Prot. Polotebnova,

The first book I wrote to you, Theophilus, about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning (Luke 1:3).

The first book. The first three verses of the Acts obviously point to the first half of the writer's work, the Gospel of Luke, see Ev. Luke 1:1-4, and 24:49-52. In the Slavonic text, a book is a word, in the Greek original "logos" (Λόγος), in the meaning of speech, teaching, story, narration. In the Evangelist John the Theologian, the Logos (on Λόγος, — the Word) is used as the proper name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, according to a special Divine revelation that came to him — Apoc. 19:11-13 — as the proper name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ: St. John 1 ch., 1 ep. John 1:1. I wrote to you: With this reminder of Ap. Luke points to the closest connection between the book of Acts and the Gospel. "Luke reminds us of his Gospel" also "in order to indicate his very careful attitude to the matter, because even at the beginning of that work he says: it has been decided for me, after a thorough examination of everything from the beginning, to describe to you in order, and not in any way, but in the way that those who were eyewitnesses from the very beginning handed down to us" (Blessed Theophylact), i.e. not of the 70 disciples, which was Luke himself, and of the 12 who were actually called from the very beginning of the preaching of Jesus Christ and the very first heralds of His teaching, such as, for example, Peter, James, John, the apostles who were with Jesus Christ during the entire time of His ministry. - Onions. 1,3.2. The direct correlation of the preface of the second part of the work of the Holy Evangelist with the first verses of his Gospel gives the idea that the motivation for writing the Book of Acts was, among other things, the appearance of various apocryphal or spurious private records, from which the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles were later compiled, as well as the appearance of individual narratives of a spurious Gospel nature was, among other things, the reason for the writing of the Gospel of Luke — St. Luke. 1:1.2, — Just as many undertook to narrate about Christ, what is known among them from tradition from self-seers from the beginning, so it is precisely without the calling and guidance of the Holy Spirit that many of the first Christians then wrote down for various reasons, the stories about the ministry of the apostles after the Lord's resurrection. From the private apocryphal records of the apostolic time, the Acts of Peter and Paul, Paul and Thekla, Andrew and Matthew, John, Philip, and Bartholomew were subsequently formed. Thaddeus, Thomas, the Acts of all the Apostles Obadiah, a certain Leucius Charinus, and so on. (Ger. 1, 211-212). Any critical study of the apocryphal writings of Ap. Luke does not make in his books; he only opposes them with a positive true history, after examining or verifying what oral tradition says about what was preached by the self-seers from the first time and about the self-seers themselves. In the preface to the book of Acts. Luke does not repeat the idea of the preface of his Gospel, either because he applied the latter to the second part of the work; or because the book of Acts tells a lot about such events as Luke himself, as the closest collaborator of the Apostle Paul, was an eyewitness, so that in the history of Paul's travels it was necessary to write: we decided to go: we arrived, and so on. (Acts 16:10-17; 20:5-15; 21:1-17; 27:1; 28:16) and readers who knew the Apostle Luke no longer needed his special assurance after the Gospel preface. Theophilus - Luke. 1,3. Theophilus, to whom the book of the Acts was assigned first of all; as well as the Gospel of Luke, was a Christian (Luke 1:4) from the pagans, an eminent citizen of Antioch, the birthplace of the Apostle Luke. There is a tradition that Theophilus had a church in his house for the Christians of Antioch. From the fact that Luke does not make any geographical explanations of the places of Italy mentioned in Acts (28: 12-13, 15), but explains the places of Palestine and Greece (1, 12; 16, 12; 27, 8, 12; cf. Luke 1: 26; 4, 31; 24, 13), it must be concluded that Theophilus did not live in Palestine and Greece, but was well acquainted with Italy; so that he must have been some kind of governor in Antioch, sent from Rome, according to the then established order of Roman government in the East. About everything, i.e. about the most important. In the New Testament the word "whol" or "all" is quite often used to denote deeds in general or most of the important things (Acts 13:10. I Tim. 1:16. James 1:2. Matt. 2, 3; 3, 5. Acts 2:5. Romans 11:26. Colossians 1, 6, etc.). A similar way of expressing the word "all and everyone" exists in all languages. Jesus – in the Syriac translation of the Bible of the second half of the second century (Peshito) it reads: "Jesus our Messiah" or Christ. By this expression the writer points not only to the Lord's miracles and various blessings to His unfortunate people, but also to His suffering, death and resurrection, in a word, to everything that Jesus did for the salvation of the world. "He will not sin who calls the very suffering" of Jesus, as if involuntarily tormenting the state of soul and body, an action; for through suffering He did a great and wonderful deed, destroying death and doing all the rest" (Zlat.). From the beginning.

