Ascension
Ascension is the widespread subject in religions and myths of reaching a highest goal. In Judaism , Christianity and Islam it specifically refers to the fact that someone physically and definitively reaches the afterlife without dying (or without leaving a corpse). In the German-speaking world, the term Himmelfahrt mostly refers to one of two Christian festivals: Ascension Day , a moving festival on the 40th day after Easter , and Assumption of Mary , popularly known as the Assumption of Mary , on August 15.
Shamans, Greeks and Romans
The ancient Egyptian idea of ascending heaven or the soul journeys of the shamans express the striving to reach a highest goal, as well as the appearance of beings capable of flying ( angels ) as well as divine assistance ( Emndeduranki , Sumer ) or personal skill ( Icarus ). Plato and Plutarch describe journeys to the hereafter. The Hellenistic mystery religions , such as Mithraism , also give instructions for a journey to heaven .
A rapture already occurs in Homer (Iphigenia), and the ascension is already known to the Greeks and Romans ( Heracles , Romulus ). Heracles, according to the ancient myth, is said to have been raptured to Olympus after completing his twelve tasks. Livy (1:16) and Plutarch (Rom. 28:36) describe how Romulus was caught up and lifted into heaven. It was assumed for so-called heroes that they would return to their divine fathers.
Old Testament and Judaism
The Old Testament describes the rapture of Enoch in the book of Genesis (5:24) after he was on earth 365 years (5:23), and the ascension of the prophet Elijah in a fiery chariot ( 2 Kings 2:11). The Judaism knows the legends of the Assumption of Moses , whose emergence in the v first century. As well as the later from the ascension of Isaiah .
New Testament and Christianity
The Ascension of Jesus Christ mentioned the New Testament three times: in Mark 16:19, in Luke 24:51 and in Acts 1 : 1-11. It is only described in detail in the last place. Accordingly, the risen Christ meets his disciples repeatedly over forty days and is then taken up into heaven, where he receives power over heaven and earth with the place “at the right hand of God”. In Christianity in the Catholic and Orthodox Church there is a belief in the bodily acceptance of Mary into heaven, popularly known as the Assumption of Mary . The ascension of Simon Peter is also described in the Apocrypha .
Koran and Islam
In sura 4 , verse 157 it says that Isa bin Maryam (Jesus) was not killed or crucified, but was raised to himself by God.
According to Islamic tradition, the Prophet Mohammed was miraculously transferred from Mecca to Jerusalem, from where he ascended to heaven . The al-Aqsa mosque (according to sura 17 , verse 1: "the distant place of worship"), built in the early eighth century, finally equated the Islamic Koranic exegesis with this Koranic distant place of worship and made it and the entire area of Jerusalem the third holiest Place to Mecca and Medina. However, Muhammad's Ascension did not take place from the al-Aqsa mosque, but from the boulder on the Temple Mount over which the Dome of the Rock was built under the Umayyads . The literature of the 10th century praising the merits of Jerusalem - faḍāʾil bait al-maqdis - continues this ancient tradition.
literature
- Norbert Johannes Hofmann : The Assumptio Mosis. Studies on the reception of moderate tradition. Journal for the Study of Judaism, Supplements 67. Brill, Leiden et al. a. 2000, ISBN 90-04-11938-8 .
- Tobias Nünlist: Ascension and Holiness in Islam: a study with special reference to Ibn Sīnās Mi'rāg-nāmeh. Studia religiosa Helvetica, Series altera 6. Lang, Bern a. a. 2002, ISBN 3-906769-23-2 .
- M. Mühling: Basic information eschatology. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-03619-8 , pp. 101-122, esp. 117-119.
- Max Scherberger: The Mi'ragname. The journey to heaven and into hell of the Prophet Muhammad in the Eastern Turkish tradition. Würzburg 2003. (Working materials on the Orient. Volume 14).
- Stephen J. Shoemaker: Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption. Oxford Early Christian Studies. University Press, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-19-925075-8 .
- Peter Landesmann: The Ascension of Elijah. Creation and survival of a legend. As well as their representation in early Christian art. Böhlau, Vienna a. a. 2004, ISBN 3-205-77184-2 .
- Moshe Idel: Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism. Pillars, Lines, Ladders. Pasts incorporated 2. Central European University Press, Budapest 2005, ISBN 963-7326-03-0 , table of contents
Web links
- Michael Luetge: Heavenly travel books from the time the OT and NT were created. In: Ruhr-Uni-Bochum.de . (German translations of apocryphal texts of the Ascension: Henoch, Baruch, Levi, Mose, Isaiah).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ascension. In: Leipzig vocabulary . Retrieved July 2, 2020.