In this "lost scripture" called the Ascension of Isaiah, the prophet gets a tour of the heavens. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss what Isaiah sees, including what sees concerning Jesus, and what it means for us today.
Jimmy Akin Podcast
The Ascension of Isaiah (First Century Christian Apocalypse) - Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World
Jimmy Aiken's Mysterious World is brought to you by The Star Quest Production Network and is made possible by our many generous patrons. If you'd like to support the podcast, please visit sqpn.com/give. A while ago on Jimmy Aiken's Mysterious World. The Early Christian Church produced a large amount of literature, but most of the works the first Christians wrote have been lost. One that survives is an apocalypse known as the Ascension of Isaiah. It focuses on the biblical prophet Isaiah who lived in the 8th century BC, but it contains traditions about Jesus that are not recorded in the gospels. So what is the Ascension of Isaiah? When was it written? And what does it say? That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of Jimmy Aiken's Mysterious World. Next week we're going to be looking at the second half of the Ascension of Isaiah. So we're going to be hearing about Isaiah's ascent through the Seven Heavens and learn more about what he saw concerning Jesus, including Jesus' traditions that are not recorded in the gospels. So you won't want to miss that. You're listening to episode 333 of Jimmy Aiken's Mysterious World when we look at mysteries from the twin perspectives of faith and reason. In this episode, we're talking about the Ascension of Isaiah. I'm Dom Bethanelli and joining me today is Jimmy Aiken. Hey Jimmy. Paddy Dom. Around AD67, an unknown Christian wrote a work called The Ascension of Isaiah. It was an apocalypse which depicted the 8th century prophet Isaiah, both seeing visions of the future and getting a tour of the invisible world. The first part of the book dealt with the martyrdom of Isaiah, and we talked about that last week. Now we're talking about the second part of the book, in which Isaiah ascends through the Seven Heavens and sees visions of Jesus Christ. What are the Seven Heavens like? What does he seek concerning Jesus? And what does this mean for us today? That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of Jimmy Aiken's Mysterious World. Jimmy, last week we discussed the first five chapters of the Ascension of Isaiah, which dealt with the martyrdom of Isaiah by the wicked king, Manasseh. Now let's talk about the second part of the book, which covers chapters 6 through 11. What happens in it? Well, the first thing that happens is we take a jump back in time. Part one of the book is said in the 26th year of Good King Hezekiah's reign, but now we're six years earlier than that. In the 20th year of the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah, Isaiah the son of Amaz and Yoseb, the son of Isaiah, came to Hezekiah in Jerusalem from Gilgal, and he sat on the couch of the king. And when Isaiah began to speak with Hezekiah the king, the words of faith and righteousness, all the princes of Israel were sitting there and the eunuchs and the king's counselors. And there were there 40 prophets and sons of the prophets. They had come from the neighboring districts and from the mountains and from the country. When they had heard that Isaiah was coming from Gilgal to Hezekiah, they came that they might greet him and that they might hear his words and that he might lay his hand on them and that they might prophesy and that he might hear their prophecy. And they were all in the presence of Isaiah. So there's this big group of people who were here for Isaiah's meeting with Hezekiah, including a group of 40 prophets and sons of prophets. And one of the things they want Isaiah to do is lay his hands on them and they will prophesy in his presence. Scholars like Jonathan Knight have proposed that this represents a kind of prophetic ordination ceremony where I suppose the sons of the prophets have Isaiah's hand laid on them so that they become prophets too. And it seems like a plausible suggestion. And when Isaiah spoke with Hezekiah, the words of righteousness and faith, they all heard a door being opened and the voice of the Spirit. In the king summoned all the prophets and all the people who were to be found there and they came. In Micah, in the aged Anais, in Joel, and Joseph were sitting out on his right. And when they all heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, they all worshiped on their knees. And they praised the God of righteousness, the Most High, the One who dwells in the upper world and who sits on high, the Holy One, the One who rests among the Holy Ones. And they ascribed glory to the One who had thus graciously given a door in an alien world, had graciously given it to a man. So far so good. They all hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and so they worship and glorify God. But now something unexpected starts happening. And while Isaiah was speaking with the Holy Spirit in the hearing of them all, he became silent. And his mind was taken up from him. And