After the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples were staying in Jerusalem, being taught by Jesus. The Lord told them to wait in the city for the Holy Spirit. Luke records, “Now when He had spoken these things, as they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:9)
Although scholars do not know the exact spot of Jesus’ ascension, Luke’s Gospel records that Jesus led the disciples “out as far as Bethany” (Luke 24:50) where he ascended. Knowing Bethany is about 1.5 miles east of Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, the ascension must have taken place somewhere on the Mount of Olives. A relatively early tradition placed the spot at the summit. The pilgrim Aetheria (Egeria) speaks of a tradition on Palm Sunday where Christians would travel to the “Inbomon” (the Latinized form of the Greek ἐνβωμῷ, meaning “on the height”) while singing hymns. In a letter written by Jerome, dated to A. D. 404, he refers to the “glistening cross of Mount Olivet from which the Saviour made His ascension to the Father.”1 The Inbomon church has thus been at this site since at least the late fourth century.2 Ancient sources in fact say a woman named Pomnia (Poemenia) sponsored the building of a church at the spot of Jesus’ ascension in A.D. 378, referred to as the Church of the Holy Ascension.3 Excavations by L.H. Vincent in 1913 and Virgilio Corbo in 1959 have confirmed the site of this church. The original plan was an octagonal building with a circular inner colonnade featuring sixteen columns holding up a dome - a common design for "memorial" churches throughout the Levant.4 Corbo found that the original Inbomon/Church of the Holy Ascension was apparently destroyed by the Persians when they invaded Jerusalem in 614, rebuilt soon after, rebuilt again by the Crusaders, and transformed into a mosque by Salah al-Din (Saladin) in 1187, which still stands today.5
Gonzalo Baez-Camargo, Archaeological Commentary on the Bible, (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1984) 236.
Jack Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992) 165-167.
Jerome, Letter to Eustochium, 12 (NPNF, 2.6:200). ↩︎
Jack Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992) 167. ↩︎
Peter the Iberian, trans. Richard Raabe, Petrus der Iberer (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, 1895), 35. ↩︎
Jack Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992) 170. Finegan says Muslims continue to memorialize the ascension of Jesus here because the Qur’an says God “raised him up unto himself” (Surah 4:158). ↩︎
From What Mountain Did Jesus Ascend?
Site Study
| Hershel Wayne House | Mount of Olives
After the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples stayed in Jerusalem and were taught by Jesus. The Lord told them to wait in the city for the Holy Spirit. Luke records, “Now when He had spoken these things, as they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:9)
Although scholars do not know the exact spot of Jesus’ ascension, Luke’s Gospel records that Jesus led the disciples “out as far as Bethany” (Luke 24:50) where he ascended. Knowing Bethany is about 1.5 miles east of Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, the ascension must have taken place somewhere on the Mount of Olives. A relatively early tradition placed the spot at the summit. The pilgrim Aetheria (Egeria) speaks of a tradition on Palm Sunday where Christians would travel to the “Inbomon” (the Latinized form of the Greek ἐνβωμῷ, meaning “on the height”) while singing hymns. In a letter written by Jerome, dated to A. D. 404, he refers to the “glistening cross of Mount Olivet from which the Saviour made His ascension to the Father.” The Inbomon church has thus been at this site since at least the late fourth century. Ancient sources, in fact, say a woman named Pomnia (Poemenia) sponsored the building of a church at the spot of Jesus’ ascension in A.D. 378, referred to as the Church of the Holy Ascension. Excavations by L.H. Vincent in 1913 and Virgilio Corbo in 1959 have confirmed the site of this church. The original plan was an octagonal building with a circular inner colonnade featuring sixteen columns holding up a dome - a common design for "memorial" churches throughout the Levant. Corbo found that the original Inbomon/Church of the Holy Ascension was apparently destroyed by the Persians when they invaded Jerusalem in 614, rebuilt soon after, rebuilt again by the Crusaders, and transformed into a mosque by Salah al-Din (Saladin) in 1187, which still stands today.
Bibliography. Baez-Camargo, Gonzalo, Archaeological Commentary on the Bible (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1984), 236; Finegan, Jack, The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 165-67; Jerome, Letter to Eustochium, 12(NPNF, 2.6:200); Peter the Iberian, trans. Richard Raabe, Petrus der Iberer (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, 1895), 35; Tsafrir, Yoram, "Ancient Churches in the Holy Land," Biblical Archaeology Review 19, (1993): 26-39, accessed April 16, 2012, http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=19&Issue=5&ArticleID=8.
Site Study
| Hershel Wayne House
As Jesus traveled the road from Jericho, approaching Jerusalem for the last time, He came to Bethany and Bethphage (Bethpage) “at the Mount of Olives.”
The Mount of Olives is a ridge running north-south, and is east of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley. It is so named because of the great number of olive trees cultivated on terraces there to this day. It is about 2.5 miles long and has three peaks: Mount Scopus, et-Tur (where the Russian Orthodox Monastery of the Ascension and its prominent tower are located), and the Mount of Corruption (or Mount of Offense) located at the southern end of the valley opposite the City of David. Mount Scopus rises to 2,690 feet above sea level.
