The Biblical Data Both in his Gospel and in Acts, Luke records that Jesus, upon completing his forty-day preascension ministry, bodily “ascended into heaven.” He employs three verbs to describe this momentous event: ἀνεφέρετο, anephereto, “was led up” (Luke 24:51), ἀνελήμφθη, anelēmphthē, “was taken up” (Acts 1:2, 11; see ἀναλήμψεως, analēmpseōs, in Luke 9:51), and ἐπήρθη, epērthē, “was lifted up” (Acts 1:9). Of the four Gospel writers, Luke alone records the historical account of