Acts 1:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

From this same mountain He ascended. Below, or at the foot of the Mount of Olives, about one hundred fifty fathoms from the city wall, was and still is Gethsemane, where Christ prayed before His sufferings. There also the Most Holy Theotokos was buried. The burial cave of the Theotokos still exists. It lies under the shade of several old olive trees preserved from the garden where Christ prayed before His sufferings. At the burial place of the Theotokos in Gethsemane, a large underground church has been built. It has the form of a cross, with several side chapels. All peoples honor this mountain. In appearance and location, the Mount of Olives is the highest and most beautiful of the mountains surrounding Jerusalem. From its height, especially from the height of the tower-mosque built upon it, delightful views open up. Below, to the west, almost under the Mount of Olives, lies Jerusalem, now stretched out in a long strip. All Jerusalem is visible from here, so clearly that one could draw every house. Nowhere is there much sign of life, and almost no vegetation, except thin palms, olives, and cypresses. To the east, across empty, low, bare mountains, one can see the Jordan Valley as far as the Dead Sea. Beyond it are the mountains of sandy Arabia. To the south the views are still harsher and more dreary. Nothing is more terrible than the mountains surrounding Bethlehem. It is a wilderness in all its nakedness. To the north are the mountains of Ephraim, stretching toward Samaria. The Mount of Olives has three summits. The southern is called the Mount of Offense, because Solomon set up idols upon it (3 Kings 11:7; 4 Kings 23:13). The northern summit is called Little Galilee. On this summit, according to the Angel's words to the myrrh-bearing women, the Apostles and the myrrh-bearing women were to see and hear the risen Christ (Mt 28:7, 10, 16). The middle summit is called the Place of the Ascension into heaven. The highest place on the Mount of Olives, from which the Lord ascended, is a Sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem. What is a Sabbath day's journey? A Sabbath day's journey is the distance a Jew was permitted to go from his house on the Sabbath, the day of rest. This distance was measured as two thousand steps (Ex 16:29). Orthodox Christians, Christ's Resurrection and the Ascension that followed it serve as instructive prototypes for us. We too must rise, and the virtuous among us will be lifted up to the throne of glory. But the wicked will not be lifted up. They will descend into the abyss of Hades for eternal torments. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 13:42). It depends on us to prepare ourselves for the future life, either in communion with God and the saints, or with the unclean power. With faith in the Crucified One and prayer to the risen Lord, who took Hades captive, let us show zeal to free ourselves here from sins for the sake of Christ's radiant Resurrection. Then, after our resurrection, we shall be freed from the power of the prince of darkness, Satan. "You who have fasted and you who have been negligent, honor the day!" exhorts St. Chrysostom. The holy Apostles, seeing the risen Lord, worshiped Him (Mt 28:17). And we, having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus. For through the Cross joy has come to all the world. Ever blessing the Lord, let us sing His Resurrection. Having endured crucifixion, by His death He destroyed our death.

Conversely, he who in this age, like the six days of creation, has not labored for his own salvation, will at that time of eternal rest be cast outside beautiful Jerusalem.

He will be cast out as one who despised the Gospel saying: "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath" (Mt. 24:20).

"For if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you" (Jn. 16:5-7).

In their present state they were more worthy of the description in which the Lord presented them in His high-priestly prayer (Jn. 17:6-19).

"I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world... and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all things which Thou hast given Me are from Thee.

"For the words which Thou gavest Me I have given to them; and they have received them, and truly understood that I came forth from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me."

Nor is there disagreement in the passage we are explaining, where he measures by a Sabbath journey the distance from Jerusalem, probably not to the place of the Lord's Ascension on the Mount of Olives, but to the mountain itself.

It is also unknown from what point on the mountain he begins his measurement. Therefore no contradiction is evident between these topographical indications.

From both indications one can see that the Lord's Ascension took place on the Mount of Olives, on the road to Bethany, and probably near it.

Rabbinic precision in fulfilling the law of Sabbath rest required, on the basis of Ex. 16:29, that a man not allow himself a journey on the Sabbath longer than two thousand steps.

This was about seven and a half stadia, or about one verst. Such a determination of the Sabbath journey was based on the supposed distance from the outer tents of the Hebrew camp to the tabernacle during the Hebrews' wandering in the wilderness under Moses.

The disciples worshiped the Ascended One and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. There they remained constantly until they received the Comforter, the Spirit promised to them, and were clothed with power from on high.

Thus the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ ended. The history set forth is only a brief outline of it, like a drop from an immeasurable sea.

According to the testimony of the beloved disciple, "There are also many other things which Jesus did. If they were written in detail, even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."

Having mentioned Olivet as the place of the Lord's Ascension, he remarks on its position in relation to Jerusalem. He says that it is near Jerusalem, only a Sabbath day's journey away.

Rabbinic strictness concerning rest on the Sabbath day extended to extreme details, as we see also from the Gospels. It did not permit long journeys on the Sabbath day, lest the Sabbath rest be violated.

It was permitted to walk no more than two thousand steps on the Sabbath, that is, about one verst. Such a distance was called a Sabbath journey, or the way of the Sabbath.

The determination of precisely this distance was supposedly based on the fact that this was the distance from the outermost tents of the Hebrew camp to the tabernacle during the Hebrews' wandering in the wilderness under Moses.

Flavius gives the distance of Olivet from Jerusalem sometimes as six stadia, a little more than a verst, and sometimes as five stadia, a little less than a verst.

A Sabbath journey is somewhat longer than either distance indicated by Flavius. This, of course, depends on the point on the mountain from which the measurement is taken.

Perhaps the writer of Acts measures from that summit of the mountain from which the Lord's Ascension took place. For that reason the distance came out longer than according to Flavius's reckoning.

In Luke's Gospel (Lk. 24:50) it is said that the Lord led His disciples out of Jerusalem as far as Bethany and ascended.

This does not contradict the indication in Acts that Olivet, or one of the summits of Olivet, was the place of the Lord's Ascension.

For the Gospel does not say that the Ascension occurred precisely near Bethany. It means only that the place of the Ascension was on the road from Jerusalem to Bethany.

The passage in Acts under consideration more precisely determines the location of the event of the Ascension: on the Mount of Olives, on one of its summits.

Bethany was fifteen stadia from Jerusalem (Jn. 11:18), that is, about two and a half versts. A Sabbath journey was about one verst.

Therefore the Ascension took place from a place lying almost halfway from Jerusalem to Bethany.

Perhaps it also indicates, in general, the shortness of the path from this place to Jerusalem. This is set forth to show that this greatest event took place, so to speak, almost before the eyes of all Jerusalem.

The Mount of Olives, so called because olive trees grow there, stands directly opposite Jerusalem. Therefore Jesus Christ looked upon Jerusalem from it with love and foretold its destruction.

But if Jerusalem can be seen from Olivet, then Olivet is no less visible from Jerusalem, especially from the square of the Jerusalem temple.

It is also visible from that upper room to which the apostles soon came and told what had happened. They passed by the Garden of Gethsemane, by the brook Kedron, and ascended to the temple gates.

Those gates had not yet been walled up after the One had passed through them, after whom there is no longer anyone worthy to pass through them.