The Mount of Olives was the location of several important sites with regard to the New Testament. Already mentioned are Bethany and Bethphage. Jesus taught His disciples at a private place somewhere on the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane is located on the slope of the Mount. Tradition also locates Jesus’ ascension at the summit of the ridge, although the Scriptures indicate He ascended from a place near Bethany, on the east slope of the Mount of Olives. In Zechariah, the prophet says when Jesus returns the Mount will split in two east to west and allow a river to run from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea (Zech 14:4).
Many churches are found on the Mount of Olives, commemorating the events that took place there including: the Dominus Flevit (commemorating Jesus’ weeping over Jerusalem), the Basilica of Agony (also called the Church of All Nations), built on the site of an ancient Byzantine church memorializing the place where Jesus prayed and was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Chapel of Ascension, a mosque that was built over a very early Byzantine church and the Pater Noster church, built on the foundations of the fourth-century Eleona Church which itself was built over the cave that is the traditional place where Jesus gave the disciples the “Our Father” prayer.
1It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might seize him by deception and kill him. 2For they said, “Not during the feast, because there might be a riot among the people.”
3While he was at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster jar of ointment of pure nard—very costly. She broke the jar and poured it over his head. 4But there were some who were indignant among themselves, saying, “Why has this ointment been wasted? 5For this might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” So they grumbled against her.
6But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want to, you can do them good; but you will not always have me. 8She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the burying. 9Most certainly I tell you, wherever this Good News may be preached throughout the whole world, that which this woman has done will also be spoken of for a memorial of her.”
10Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went away to the chief priests, that he might deliver him to them. 11They, when they heard it, were glad, and promised to give him money. He sought how he might conveniently deliver him.
12On the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?”
13He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and there a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him, 14and wherever he enters in, tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ 15He will himself show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Get ready for us there.”
16His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found things as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.
17When it was evening he came with the twelve. 18As they sat and were eating, Jesus said, “Most certainly I tell you, one of you will betray me—he who eats with me.”
19They began to be sorrowful, and to ask him one by one, “Surely not I?” And another said, “Surely not I?”
20He answered them, “It is one of the twelve, he who dips with me in the dish. 21For the Son of Man goes as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had not been born.”
22As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had blessed it, he broke it and gave to them, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body.”
23He took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave to them. They all drank of it. 24He said to them, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Most certainly I tell you, I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in God’s Kingdom.”26When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
27Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of me tonight, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’28However, after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee.”
29But Peter said to him, “Although all will be offended, yet I will not.”
30Jesus said to him, “Most certainly I tell you that you today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”
31But he spoke all the more, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” They all said the same thing.
32They came to a place which was named Gethsemane. He said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”33He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed. 34He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.”
35He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass away from him. 36He said, “Abba,Father, all things are possible to you. Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I desire, but what you desire.”
37He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you watch one hour? 38Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
39Again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40Again he returned and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they didn’t know what to answer him. 41He came the third time and said to them, “Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42Arise! Let’s get going. Behold, he who betrays me is at hand.”
43Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, came—and with him a multitude with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. 44Now he who betrayed him had given them a sign, saying, “Whomever I will kiss, that is he. Seize him, and lead him away safely.” 45When he had come, immediately he came to him and said, “Rabbi! Rabbi!” and kissed him. 46They laid their hands on him and seized him. 47But a certain one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.
48Jesus answered them, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to seize me? 49I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you didn’t arrest me. But this is so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.”
50They all left him, and fled. 51A certain young man followed him, having a linen cloth thrown around himself over his naked body. The young men grabbed him, 52but he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked. 53They led Jesus away to the high priest. All the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes came together with him.
54Peter had followed him from a distance, until he came into the court of the high priest. He was sitting with the officers, and warming himself in the light of the fire. 55Now the chief priests and the whole council sought witnesses against Jesus to put him to death, and found none. 56For many gave false testimony against him, and their testimony didn’t agree with each other. 57Some stood up and gave false testimony against him, saying, 58“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’” 59Even so, their testimony didn’t agree.
60The high priest stood up in the middle, and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer? What is it which these testify against you?” 61But he stayed quiet, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
62Jesus said, “I am. You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of the sky.”
63The high priest tore his clothes and said, “What further need have we of witnesses? 64You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?” They all condemned him to be worthy of death. 65Some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to beat him with fists, and to tell him, “Prophesy!” The officers struck him with the palms of their hands.
66As Peter was in the courtyard below, one of the maids of the high priest came, 67and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You were also with the Nazarene, Jesus!”
68But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are saying.” He went out on the porch, and the rooster crowed.
69The maid saw him and began again to tell those who stood by, “This is one of them.” 70But he again denied it. After a little while again those who stood by said to Peter, “You truly are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it.” 71But he began to curse and to swear, “I don’t know this man of whom you speak!”
72The rooster crowed the second time. Peter remembered the words that Jesus said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” When he thought about that, he wept.