Luke 24:36-43

Appearance on Easter Evening (John 20:19 : cp. Mark 16:14). See on Jn. At first sight there appears “to be no break in the narrative till the end of the Gospel, and the Ascension (Luke 24:51) seems to take place on he very day of the Resurrection. But since it is unlikely that so careful an historian as St. Luke would contradict himself on so important a point of chronology (see Acts 1:3), it seems safer to hold that the conclusion of St. Luke from Luke 24:44 is a summary of the whole events of the 40 days, and not simply of those of Easter Day. It is, however, just possible that Luke 24:51 does not describe the Ascension. In this case there is no difficulty in assigning the whole of the events of this chapter to Easter Day.