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

all lend support to the contention that here we have
a resurrection which is described in terms of an
ascension.
In v.56, as we have already seen, the
resurrection is identified with Christ ' s entry into
heaven and so confirms this contention.
Quite clearly
then, the description of the ' ascension ' in the .Gospel
of Peter .has nothing to do with that of Acts 1 but,
like the Epistle of Barnabas, the description is concerned
to establish that the resurrection and ascension
are but two aspects of the same event.
A third work of this period in which the
concept of ascension plays a very significant role is
the Ascension of Isaiah. 6l Here three passages are
particularly significant.
The first passage and
perhaps the earliest in origin, is III, 16-18:
[It had been revealed that 1 the angel
of the Holy Spirit and Mic~ael, the
chief of the holy angels, would open
his grave on the third day, and that
the Beloved, sitting on their
shoulders, will come forth and send
out his twelve disciples and they will
teach to all the nations and every
tongue the resurrection of the
Beloved, and that those who believe on
his cross will be saved, and in his
ascension62 to the seventh heaven,
whence he came.
A number of things here call for comment.
The author
spe'aks of the resurrection and ascension as successive
events but at the same time distinguishes between them;
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