Transforming (phase 4) - The Ascension (step 32) - session 2a

Acts 1:1-12

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. - Acts 1:1-2

It is unclear whether there was additional research via interviews by the author of Luke-Acts between the writing of the gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles. I'm going to continue to refer to that author in the traditional way, as Luke (or sometimes as St. or Dr. Luke).  But it is clear that this work is intended to go beyond Jesus' physical time on earth to the work that his mystical Body, the Church, takes on in his absence. Perhaps this extended time (as compared to that in the gospel) that Jesus spends with the apostles prior to leaving them via his ascension to the Father is intended to lay the groundwork for explaining the work they have done since.

To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. - (1-2)

Perhaps this extended time (as compared to that in the gospel) that Jesus spends with the apostles prior to leaving them via his ascension to the Father is intended to lay the groundwork for explaining the work they have done since. St. Luke doesn't provide the details that St. Paul includes in the Letter to the Corinthians concerning the specific appearances of Jesus in these forty days, yet includes far more detail about this final one.

And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit." - (3-5)

So instead of Jesus' immediate ascension as in the gospel, followed by the disciples praising God with some degree of boldness in the temple, here we have more detailed indications of how they came to be so bold, after more than a month of teaching from Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will be described in great detail in chapter 2.

This is more consistent with the multiple appearances in St. John's gospel, as well. Though Dr. Luke still doesn't take the scene back to Galilee, neither does his general description preclude time there.