wanted to go further. Luke 24:29. But they restrained Him, saying: stay with us, because the day has already fallen towards evening. And He went in and stayed with them. Luke 24:30. And as He reclined with them, He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Luke 24:31. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. But He became invisible to them. As the travelers approached Emmaus, Christ probably began to say goodbye to them, thus showing that He would not stop at Emmaus. In this way He encouraged travelers to invite Him to stay with them if they really felt the need for further conversation with Him. And indeed, they felt that they could not part with Him so soon and began to hold Him back with their requests to stay with them (one of these travelers in Emmaus probably had their own home). “And He entered”—entered the village. “Taking the bread, he blessed...” Christ acts in this case not as a guest, but as the owner of the house, according to His custom, which He kept among His disciples (cf. Luke 9:16). The opinion of some Church Fathers (St. John Chrysostom, Blessed Augustine) and Catholic interpreters, according to which Christ celebrated the Eucharist at Emmaus (and Catholics use verses 30 and 35 to defend the doctrine of communion under one form) has no basis here 36. “Then their eyes were opened.” This expression denotes the newly emerged ability to know what was previously inaccessible to knowledge (cf. Gen. 3:5, 7; Gen. 21:19). “But He became invisible to them,” i.e. departed unnoticeably for them (instead of “for them” it is necessary to translate “from them”, since in the first translation, which does not correspond to the Greek expression ἀπ´ αὐτῶν, the assumption can be made that Christ still remained in the house, but was only invisible to travelers). Luke 24:32. And they said to each other: Didn’t our heart burn within us when He spoke to us on the road and when He explained the Scripture to us? Luke 24:33. And they rose up that same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven apostles together and those who were with them, Luke 24:34. who said that the Lord had truly risen and appeared to Simon. Luke 24:35. And they told about what had happened on the way, and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of bread. “Did not our heart burn within us...” Was not our soul in an unusually strong state of excitement (cf. Ps. 38:4; Jer. 20:9)? The travelers regret that they did not realize earlier that Christ was walking with them. They are annoyed how this could happen to them, why they did not pay attention to the voice of their heart. The joyful disciples, leaving the meal, rush to Jerusalem and go to the apostles, who inform them that Christ has indeed risen and has already appeared to Simon (this phenomenon is told only by the evangelist Luke and also by the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 15:5). The travelers of Emmaus told, for their part, about the appearance of Christ that happened to them 37. Luke 24:36. While they were talking about this, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said to them: Peace be with you. Luke 24:37. They, confused and frightened, thought that they saw a spirit. Luke 24:38. But He said to them: Why are you troubled, and why do such thoughts enter your hearts? Luke 24:39. Look at My hands and at My feet; it is I Myself; touch Me and look at Me; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. Luke 24:40. And having said this, he showed them his hands and feet. Luke 24:41. When they still did not believe for joy and were amazed, He said to them: Do you have any food here? Luke 24:42. They gave Him some of the baked fish and honeycomb. Luke 24:43. And he took it and ate before them. Luke 24:44. And he said to them: This is what I spoke to you about while I was still with you, that everything that was written about Me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled. Luke 24:45. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Luke 24:46. And he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, Luke 24:47. and repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Luke 24:48. You are witnesses to this. Luke 24:49. And I will send the promise of My Father upon you; But stay in the city of Jerusalem until you are endowed with power from on high. This phenomenon, which is also mentioned by the Evangelist Mark (Mark 16:14 et seq.), is the same one that the Evangelist John depicts as divided into two: the first, which happened to the ten disciples, without Thomas, and the second, which took place 8 days after the first, which happened to reassure Thomas. Evangelist Luke combines both of these phenomena into one, because they are identical in property and purpose. “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them” (verse 36). Here the word “Jesus” is not read in the ancient codes. The appearance of Christ was obviously as wonderful in its suddenness as His disappearance, spoken of in verse 31, and this unexpectedness of appearance may partly explain the fear that the disciples felt. "Spirit" (verse 37), i.e. a person from the afterlife, having only the appearance of a body (the same as the “ghost” in Matthew 14:26). “Why are you embarrassed,” i.e. why are you confused (τί τεταραγμένοι ἐστέ) “and why such thoughts...” i.e. Why do such thoughts appear in your soul? (verse 38). The Lord expresses His surprise that the apostles did not immediately accept Him for Who He really is. “Look at My hands and at My feet; it is I Myself” (verse 39). First of all, the Lord brings the disciples out of confusion by convincing them of the identity of His personality with the One who was their Teacher and Lord. “Look” that (ὅτι – “what” is missing in the Russian text) “this is I Myself.” If at the same time He points them to His hands and feet, it is obviously because there were marks of nails on them, and these signs certified that it was indeed their Lord who stood before them, Who was crucified on the cross. “Handle Me...” Here the Lord has a different goal. Since the apostles were afraid that there was only a “spirit” in front of them, Christ invites them to see the opposite: He has flesh and bones. “When for joy they did not yet believe...” (verse 41). Unexpected joy often makes a person doubt the truth of the event that served as the source of joyful excitement. “And he took it and ate before them” (verse 43). Here, as the very purpose of Christ’s action shows, there can be no question of the method of eating that is attributed to the Angels in the Holy Scriptures (Gen. 18:8); it was real, and not apparent eating. The book of Acts says about the apostles that they “ate and drank” with Christ “after His resurrection from the dead” (Acts 10:41), therefore, they and Christ ate food in the same way. “And he said to them” (verse 44). Many interpreters believe (see, for example, Keil) that between the 43rd and 44th verses there must be a gap in time, that in the 44th verse either the story of the new appearance of Christ begins, or the presentation of all the speeches of Christ spoken by Him after the resurrection. But there is no doubt that the appearance of Christ depicted before the 44th verse would have stopped, so to speak, incomplete, if Christ had not then informed the apostles of those explanations that come precisely from the 44th verse. Therefore, it would be more correct to believe that for now the evangelist is still depicting a phenomenon that took place on the evening of the resurrection. “This is what I spoke about” (verse 44), i.e. This is how My words spoken to you earlier were fulfilled - the words about “what must be fulfilled...” (cf. Luke 18:31 et seq.; Luke 22:37). “While I was still with you.” Now Christ is no longer constantly with the apostles and their former communication with Him is no longer possible. If Christ now appears to the apostles, it is only to convince them of the truth of His resurrection. "In the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms". By “law” the Jews understood the books of Moses, by “prophets” - the books of Joshua, Judges, Kings and, in the proper sense, prophetic books, excluding the book of Daniel, by “psalms” - probably all the other canonical books of the Old Testament (the so-called “ketuvim” - writings), called here “psalms” because the Lord obviously meant that in the book of Psalms there is there are more prophecies about Him than in all the other books of this last, third section of the Bible. (It should be noted that the article is only found before the expression νόμῳ Μωϋσεώς - “in the law of Moses”; this shows that Christ considers all the books as one whole.) “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (verse 45). According to some interpreters (for example, Bishop Michael), the Lord did this through a miraculous sudden insight, and then through His interpretation of the Scriptures during the forty days before the Ascension. We cannot agree with the latter, because here we are talking only about the appearance of Christ on the evening of the resurrection. The first assumption does not contain anything incredible. “Thus it is written” (verse 46), i.e. in exactly the same way that I pointed out to you when I introduced you to the understanding of the Scriptures. “Christ must suffer and rise again...” This and the following expressions (verse 47) are a brief formulation of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. “In His name” (verse 47), i.e. due to the fact that He, by His death and resurrection, fulfilled all the prophecies about Him as the Messiah - Savior and Redeemer, and forgiveness could be proclaimed to repentant sinners (in the Greek text it is ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ - “in the name”, but it is better to read with Tischendorf εἰς τὸ ὄνομα – “in the name”). "Starting from Jerusalem". Jerusalem, as the capital of the theocracy, should be the starting point for preaching about Christ (cf. Isa. 2:3, 40:9; Acts 1:8). “Witnesses to these things” (verse 48), i.e. everything done by Christ, and witnesses of His suffering, death and resurrection. “And” behold, “I will send” (verse 49) - more precisely: “and behold I send” (the present tense ἀποστέλλω denotes an event that must take place very soon). “My Father’s promise is upon you,” i.e. what My Father promised through the prophets, namely, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28 et seq.; Is. 44:1 et seq.; Eze. 36:27; cf. Acts 2:16 et seq.). “You remain in the city of Jerusalem.” If verse 49 is combined with the previous speech of Christ, it turns out that the apostles should not have left Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit descended on them. Since in this case the appearances of Christ that took place in Galilee, reported by the evangelists Matthew and John, are completely eliminated, some interpreters saw here the beginning of a description of the last appearance of Christ to the disciples, which took place on the day of the ascension. Thus, between the 48th and 49th verses a gap of 40 days is assumed. In view of the fact that there is no other way of agreement between the Gospel narratives - other methods of reconciliation are not trustworthy - it remains to accept precisely this assumption that the description of the last appearance of Christ to the apostles begins with the 49th verse. This means that the Evangelist Luke in his