he did not see the men who were standing before him. His eyes indeed were open, but his mouth was silent, and the mind in his body was taken up from him. But his breath was still in him, for he was seeing a vision. And the angel who was sent to show him the vision who is not of this firmament. Nor was he from the angels of glory of this world, but he came from the seventh heaven. And the people who were standing by, apart from the circle of prophets, did not think that the Holy Isaiah had been taken up. And the vision which he saw was not from this world, but from the world which is hidden from the flesh. There are several things here. First, Isaiah is having what in later times would be called a rapture. This is the word that was used in the Middle Ages for an experience like this where a person loses consciousness of the world around them. And their mind is occupied with heavenly things. In modern terms, you could also say that Isaiah is having an out of body experience. This is a topic we'll discuss in a future episode. But an out of body experience is one where your perspective seems to shift so that it's no longer from inside your body. And that's what's happening with Isaiah since the author says his body was right where it always was still breathing and everything. But he says twice that Isaiah's mind was taken up from him. And as we're going to see, this is going to be an interdimensional out of body experience because his perspective is going to be going up to leave earth and go into the heavens. That may be what Saint Paul reports happened into him in 2 Corinthians 12 where he says that 14 years earlier, he was caught up to the third heaven. And he says he doesn't know if this happened to him in his body or out of his body. If it happened to him in his body, then he was teleported to the third heaven. But if it happened to him out of his body, which seems likely to me, then it was an interdimensional out of body experience. The second thing we're going to need to talk about is the structure of the cosmos as the author is envisioning it. When Saint Paul says he's caught up to the third heaven, he may mean that he's caught up to the highest heaven because the word heaven can be used in at least three distinct senses. First, there's the atmosphere where the birds of heaven are. Second, there's the celestial heaven where the stars of heaven are. And third, there's the ultimate heaven where God and the angels of heaven are. So Paul may just be saying that he was caught up to the presence of God. However, that also may not be the case because ancient Jewish and Christian literature gives different numbers for how many heavens there are. And the Ascension of Isaiah is using a different number. In the first place, the author envisions the lowest level or the atmosphere as not being heaven at all. Instead, he refers to the atmospheric realm and what tops it as the firmament. And he then envisions there being seven heavens above the firmament with God in the seventh and highest heaven. It's possible that God that Saint Paul was using a similar model, in which case he wouldn't be claiming to be caught up to the full presence of God, but into one of the lower heavens, which would still be glorious and mind blowing for him. However, that may be the author tells us that the angel who was sent to Isaiah was not from the firmament. Instead, he says he was from the seventh heaven. So this angel was sent from the presence of God himself. But before we get to hear about the vision itself, we learn a little bit about who got knowledge of this vision. After Isaiah had seen this vision, he recounted it to Hezekiah and to Joseph, his son, and to the other prophets who had come. But the officials and the eunuchs and the people did not hear. Apart from Samnaz, the secretary, in Yahaykim, and Asaf, the recorder, for they were doers of righteousness, and the fragrance of the spirit was in them. But the people did not hear, for Micah and Yoseb, his son had sent them out when the wisdom of this world was taken from him as if he were dead. So the king got to hear the vision, along with Isaiah's son, the prophets, and three other men. But it was kept secret from everyone else. Now we come to the vision itself, which is narrated by Isaiah, and there's a specific name. For the type of literature we're about to read, it's called an anabasis, which is where someone gets a tour of the heavens by going up. Its opposite is called a katabasis, which is where someone goes down into the underworld. In Greek, Anna means up, and kata means down, and by no means I go. So an anabasis is a going up into the heavens, and a katabasis is going down into the underworld. Here's Isaiah's ascension, or anabasis. The vision which Isaiah saw was as follows. When I prophesied, in accordance with the message which you have heard, I saw a glorious angel. His glory was not like the glory of the angels, which I always used to see, but he had a great glory and an office such that I cannot describe the glory of this angel. And I saw when he took hold of me by my hand, and I said to him, "Who are you? And what is your name? And where are you taking me up?" For