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P. Derek Overfield PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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of ascension is 'unfinished' in that it serves as a<br />

precursor to an awaited parousia.<br />

In the second kind<br />

of ascension the emphasis is on the fact that Christ<br />

is with God and thus has power in both earth and heaven.<br />

The Johannine model includes all that the second model<br />

provides with the additional 'presence' (through the<br />

Spirit) on earth.<br />

4. The fourth type of ascension and one which<br />

perhaps can claim to be most primitive is that which<br />

is seen in terms of humiliation - exaltation. Here<br />

Jesus is seen as exalted as a direct result of his<br />

death.<br />

The texts that witness to this scheme are<br />

Phil 2:8f; Heb 1:3, 2:9, 12:12. But even here two<br />

different theological traditions are involved, although<br />

both centre on the fact of Christ's willingness to<br />

accept death on a cross.<br />

This type of ascension<br />

differs from that described in (2) above only in as<br />

much as it stresses preceding humiliation, an emphasis<br />

absent from those texts as classified under (2).<br />

5. Yet another type of ascension is the one related<br />

in 1 Tim 3:16.<br />

Here there is no obvious reference<br />

to any consequence upon earth of the exaltation of<br />

Jesus, though of course this may well have been in<br />

the mind of the readers.<br />

In that this ascension is<br />

envisaged as one having its locale in the heavenly<br />

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