The first chapter tackles the history of research on the Ascension and the proposed methodology. In my research, I tried to explain how the Ascension event was shaped by Luke and the impact it had within the Christian Church of the first centuries. The aim of the present dissertation is to analyse and interpret the Ascension of Jesus as described in Luke-Acts, and to examine both the Jewish rapture traditions and the early Christian reception and interpretation of the Lukan accounts. If so, this tradition further demonstrates that the god ofIsrael and the gods of the ancient Near East differed less than has been traditionally supposed. While a much more comprehensive study is required in order to determine whether this Jewish ‘Sapphiric God’ tradition is indigenous or the result of some later syncretism, the former seems more likely. We also make an attempt to understand the mythological significance of a ‘sapphiric Yahweh’ in the context of the ancient Near Eastern tradition. We trace this tradition back to the priests of theJerusalemTemple. By examining a number of biblical and post-biblical Jewish literatures we seek to demonstrate the existence of a probably esoteric tradition of a sapphiric-bodied Yahweh. As participant in the shared ANE mythological tradition could Israel envision her god similarly? We suggest thatIsrael could. A sapphiric-bodied deity, that is to say a deity (often a creator-deity) with an anthropomorphic body the color and substance of the mythologically significant semiprecious stone sapphire/lapis lazuli was a common ancient Near Eastern motif.

Phoenix bird origin