strength had been given to me that I might speak with him, and he said to me, "When I have taken you up through all the stages, and have shown you the vision on account of which I was sent, then you will understand who I am. But my name you will not know, for you have to return into this body. But where I take you up, you will see, because for this purpose I was sent." And I rejoiced because he spoke to me with kindness, and he said to me, "Do you rejoice because I have spoken kindly to you?" And he said, "You will see one greater than me, how he will speak kindly and gently with you, and the father of the one who is greater, you will also see. Because for this purpose I was sent from the seventh heaven that I might make all this clear to you." So this angel has greater glory than any other angel Isaiah has seen because he comes from the seventh heaven, so he's naturally more glorious. And he refers to one who is greater than him. That's going to be the pre-incarnate Christ. And he also refers to the father of the one who is greater. But they've got to get him up there to see them first. And we went up into the firmament, and there I saw Samuel and his hosts, and there was a great struggle in it, in the words of Satan, and they were all envying one another, and as above so also on earth, for the likeness of what is in the firmament is here on earth. And I said to the angel, "What is this envying?" And he said to me, "So it has ever been since this world existed until now, and this struggle will last until the one comes whom you are to see. Voice was not like to destroy him." You'll recall from last week that Samuel is one of the author's names for the devil, so he says that Samuel or Satan is in the firmament with his hosts. This is similar to how Saint Paul refers in Ephesians 2 to the devil as the prince of the power of the heir. He also seems to see the devil as dwelling in the atmosphere, and Isaiah is told that Jesus will eventually destroy him. However, the author of the Ascension also rejects an idea that we find in the gospels. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, some of Jesus' opponents claim that he's cast now demons by the power of Beelzebul, another name for the devil. And Jesus responds by saying that if Satan casts out Satan, then he's divided against himself and his kingdom will not stand. You can read about that in Matthew 12, for example, but it's also in Mark and Luke. In other words, Satan doesn't allow his demons to get out of line and start fighting each other. Demons do not cast out other demons. They're on the same team. And if there was civil war among the demons, then Satan's kingdom would collapse. Jesus is very firm on this point, but the author of the Ascension of Isaiah has a different idea, and envisions the demons envying and struggling with each other in the firmament. And this mirrors the envying struggle down on the earth. But when Jesus comes, he will destroy this system of doing things. What I find interesting about this is that we have the Ascension of Isaiah contradicting an idea that's found in three of the four gospels. And this suggests that the book was written before the gospels were in wide circulation, or at least before that they were widely recognized as authoritative documents for Christians, which could plausibly be the case if it were written in AD 67 as I estimate. If it were written in the second century, as some scholars claimed in the gospels would be all over the place, and they were universally recognized as authoritative. So the author wouldn't be rejecting what they say if it's written at an early date. But in AD 67, it's quite plausible that the author hadn't read the gospels or that they didn't yet have the reputation among Christians as being authoritative. I wanted to point this out because we're going to see additional things that either aren't found in the gospels or that contradict what we find elsewhere in the New Testament. So be on the lookout for those now having passed through the firm. The angel takes Isaiah up higher. And after this, he took me up upon the firmament. This is the first heaven. There I saw a throne in the middle and on the right and on the left of it were angels. And the angels on the left were not like the angels who stood on the right. But those who stood on the right had more glory, and they all sang praises with one voice. And the throne was in the middle, and it they praised, and those on the left after them. But their voice was not like the voice of those on the right, nor their praise like the praise of those on the right. And I asked the angel who led me and said to him, to whom is this praise directed? And he said to me, to the praise of the one who sits in the seventh heaven, the one who rests in the holy world, and to his beloved from where I was sent to you, to there it is directed. This sets a pattern for what's going to be repeated in the second through the fifth heaven. So we won't be going through them all word by word. One of the problems with writing an anabasis is making the different realms of glory different from each other, other than saying that each one is more glorious than the