Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 90
? 90 them again and assured them that he had escaped from death, their faith in his Messiahship might have been shaken and they might have turned back seeing that he whom they had taken for the Promised Messiah of the Jews had died an ‘accursed’ death. So he showed himself to them in order to re-establish their totter- ing faith. Indeed his escape from the jaws of death was a cogent proof in favour of his claim. It strengthened them much. After he left the country, bidding them farewell at the sea of Tiberias, as John says, they stood firm. They even tried to preach his claim to the Jews, but the Jews persecuted them. Some were killed out- right and some stoned to death. The Jews refuted their claim, rebuked them, and mocked at them affirming that they had let their Messiah die an accursed death. The disciples of Jesus could not tell of his escape for fear of cruel persecution, so it is more than possible that they concealed the matter and replied that Jesus had risen from the dead, as the Jews had made it generally known that he had died, and added that he had ascended to heaven by which they then meant that he had gone to a safe place. 1 1. The term ‘heaven’ was used for any high raised place, as for instance we read in Exodus 19—20 that the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mount and spoke to Moses. But in verse 22 of chapter 20, the word ‘heaven’ is used instead of the top of the mountain. Moreover, we read in Shab. 89a, Ex. R. 1X1: ‘Before Moses ascended to Heaven he said that he would descend on the forenoon of the forty-first day’ (Jewish Encyc. word Moses). And in Ex. 24–28 it is clearly stated that Moses went into the midst of the cloud and got him up into the mount, and Moses was in the Mount forty days and forty nights. Similarly, Jesus was taken up on top of the Mount of Olives, and a cloud received him out of their sight. As the disciples saw him going up at the top of the mount according to the aforesaid usage they said he went to heaven.