{"id":75831,"date":"2019-07-08T00:17:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T06:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=75831"},"modified":"2019-07-08T00:35:45","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T06:35:45","slug":"on-the-mysterious-40-day-post-easter-ministry-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/07\/on-the-mysterious-40-day-post-easter-ministry-of-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"On the mysterious 40-day post-Easter ministry of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Christi<\/a>
In the distance, Jerusalem\u2019s Chapel of the Ascension commemorates the final departure of Jesus from his apostles and Palestine. \u00a0 \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I taught the Gospel Doctrine lesson on Acts 1-5 in my ward today and, obviously, we briefly discussed Acts 1:1-3 during the class. \u00a0Here is a column on those verses that I published in the Deseret News<\/em> on 2 May 2019:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We easily imagine that Christ\u2019s ascension into heaven occurred shortly after his resurrection. The New Testament account, however, suggests otherwise. The intriguing first verses of the \u201cActs of the Apostles\u201d read as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God\u201d (Acts 1:1-3<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

The New Testament books of Luke and Acts both address an otherwise unidentified reader called \u201cTheophilus.\u201d This could easily represent the actual name of an individual person. However, since it means something like \u201cfriend of God,\u201d \u201cbeloved of God\u201d or \u201cloving God,\u201d \u201cTheophilus\u201d might have been some person\u2019s honorific title or perhaps even an indicator that Luke was addressing anybody who fit that description.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Both books were written by the evangelist Luke on the basis of eyewitness testimony \u2014 the original Greek of Acts 1:1-4 is much clearer on this point than is the King James translation \u2014 and scholars often refer to them as a composite work they call \u201cLuke-Acts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So what about the somewhat mysterious Acts 1:1-3?<\/span><\/p>\n

First, it indicates that Christ\u2019s ascension occurred fully 40 days after Easter. In other words, he was on earth, at least intermittently, for substantially more than a month. Was it precisely 40 days? That\u2019s difficult to know. In Noah\u2019s time, \u201cthe rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights\u201d (Genesis 7:12<\/a>). Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights (Matthew 4:2<\/a>,\u00a0Mark 1:13<\/a>,\u00a0Luke 4:2<\/a>). Traditionally, in the Middle East, \u201cforty\u201d is a large but rounded and imprecise number. (Think of \u201cAli Baba and the Forty Thieves.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

What was Jesus doing during this extended period? Luke says that he demonstrated to his followers that he was alive \u201cby many infallible proofs\u201d \u2014 or, as some translations have it, via \u201cconvincing proofs\u201d or \u201cin convincing ways.\u201d But this can\u2019t have required 40 days. He also taught his disciples about the kingdom of God. But what was he teaching? Did he merely repeat what he had already taught them? If so, why? Strikingly, not a single obvious quotation from those forty days of instruction appears in the New Testament. Luke tells us nothing of their content.<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been estimated that every word of Jesus in the four gospels \u2014 covering three years of mortal ministry \u2014 could be read aloud in approximately four hours. Plainly, the New Testament doesn\u2019t contain everything Jesus did and taught. Things are missing, but we don\u2019t know how many or how much. In\u00a0Acts 20:35<\/a>, the apostle Paul quotes Jesus as saying, \u201cIt is more blessed to give than to receive.\u201d But no such statement occurs in either Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.<\/span><\/p>\n

For devout Christians, even a day\u2019s worth of new teaching from the Savior, let alone 40 days\u2019 worth, would be a treasure beyond price. Yet, curiously, many Christians seem passionately committed to the notion that the Bible contains all there was, is, or ever will be:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd because my words shall hiss forth \u2014 many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever. Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written\u201d (2 Nephi 29:3, 8-10<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

The late Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley wrote a classic article on the enigmatic \u201cforty-day ministry\u201d: His \u201cEvangelium Quadraginta Dierum: The Forty-day Mission of Christ \u2014 The Forgotten Heritage\u201d originally appeared in 1966 in the academic journal \u201cVigiliae Christianae.\u201d Reprinted several times since, it is accessible online at\u00a0http:\/\/fortydayministry.com\/node\/10?fbclid=IwAR1Fix-xudPgoFOaugdty_WHAgHu_X90Nc9v_nWcTZVcmzCKMtM-pJTiPyE<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I taught the Gospel Doctrine lesson on Acts 1-5 in my ward today and, obviously, we briefly discussed Acts 1:1-3 during the class. \u00a0Here is a column on those verses that I published in the Deseret News on 2 May 2019: \u00a0 We easily imagine that Christ\u2019s ascension into heaven occurred shortly after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOn the mysterious 40-day post-Easter ministry of Jesus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I taught the Gospel Doctrine lesson on Acts 1-5 in my ward today and, obviously, we briefly discussed Acts 1:1-3 during the class. \u00a0Here is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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