last. It's hard to imagine specific differences between them. So the first five heavens have a common pattern. On the left, Isaiah sees a group of angels singing God's praise. On the right, he sees a group of more glorious angels singing God's praises even better. And then between them, he sees a throne, which in this first heaven is empty. But in the higher heavens, there will be an angel sitting in it who apparently rules that heaven on God's behalf. Only the author wants us to understand that all of the praise is directed to God and his beloved, that is to Christ in the highest heaven. This is made clear when Isaiah gets to the second heaven and Isaiah sees the angel sitting on the throne. And I fell on my face to worship him and the angel who led me would not let me, but said to me worship neither throne nor angel from the six heavens from where I was sent to lead you before I tell you in the seventh heaven. This is very much like what happens twice in Revelation in chapters 19 and 22, where John is being led by an angel. And he's so overcome by the experience that he falls down at the angels feet to worship him, but the angel tells him he must not do this. He must worship only God, even though revelation wouldn't be written until about a year later, the same thing happens with Isaiah here. And it apparently reflects a concern in first century Christianity because in Colossians 2 18, Saint Paul warns his readers against those who are into the worship of angels. And the ascension of Isaiah, though, the angel, guidance Isaiah tells him something different. For above all the heavens and their angels is placed your throne and above your robes and your crown, which you are to see. And I rejoiced very much that those who love the most high in his beloved will at their end go up there through the angel of the Holy Spirit. So the angel tells Isaiah that he's got a throne. He Isaiah has a throne up in the seventh heaven as well as robes and a crown, which he'll get to see shortly. And Isaiah praises God that those who love him and Christ will eventually get to go up to the seventh heaven through the angel of the Holy Spirit. Okay, Isaiah was just told never to worship angels. And now the Holy Spirit is referred to as an angel. Does that mean that the author thinks that the Holy Spirit isn't God and we're not supposed to worship him? No, as we'll see, he thinks we should worship the Holy Spirit, which indicates that the Holy Spirit, like the beloved and the father is a divine person. But this is 300 years before the first councils of Nicaea and first Constantinople, when the exact language that we use to describe the persons of the Trinity were hammered out. And in this age, there were a variety of ways of talking about them. One of those ways was to speak of Jesus in the Holy Spirit as angels, even though you recognize them as something more than that. Christology is the study of Christ and pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit, while the word angelomorphic means in the form of an angel. So this way of speaking is said to be expression and angelomorphic Christology and an angelomorphic pneumatology. As Jonathan Knight explains, angelomorphic Christology denotes the author's portrayal of the beloved one in imagery which is derided from angelology, but which recognizes that he is the divine being. So the use of angelic language and imagery for Christ and the Holy Spirit doesn't mean that you don't recognize Christ and the Holy Spirit as being divine. As we'll see, the author does think that you're supposed to worship them, which means that they are divine persons and not just angels, even though he doesn't have a post nice seen way of expressing this conviction. Now, when Isaiah gets to the third heaven, he notes that the glory of his own face is being transformed as he goes up through the heavens. He also notes that in the third heaven, no mention is made of the world of the earth below. And the angel tells him that even though they know what's going on down on the earth, they don't really talk about it because it's so weak and inferior compared to the glory of the third heaven. He then gets up to the fourth heaven and it's more glorious than the third as you'd expect, but he doesn't really say anything else about it. When he arrives at the fifth heaven, it's the same thing, but then stuff changes when he gets to the sixth heaven. First though, there's this and this is kind of weird, he has to go through what he calls the air of the sixth heaven before he gets to the sixth heaven itself. Although apparently he can see into the sixth heaven while he's going through the air, and he sees that there isn't a group of angels on the left, just angels on the right, and there's no throne in the middle. And again, he took me up into the air of the sixth heaven, and I saw a splendor such as I had not seen in the five heavens as I went up. The angels possessed great glory, and the praise there was holy and wonderful. And I said to the angel who led me, "What is this which I see, my Lord?" And he said to me, "I am not your Lord, but your companion." So that's more don't worship angels stuff. Don't call me your