Luke 24:51

Now ¹  during the blessing ²  he departed ³  and was taken up into heaven. ⁴ 

2Ki 2:11; Mr 16:19; Joh 20:17; Ac 1:9; Eph 4:8-10; Heb 1:3; Heb 4:14

¹ 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.

² tn Grk “while he blessed them.”

³ tn Grk “he departed from them.”

⁴ tc 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.