And it came to pass, while he blessed them
Just as he was finishing the words, by which he expressed the
blessings he bestowed on them:
he was parted from them;
as Elijah was from Elisha: their spiritual and mystical union by
him remained, which is indissoluble; nor was his gracious
presence from them withdrawn; nor was this parting in anger and
resentment, as he sometimes does withdraw from his people, on
account of their sinful conduct, in a little wrath, for a moment,
resenting their unbecoming carriage; but this parting was while
he was blessing them, and was only in body; his heart was still
with them; it was a withdrawing of his corporeal presence from
them, and that but for a while; he will come again a second time
from heaven, from whence the saints expect him, and then they
will meet, and never part more: and carried up into heaven; by
his divine power, as God, by virtue of which he ascended himself,
he went up gradually, till he became invisible to his disciples;
or through the agility of his human body; for the bodies of the
saints, when raised, will be like the angels, swift and nimble,
and capable of moving from place to place, and of ascending and
descending; and much more the glorious body of Christ, according
to which, theirs will be conformed; though neither of these deny
the use of means, that might be made, as of a cloud, and of
angels; for a cloud received him out of the sight of the
apostles; and there were the twenty thousand chariots of God,
even thousands of angels, which attended him, when he ascended on
high, and in which he may be properly said to be carried up into
heaven, ( Acts 1:9 )
( Psalms
68:17 Psalms 68:18
) where he was received with a welcome, by his Father, by all the
glorified saints, and holy angels, and where he is placed in
human nature, at the right hand of God; is crowned with glory,
and honour, and exalted above all creatures, human or angelic;
and where he will remain until the time of the restitution of all
things, and then he will descend to judge the quick and dead. The
Arabic and Ethiopic Versions read both these clauses actively,
"he parted himself", or "he departed from them, and went up into
heaven"; and so reads the Syriac version the last clause.