Lord, I'm just your companion. And again I asked him, and I said to him, "Why are there not corresponding groups of angels?" And he said to me, "From the sixth heaven and upward there are no longer those on the left, nor is there a throne placed in the middle. But they are directed by the power of the seventh heaven, where the one who is not named dwells, and his chosen one whose name is unknown, and no heaven can learn his name. But I say to you, Isaiah, that no man who has to return into a body of that world has come up, or seen, or understood what you have seen." And he said to me, "Here than this also from your companion, win from the body by the will of God you have come up here, then you will receive the row which you will see, and then you will be equal to the angels who are in the seventh heaven." So when Isaiah later dies, he'll get come back here, get his robe, and be equal to the angels of the seventh heaven, which resonates with what St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, 3, that we will that saved will judge angels, implying that they're superior to at least some of them. Now Isaiah arrives in the sixth heaven itself. And he took me up into the sixth heaven, and there were none on the left, nor thrown in the middle, but all were of one appearance, and their praise was equal, and strength was given to me, and I also sang praises with them, and that angel also, and our praise was like theirs. And there they all named the primal Father and his beloved Christ, and the Holy Spirit, all with one voice. So here Isaiah and all the angels of the sixth heaven are worshiped in the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, indicating that they are divine persons, despite the angelomorphic way of speaking of them that the author sometimes uses. And then when I was in the sixth heaven, I thought that light which I had seen in the five heavens darkness, and I entreated the angel who led me from then on, I should not return to the world of flesh, and the angel who led me knew what I thought and said to me, if you rejoiced over this light, how much more will you rejoice in the seventh heaven when you see the light where the Lord is and his beloved, who is to be called in the world the Son. But as regards you're not returning into the body, your days are not yet complete for coming here. And when I said this, I was sad, and he said to me, do not be sad. This actually reflects something that happens in near-death experiences, where a lot of people don't really want to come back into their bodies. I know of NDEs, where people who the doctors brought back complained about being brought back in even one case, where somebody got sucked in the nose after the patient was brought back. We'll talk about such cases in future episode. One thing that is of interest here is that the angel tells Isaiah that the beloved is to be called the son in the world. That could mean that the author thinks the title son is one that the beloved doesn't yet have, that he gained that title in the world, perhaps at his baptism, where God declares him his beloved son. Certainly some in the early church thought that Jesus became God's son at his baptism. In fact, they thought that he was a mere man who was adopted as God's son. That's a heresy known as adoptionism. The author of the Ascension of Isaiah, though, clearly is not an adoptionist since he doesn't regard Jesus as a mere man but as a divine person who pre-existed the incarnation in heaven. But he may still have the idea that Jesus became the son in the world, though it is not certain that he thought that. In any event, the idea that Jesus only became the son in the world was rejected by Orthodox Christianity, which is why the Nicene Creed says that Jesus was the only begotten son of God born of the Father before all ages, meaning that he was the son from the very beginning. Now, Isaiah gets taken up into the seventh and final heaven and once again, he has to go through the air of the seventh heaven first. Only now, Isaiah's right to be there gets challenged. And he led me into the air of the seventh heaven. And moreover, I heard a voice saying, "How far is he who dwells among aliens to go up?" And I was afraid and was trembling, and he said to me when I was trembling, "Behold, from there another voice which was sent out has come." And it says, "The holy Isaiah's permitted to come up here for his robe is here." And I asked the angel who was with me and said, "Who is the one who prevented me, and who is this one who turned to me that I might go up?" And he said to me, "The one who prevented you, this is the one in charge of the praise of the sixth heaven, and the one who turned to you. This is your Lord, the Lord, the Lord Christ, who is to be called in the world, Jesus. But you cannot hear his name until you have come up from this body." You'll recall that the companion angel told Isaiah that the worship of the sixth heaven is directed from the seventh heaven. So the chorus master angel who directs the worship of the sixth heaven is in the seventh. And he is the one that challenges Isaiah's right to go up as high as the seventh, since Isaiah dwells among