Dictionaries :: Ascend

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Ascend:

a-send':By derivation the English word implies motion from a lower place to (not merely toward) a higher one; and usage tends to restrict it to cases where the beholder is in the lower, not the higher, position. the King James Version uses it 39 times in all:

(1) of the going up of vapor (Ps 135:7), flame (Jud 20:40), or smoke (Re 8:4);

(2) of travel from one place to another (Ac 25:1) or of the course of a boundary (Jos 15:3);

(3) of coming up from the underworld (1Sa 28:13; Re 11:7; 17:8); and

(4) of the going up (of men, angels, our Lord) from earth to the skies or to heaven (Ge 28:12; Joh 3:13). the Revised Version (British and American) uses the appropriate form of "to go up" in all cases falling under (2) and (3); in those under (4) it retains "ascend" with an occasional change in tense; under (1) it retains "ascend" everywhere in Old Testament (Ex 19:18; Jos 8:20,21; Ps 135:7 parallel Jer 10:13 parallel Jer 51:16) except Jud 20:40, but substitutes "went up," "goeth up," in New Testament (Re 8:4; 14:11).

The like change in the Old Testament passages would make the usage of the Revised Version (British and American) uniform.

Written by F. K. Farr

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Ascend:

For ASCEND see ARISE, No. 6