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

Wherefore are ye corne? Whom seek ye?
Not him that was crucified? He is
risen and gone ( &.v£O"'n'J xat &'7tf'ix.eEV ).
But if ye believe not, stoop this way
and see the place where he lay, for he
is not here. For he is risen and gone
thi ther whence he was sent ( &.vfO"'tT)
y6.p xat &'7ti'iA6€v lX€L ;)e€V &.1t€~AT).
Enslin 58 suggests that here the &.7t~Ae€V
refers back
to the event described in v.19.
But this is unlikely
because v.19 refers to the ascent of the divine
Christ whereas v.56 refers to the ascent of the
resurrected Jesus.
The verb must in fact refer to the
event described in vv. 39-42!
••• they saw again three men corne out
of the sepulchre, and two of them
sustaining the other and a cross
following them, and the heads of the
two reaching to heaven, but that of him
who was led of them by the hand overpassing
the heavens. And they heard
a voice out of the heavens crying "Thou
hast preached to them that sleep?"
and from the cross there was heard the
answer, "Yea".
This is not an account of an ascension as such, but of
the resurrection.
But the language employed in the
description prevents us from simply saying that the
resurrection picture has been embossed with apocryphal
or apocalyptic imagery. Danielou 59 has shown that
the whole scene has affinities with Jewish merkaba 60
and, more particularly, that the opening of the heavens,
the enthronement of Christ on the angelic throne and the
fact that the head of Christ reaches beyond the heavens,
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