Until the day on which He ascended, having given commands by the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom He had chosen (Luke 24:49, Matthew 28:18, John 20:21, Luke 24:51).

Until that day is the fortieth day after the Resurrection. (See verse 3 and Luke 24:51). Into which He ascended, into heaven; for the image of the ascension, see v. 9. — This passage is interpreted differently according to different readings of the text. In the Syrian (2nd half of the 2nd century) and Arabic (1st half of the 7th century) Bibles it reads: "Giving His commandments to the apostles, whom He chose by the Holy Spirit." With us, as in the Greek text, the words "by the Holy Spirit" refer to the command to the apostles, and not to their election. The interpretation of this reading must be recognized as correct and accurate. "As the Lord Himself, out of humility and adaptability to His hearers, said: I cast out demons by the Spirit of God (Matthew 12:28): so here, commanding by the Spirit, it is said not because the Son had need of the Spirit, but because where the Son creates, there also the Spirit cooperates and is co-present, as one in essence" (Theophilus). The commandments are precisely the command to go and preach the Gospel of salvation to all nations: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:14; cf. Mark 16:15-19). Having given commands in the Slavonic text in accordance with the original (έντειλλάμενος), having commanded or commanded — the communion of unity. Number; so that he does not express many of the commands proper. Consequently, it should not be concluded from the present verse that along with this one supreme commandment, the Lord gave other and special commandments to the apostles; they were superfluous if the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, became their Divine Guide in all their ministry. John 14:26. Moreover, the commandment to preach the Gospel to all creation combines in itself everything that the Lord taught His Apostles after His resurrection, which is why Luke speaks here of it alone.

3rd verse: "By whom He also manifested Himself alive after His suffering, with many sure proofs, appearing to them for forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God" (Luke 24:13 and 36 and John 20:30; 21:14, etc., John 20:22, Luke 17:21).

