The Last Words and the Ascension. Jesus reminds His disciples how He had told them that Scripture predictions about Him must be fulfilled. He goes over the ground again (with Luke 24:45 cf. Luke 24:27), and adds that the gospel of repentance and forgiveness in His name should be preached everywhere. It is not clear whether the instruction to preach is regarded as contained in the OT Scriptures. Syr. Sin. has in my name, and perhaps we should take the Gr. infinitive (should be preached) as an imperative.
Luke 24:44. the psalms: the third division of the Hebrew scriptures, including other writings than the Psalter, though this was particularly rich in Messianic prophecy.
Luke 24:48. these things: the death and resurrection foretold in Scripture.
Luke 24:49. Lk. here points forward to Acts 1. He has a different tradition from the Galilean one of Mk. (and Mt.); the disciples are to remain in Jerusalem, to receive the power from heaven (Joel 2:28).
Luke 24:50 f. Jesus takes the disciples to Bethany, and while giving them a benediction is parted from them. The words and was carried up into heaven are omitted in some of the best MSS., and have probably crept in from Acts 1:9 f. Note that in Lk. everything, including this final departure, seems to have happened on the same day as the Resurrection contrast the forty days of Acts 1:3. The harmonists insert the Galilean appearances recorded in Matthew 28 and John 21 between Luke 24:43 and Luke 24:44.
Luke 24:53. The disciples on their return spend practically all their time in the Temple.
[Since the above commentary and that on Acts were printed, the criticism of the Lucan writings has passed into a new stage with the publication (in 1916) of Prof. C. C Torrey's important work, The Composition and Date of Acts. The author had already in an article, The Translations made from the Original Aramaic Gospels (Studies in the History of Religion Presented to Crawford Howell Toy, 1912), argued that the compiler of the Third Gospel and Acts was an accomplished translator of both Hebrew and Aramaic. The most notable feature of the later essay is the theory, supported by weighty arguments, that Acts 1:1 to Acts 15:35 is a very close rendering of an Aramaic document, so scrupulously faithful that even what the translator knew to be inaccuracies were preserved. This Aramaic document was written either late in A.D. 49 or early in 50. Luke, the companion of Paul, collected material for the Third Gospel during Paul's imprisonment at Cæ sarea (A.D. 59- 61), and wrote the Gospel before 61, probably in 60. At that time he had no thought of writing the Acts of the Apostles. The idea of writing this sequel to his Gospel was probably first suggested to him when the Aramaic document came into his hands, possibly in Palestine, but more probably after his arrival in Rome in 62. This he translated into Greek, and added Acts 15:36 to Acts 28:31. The complete book was probably issued in A.D. 64. Unlike the Third Gospel, it was not a work of research, nor even of any considerable labour. It was merely the translation of a single document a lucky find supplemented by a very brief outline of Paul's missionary labours, enlivened by miscellaneous personal reminiscences. The whole work is uniform in style, allowing for the fact that Acts 1:1 to Acts 15:35 was written in translation Greek. The author is not to be distinguished from the writer of the We-sections, and little value attaches to the attempt to find sources behind either half of Acts A. S. P.]