Luke 24:51-52

24:51 Now during the blessing he departed and was taken up into heaven. 24:52 So they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

tn 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.

tn Grk “while he blessed them.”

tn Grk “he departed from them.”

tc The reference to the ascension (“and was taken up into heaven”) is lacking in א* D it sys, 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.

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

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

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