Luke 24:49-53

24:49 And look, I am sending you¹ what my Father promised.² But stay in the city³ until you have been clothed with power⁴ from on high.”

Jesus’ Departure

24:50 Then⁵ Jesus⁶ led them out as far as Bethany,⁷ and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 24:51 Now⁸ during the blessing⁹ he departed¹⁰ and was taken up into heaven.¹¹ 24:52 So¹² they worshiped¹³ him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,¹⁴ 24:53 and were continually in the temple courts¹⁵ blessing¹⁶ God.¹⁷

¹tn Grk “sending on you.”

²tn Grk “the promise of my Father,” with τοῦ πατρός (tou patros) translated as a subjective genitive. This is a reference to the Holy Spirit and looks back to how one could see Messiah had come with the promise of old (Luke 3:15-18). The promise is rooted in Jer 31:31 and Ezek 36:26.

³sn The city refers to Jerusalem.

⁴sn Until you have been clothed with power refers to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. What the Spirit supplies is enablement. See Luke 12:11-12; 21:12-15. The difference the Spirit makes can be seen in Peter (compare Luke 22:54-62 with Acts 2:14-41).

⁵tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

⁶tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷sn Bethany was village on the Mount of Olives about 2 mi (3 km) from Jerusalem; see John 11:1, 18.

⁸tn Grk “And it happened that while.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

⁹tn Grk “while he blessed them.”

¹⁰tn Grk “he departed from them.”

¹¹tc The reference to the ascension (“and was taken up into heaven”) is lacking in א* D it sy^s, but it is found in Ì⁷⁵ and the rest of the ms tradition. The authenticity of the statement here seems to be presupposed in Acts 1:2, for otherwise it is difficult to account for Luke’s reference to the ascension there. For a helpful discussion, see TCGNT 162-63.

tn For the translation of ἀνεφέρετο (anefereto) as “was taken up” see BDAG 75 s.v. ἀναφέρω 1.

sn There is great debate whether this event equals Acts 1:9-11 so that Luke has telescoped something here that he describes in more detail later. The text can be read in this way because the temporal marker in v. 50 is vague.

¹²tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the result of Jesus’ ascension and the concluding summary of Luke’s Gospel.

¹³tc The reference to worship is lacking in the Western ms D, its last major omission in this Gospel.

¹⁴sn Joy is another key theme for Luke: 1:14; 2:10; 8:13; 10:17; 15:7, 10; 24:41.

¹⁵tn Grk “in the temple.”

sn Luke’s gospel story proper ends where it began, in the temple courts (Luke 1:4-22). The conclusion is open-ended, because the story continues in Acts with what happened from Jerusalem onwards, once the promise of the Father (v. 49) came.

¹⁶tc The Western text (D it) has αἰνοῦντες (ainounte", “praising”) here, while the Alexandrian mss (Ì⁷⁵ א B C* L) have εὐλογοῦντες (eulogounte", “blessing”). Most mss, especially the later Byzantine mss, evidently combine these two readings with αἰνοῦντες καὶ εὐλογοῦντες (A C² W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat). It is more difficult to decide between the two earlier readings. Internal arguments can go either way, but what seems decisive in this instance are the superior witnesses for εὐλογοῦντες.

¹⁷tc The majority of Greek mss, some of which are important witnesses (A B C² Θ Ψ Ë¹³ Ï lat), add “Amen” to note the Gospel’s end. Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, since significant witnesses lack the word (Ì⁷⁵ א C* D L W 1 33 pc it co ), it is evidently not original.