By which He manifested Himself alive, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was the greatest miraculous work, on which the truth of the Gospel was to rest eternally; hence the remarkable solicitude with which the writers of the sacred books of the New Testament often recall the resurrection of the Lord and in various ways prove the immutability of its truth. And the beginning of the book of the Acts of the Apostles fully corresponds to the mention of the resurrection; so that Luke places this supreme truth as the point from which all that he relates in his book proceeded. After His suffering, having endured death, understood here as the accomplishment and fulfillment of all His sufferings. With many reliable proofs — signs according to a more accurate Slavonic translation; the Greek word of the original (τεκμήριον) found here is not used anywhere else in the New Testament; Ancient Greek writers always used it to express the importance of the attribute and at the same time the proof, so that the sign in this sense always had the force of assurance of the most irrefutable, the highest, the most obvious and the final. The proofs of which the writer speaks here asserted that the apostles could neither be deceived nor deceived: Jesus Christ appeared to them, spoke to them, ate and drank with them, and all this several times and in different places, performed miracles (John 21:6-7), and was in the same close communion with them in which they had lived with Him for three years. These proofs, in truth signs for all ages, are obviously and irrefutably assuring: 1) it is known that the apostles, after the death of Jesus Christ, did not think with hope about His resurrection — John 20:25. Luke 24; therefore, they did not want to deceive the world and say that their Teacher had risen, nor were they inclined and prepared to pass off their hopes as an indubitable probability; 2) it was impossible that they should have erred in the identity of one person, one of their Divine Friend (John 15:14, 15), with Whom they had lived for so long, especially when they saw Him eating with them and heard Him speaking to them in the same way as before; (3) They were quite numerous, so that they could not but evade every possibility of error. One person could make a mistake, and that would be understandable; But how can it be admitted that eleven people, even those who did not trust and doubted, could be mistaken for a whole forty days? 4) Jesus Christ, in fact, appeared to them and showed Himself not once, but severally, during a time of more than a month, and not only for a moment, but for a long time. (5) His appearances were in different places and under different circumstances, such that no error was possible. If the apostles had said that they had seen with their own eyes how Christ was resurrected at the appearance of the dawn, one might suppose that either they were the play of some skillfully prepared phantasmagoria, or in impatient expectation to see Him, under the influence of their own hopes and their prejudices, they imagined that they saw Him. Deceivers would not fail to assert that they saw the resurrection itself—no one will doubt it; Inspired writers say nothing of the sort. Following their stories, they saw Christ only after His resurrection, and that by accident, at moments when no excitement from expectation could affect them, at moments when they possessed composure while in Jerusalem, when during quiet prayer the Savior deigned to appear in their midst. Similar appearances of Christ are on the road to Emmaus, in Galilee, and on the Mount of Olives when He ascended. 6) In His relationship with the Apostles, after the Resurrection, the Lord was the same as He had been before: a closer, a friend, a benefactor. He ate, worked miracles, did the same work that He did before His death, gave them the same promise about sending the Holy Spirit, gave His "apostles" or "messengers" a command regarding the purpose for which He suffered. — Do not all these circumstances clearly affirm the decisive impossibility of being deceived in the resurrection of the Saviour? In the course of forty days, appearing to them. — In the books of the New Testament there are ten mentions of the Lord's appearances to His disciples after His resurrection: 1) John. 20, 14-18. Mark. 16, 9-11. 2) Matt. 28, 9-10. 3) Onions. 14, 34. 1 Corinth. 15, 5. 4) Onions. 24, 13-35. Mark. 16, 12-13. 5) Mark. 16, 14. Onion. 24, 36-44. John. 20, 19-25. 6) John. 20, 26-29. 7) John. 21. 8) 1 Corinth. 15, 6. Matt. 28, 16-20. 9) 1 Corinth. 15, 7. 10) 1 Corinth. 15, 7. Mark. 16, 19-20. Onion. 24, 50-53. Acts. 1, 1-11. — (Filaret Mosk.). "Why did He not appear to everyone, but only to the apostles? For to many, who did not understand this ineffable mystery, His appearance would seem to be a vision. If the disciples themselves did not believe at first and were confused, even needed to be touched with their hands and to eat a common meal with Him, then how should His appearance have struck the crowd? For this reason He makes the proof of His resurrection indubitable and general by means of the miracles which the apostles performed by the power of the grace they received; so that the resurrection became an obvious fact not only for them, who had to convince themselves of it with their own eyes, but also for all people of subsequent times" (Theophilus). And speaking of the Kingdom of God—speaking to them of the same truths of which He spoke before His death, and thereby showing plainly that He was the same, and that His heart was always given over to one great work of redemption, both in life, and in death, and after the resurrection. About the Kingdom of God — about the establishment of the grace-filled kingdom of God or the heavenly kingdom on earth, for the eternal kingdom of glory in heaven, by His teaching, sufferings, death, resurrection and the universal ministry of the apostles after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them in the matter of the formation, expansion and establishment of the Church of Christ (Obshchestvennoe izsledniki, Thu., vol. 1, p. 13).

The Ascension of the Lord (Extract from the Holy Scriptures).

I. Prophetic depiction of the Ascension of the Lord.

The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool. With Thee is the beginning in the day of Thy power, in the brightness of Thy saints: From the womb before the dawn of Lucifer I begot Thee (Psalm 109:1, 3). Take up your gates, O princes, and lift up the everlasting gates, and enter the King of glory. Who is this King of glory? The Lord is strong and mighty, the Lord is mighty in battle (Psalm 23:7-8). Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast taken captivity captive, Thou hast received a gift among men (Psalm 67:19). God ascended with a shout, the Lord with a trumpet (Psalm 46:6). Sing to our God, sing praises to the Lord, Who has ascended into Heaven in heaven (Psalm 67:34). As God is the king of all the earth.

God reigned over the tongues. God sits on His holy throne (Psalm 46:8, 9). Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and His nose shall be on the Mount of Olives, which is directly to Jerusalem to the east. And the living waters shall come out of Jerusalem, the first half of it in the sea, and the last half of it in the sea: and in the harvest and in the spring it shall be so. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in the day he shall be one Lord, and his name one (Zech. 14:4, 8, 9).

II. The Gospel Story of the Ascension of the Lord.

Jesus was resurrected, appearing to one, and said to them, "Go ye into the whole world, preach the gospel to all creation" (Mark 16:15). For thus it is fitting to preach in His name repentance, and the remission of sins in all tongues, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). And he brought them out as far as Bethany, and lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, when thou didst bless them, that thou didst depart from them, and ascended into heaven (Luke 24:50, 51); and a cloud shall lift him up from their eyes. And when I looked up to heaven, I went to Him, and behold, there were two hundred men before them, in white garments, and they said, Men of Galilee, why stand there, looking up to heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will also come, in the same manner you saw Him going into heaven (Acts 1:9-11). Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem (Acts 1:12); and having gone forth preaching everywhere, I will hasten to the Lord, and confirm the word with the following banners (Mark 16:20).