Gospel describes only two appearances of Christ to the apostles: the first - on the day of the resurrection (verses 36-48) and the last - on the day of the ascension (verses 49-51). “Until you are endowed with power from on high.” The image of the vestment indicates equipment for the journey, perhaps a warrior putting on his armor: the apostles are also soldiers of Christ! “Power from above” is the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is the new power received through the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:8; Luke 1:35). Luke 24:50. And He led them out of the city as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. Luke 24:51. And when he blessed them, he began to move away from them and ascend to heaven. Luke 24:52. They worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Luke 24:53. And they always stayed in the church, glorifying and blessing God. Amen. Evangelist Luke concludes his Gospel with a brief description of the event of Christ’s ascension into heaven. This event took place on that day (the 40th after the resurrection; cf. Acts 1:3), when the Lord told the disciples what is stated in the briefest form in verse 49 (this is indicated by the particle δέ, in the Russian text - “and”, verse 50). “Until Bethany”, i.e. to the place where the road to Bethany begins. This place is located on the Mount of Olives (cf. Acts 1:12). “Lifting up His hands” is a symbolic action of blessing (cf. Lev. 9:22). “He began to move away from them and ascend into heaven” (see Mark 16:19). Evangelist Luke speaks so briefly about the ascension to heaven, probably because he already had in mind to depict this event in more detail in the book of Acts, which he did (Acts 1:1–12) 38. "They worshiped Him." Here “worship” is obviously understood as a religious action: in relation to the ascended Christ, it could not be otherwise (cf. John 4:23). "With great joy". This joy is explained by the fact that the apostles now saw for themselves that Christ had ascended into heaven. Here the possibility of any doubts and fears that arose in them about the resurrection of Christ, which they were not worthy to see, was eliminated. "Always in the church". Of course, here we mean the Temple of Jerusalem, and not the Upper Room of Zion (as Bishop Michael suggests). Even after the descent of the Holy Spirit, the apostles, like pious Israelites, visited the church daily (Acts 2:46, 3:1). However, Merckx (1905) (based on a comparison of various ancient codes and parallel passages from the Gospel, pp. 517–519) finds it possible to see here a reference to Jewish sinners, i.e. on the high priests. Geikie said: “The road to Emmaus passed through mountains and valleys, which became more and more deserted as they moved away from Jerusalem. Emmaus itself was located above a hollow through which a river flowed and spread greenery and beauty there. The vineyards and olive trees planted on the terraces along the mountainside, and the white and red flowers of the almonds now blooming in the valleys, made the end of the journey pleasantly opposite to its beginning” (Geiki, “Life of Christ”, part 4, p. 276). To the question: why Christ did not want the disciples to recognize Him immediately, Blessed Theophylact says: “So that they would open all their perplexities, discover their wound and then take the medicine,” “to teach them from Moses and the prophets...”. The Greek text of this passage is rather obscure. It's already the third day now. What does the verb ἄγει refer to here? Some attribute it to the word αὐτός - He, but here we get a completely awkward expression: “He (Christ) has been leading for the third day.” Therefore, it is better, based on Merckx’s research (1906, pp. 526–528), to read this passage like this: καὶ ἰδοὺ τρεῖς ἡμέραι - and here are three days... In the Codex Sinaiticus, the verb ἄγει is also omitted. The word σήμερον - “now” is also omitted from Tischendorf. The fact that the Lord “blessed and divided the bread” cannot yet serve as a sign of the celebration of the Eucharist here. Firstly, the expression εὐλογεῖν is used here, and not εὐχαριστεῖν, as in Luke 22:19, where the establishment of the Eucharist is reported, and then, most importantly, the Lord does not offer here “His Body” and “His Blood,” whereas this is precisely what distinguished Eucharist from an ordinary meal. Moreover, the whole thing here, it seems, was limited only to the blessing and giving the disciples the broken bread, which the disciples, obviously, did not even taste, since then, at the very moment of accepting the bread, their eyes were opened and they recognized Christ, Who immediately disappeared imperceptibly. Merckx (1905, p. 533 et seq.) considers verses 34–35 an interpolation because the statement of the 11, firstly, does not agree with what has been said in this chapter so far, and secondly, it does not agree with what is said about their state of mind in which they were when they saw the Lord (verse 37). If they already knew about the resurrection of Christ, could they have been afraid when they saw Him and mistook Him for a “spirit”? But as for the sudden transition from confidence in the resurrection of Christ to fear, this does not represent a psychological impossibility for the apostles, who themselves had not yet seen Christ. But there is no contradiction here with the first half of the chapter, because completely new circumstances are depicted here, unknown to the Emmaus travelers. Tischendorf excludes from the text the words “and ascend into heaven” and “they worshiped Him.” But in this case he acts unreasonably, because many ancient codes have these expressions. See Merckx (1905, pp. 544–545). You might be interested in: