23. A witness to the resurrection of Jesus
is Tabitha also, who was in His name raised from the dead Acts ix. 41.; for how shall we disbelieve that Christ is
risen, when even His Name raised the dead? The sea also bears
witness to the resurrection of Jesus, as thou hast heard
before See § 17,
above.. The drought
of fishes also testifies, and the fire of coals there, and the fish
laid thereon. Peter also bears witness, who had erst denied Him
thrice, and who then thrice confessed Him; and was commanded to feed
His spiritual νοητά. sheep. To
this day stands Mount Olivet, still to the eyes of the faithful all but
displaying Him Who ascended on a cloud, and the heavenly gate of His
ascension. For from heaven He descended to Bethlehem, but to
heaven He ascended from the Mount of Olives St. Luke (xxiv.
50) describes the
Ascension as taking place at Bethany, but the tradition, which Cyril
follows, had long since fixed the scene on the summit of the Mount of
Olives, a mile nearer to Jerusalem; and here the Empress Helena had
built the Church of the Ascension (Eusebius, Life of
Constantine, III. 43; Demonstr. Evang. VI. xviii. 26).
There is nothing in Cyril’s language to warrant the Benedictine
Editor’s suggestion that he alludes to the legend, according to
which the marks of Christ’s feet were indelibly impressed on the
spot from which He ascended. In the next generation St. Augustine
seems to countenance the miraculous story (In Joh. Evang. Tract
xlvii.): “There are His footsteps, now adored, where last
He stood, and whence He ascended into heaven.” The supposed
trace of one foot is still shewn on Mount Olivet; “the other
having been removed by the Turks is now to be found in the Chapel of S.
Thecla, which is in the Patriarch’s Palace” (Jerusalem
Ed.). Compare Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, c. xiv.;
Dictionary of Bible, Olives Mount of.;
at the former place beginning His conflicts among men, but in the
latter, crowned after them. Thou hast therefore many witnesses;
thou hast this very place of the Resurrection; thou hast also the place
of the Ascension towards the east; thou hast also for witnesses the
Angels which there bore testimony; and the cloud on which He went up,
and the disciples who came down from that place.