Ascend

ASCEND

a-send':

By derivation the English word implies motion from a lower place to (not merely toward) a higher one; and usage tends to restrict it to cases where the beholder is in the lower, not the higher, position. the King James Version uses it 39 times in all:

(1) of the going up of vapor (Psalms 135:7), flame (Judges 20:40), or smoke (Revelation 8:4);

(2) of travel from one place to another (Acts 25:1) or of the course of a boundary (Joshua 15:3);

(3) of coming up from the underworld (1 Samuel 28:13; Revelation 11:7; 17:8); and

(4) of the going up (of men, angels, our Lord) from earth to the skies or to heaven (Genesis 28:12; John 3:13). the Revised Version (British and American) uses the appropriate form of "to go up" in all cases falling under (2) and (3); in those under (4) it retains "ascend" with an occasional change in tense; under (1) it retains "ascend" everywhere in Old Testament (Exodus 19:18; Joshua 8:20,21; Psalms 135:7 parallel Jeremiah 10:13 parallel Jeremiah 51:16) except Judges 20:40, but substitutes "went up," "goeth up," in New Testament (Revelation 8:4; 14:11).

The like change in the Old Testament passages would make the usage of the Revised Version (British and American) uniform.

F. K. Farr