What will you say about this new testament contradiction?

Question

According to Luke 24:51, Jesus' ascension took place in Bethany, on the same day as his resurrection.

According to Acts 1:9-12, Jesus' ascension took place at Mount Olivet, forty days after his resurrection.

Answer 1

the bible is full of this kind of contrdictions

Answer 2

There is no serious or intentional contradiction here. . .so as to call into question whether such events took place or not.

We are fortunate to have four (4) gospels or biographical accounts of Jesus' life and works.

Chapter 24 in Luke. . .while containing both the resurrection and ascension stories. . .does not "imply" that this was all in one day. . .but rather a series of events (including Jesus' appearance on the disciplines' walk to Emmaus) that started on a Sunday (". . .the first day of the week") and continued on. . .without any explicit detail of timing, in terms of when the ascension took place.

The same can also be said for the concluding chapters 28 and 16 in Matthew and Mark, respectively (that the resurrection and ascension were NOT necessarily on the same day).

And the gospel, John, makes it clear that the ascension took place some period of time AFTER the resurrection (see John 20:26 - as the appearance before "doubting Thomas" took place at least 8 days after the resurrection.) Then there is the matter that the gospel of John does NOT explicitly tell the story of the ascension (so does this mean it did not happen?)

There is also the matter that Luke and Acts are written by the same author (in the opinion of scholars!). . .and the "40 day" reference in Acts is NOT in Luke. . .why the omission in Luke, or, the added detail in Acts?

Bottom line: The gospels were written at least 50-100 years AFTER the events were to have taken place. . .and during a period of considerable adversity (70 AD or CE was when the Temple was completely destroyed by the Romans and thousands of Jews, including women & children, were slaughtered). Taken together, there are a number of notable inconsistencies in the gospels. Scholars believe all four gospels "may" have come from a single source document, "Q" (Quelle or Sayings), with Mark being the oldest and perhaps most like the source document.

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Bethany is on the road to the Mount of Olives. Looking at the map, it's probably on the lower slopes but the map I'm looking at is pretty small scale. There is no geographical contradiction.
Luke gives no time frame for the ascension, just relating a number of resurrection appearances and ending with the ascension. Luke is also the writer of the book of Acts and simply continues his narrative. Here he gives us the information that the resurrection appearances ended after 40 days and that the ascension happened then. There is no time frame contradiction.
Regarding contradictions in the Bible. They are mostly in the eye of the beholder. The Bible was written over a 2000 year period in 3 languages on 3 continents by about 40 writers. Is it possible to harmonize every statement in this great collection of books? No, I don't think so. Are they in substantial agreement with one another? Yes, they are which is why the book has been translated into every language on earth except the smallest of languages and translation teams are working on those as we speak. And what is the message of agreement of all these writers? God loves his erring and wandering children. He sent prophets to tell them of his love. Many of the prophets were totally disregarded and some killed. Then he sent His Son, Jesus whom they also killed. But in that death and resurection, God has made a way for estranged mankind to be reconciled to Him forever. There is a warning that goes with the message not to treat it lightly.

Answer 4

Where do you claim Luke 24:51 says the ascension took place on the same day as the resurrection? I don't see it saying that.

Also it clearly says " in the vicinity of Bethany". Bethany being a village on the slope of the Mount of Olives

Answer 5

Since Acts 1:3-9 shows that Jesus’ ascension took place 40 days from the time of his resurrection, there is a time lapse between the events recorded at Luke 24:1-49 as occurring on Jesus’ resurrection day and the ascension of Jesus as described in verse 51 of that chapter. It may also be noted that the words “and began to be borne up to heaven,” appearing in that verse, are lacking in some ancient manuscripts and are therefore omitted in some modern translations (NE, AT). They do appear, however, in the Bodmer Papyrus (P75), the Alexandrine Manuscript, the Vatican Manuscript No. 1209, and other ancient manuscripts.

Answer 6

Jesus' ascension took place in Bethany, and when they returned from Bethany, they came via the Mount of Olives.

Just like it says.

Answer 7

It is 2 different ascensions.

Luke is after His death. Read the complete gospels.

Remember Luke was not actually there. He tells us that at the begining of the book.

Check out the others. There is no contradiction..........Luke just does not tell us the time span between His resurrection and the conversation He had with the disciples.

Answer 8

Jesus didn't have an earthly base after the Resurrection. He commuted for 40 days.

Answer 9

Am I supposed to say NOW I'M NO LONGER A BELIEVER !!! because the Bible is full of contradictions ? I think the Bible gets in the way, most of the time, by saying that all these men's words are Gods words. The Bible is a book, belief & spirituality are not based on a book !!!!

Answer 10

Scoot on back to Luke 24:45.

Start there.

Answer 11

They are 2 different ascensions.
You have to read the story around the scripture to see the whole message. He ascended twice for two very different yet equally important purposes.