aliens down on earth, people who are foreigners to heaven. So Isaiah is terrified, and he's so scared that he was shaken with fear, but Jesus himself said that Isaiah has a robe waiting for him in the seventh heaven, and he's permitted to come up here. So Isaiah finally arrives in the seventh heaven. And he took me up into the seventh heaven, and there I saw a wonderful light, and also angels without number. And there I saw all the righteous from the time of Adam onwards. And there I saw Holy Abel and all the righteous. And there I saw Enoch, and all who were with him stripped of their robes of the flesh. And I saw them in their robes of above. And they were like the angels who stand there in great glory, but they were not sitting on their thrones, nor were their crowns of glory on them. And I asked the angel who was with me, how is it that they have received these robes, but are not on their thrones nor in their crowns? And he said to me, they do not receive the crowns and thrones of glory. Nevertheless, they do see and know whose will be the thrones and whose the crowns, until the beloved descends in the form in which you will see him descend. The Lord will indeed descend into the world in the last days. He who is to be called Christ after he is descended and become like you in form. And they will think that he is flesh and a man. And the God of that world will stretch out his hand against the sun. And they will lay their hands upon him and hang him upon a tree, not knowing who he is. And thus his descent, as you will see, hope he concealed even from the heavens, so that will not be known who he is. This has several interesting things in it. First, Isaiah sees all of the righteous in the history of the world from Adam onward. One of the people he sees is Enoch. And he mentions that those who were with Enoch had been stripped of their robes of the flesh, so they weren't in their bodies. But Enoch is an exception to this since he didn't die. It's also interesting that he sees the righteous up in heaven, even though this is like 800 years before the time of Christ. There is some potential basis in the Old Testament for this understanding of souls being with God up in heaven. Though Christian thought has tended to view the righteous before Christ is dwelling in a different place and only getting to go to heaven after Christ's resurrection. However, the author of Isaiah also has a similar thought about the righteous not being fully glorified until the time of Christ, because he says that although they get to wear their heavenly robes, they don't get to sit on their thrones or wear their crowns. So the coming of Christ still marks a shift in the state of the righteous in the afterlife. It just uses different imagery to explain that they're more glorified after the resurrection and ascension than they were afterwards, because they get to sit on their thrones and wear their crowns. Another point of interest is that the author says the beloved will descend and become human in form so that others will think he's a man and not recognize him as God. So the God of this world, meaning the devil, will stretch out his hand against the sun and have him crucified, not knowing who he is. All this is related to things that Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4-4, Paul identifies Satan as the God of this world. So we have the same idea on that point. And in 1 Corinthians 2-8, Paul says that the rulers of this age would not have crucified Jesus if they had understood God's plan. It's quite possible that the author of the Ascension of Isaiah was directly drawn on Paul for these points, because 1st and 2nd Corinthians were written between AD 52 and AD 54, and the author is writing in 67. So he may well have read these letters of Paul. However, he interprets Paul's reference to the rulers of this age to refer to the demonic rulers of the age so that the demons didn't know who Christ was, and that's why they crucified him. That's another sign that the author didn't have the gospels in front of him, because in the gospels, the demons very clearly do know who Jesus was. He even had to tell him to shut up about him being the son of God. I think that the correct interpretation of Paul is likely that the rulers of this age refer to human rulers, not demonic ones, and that people like Caiaphas, the high priest, and Pontius Pilate, the governor would not have crucified Jesus if they'd understood God's plan. But the author of the Ascension of Isaiah has a different interpretation. Now, before we continue with the Ascension of Isaiah, we'd like to stop here and take a moment to thank our patrons who make this show possible, including Jennifer B, John G, Amanda M, Steven H, and Robert B. Their generous donations at sqpn.com/give make it possible for us to continue Jimmy Aiken's Mysterious World and all the shows at Starquest. And you can join them by visiting sqpn.com/give. 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Space is limited and filling up, so be sure to find out more. Visit mysterious.fm/Italy2025 to reserve your spot today. That's mysterious.fm/Italy2025. Jimmy, what happens next in the Ascension of Isaiah? Now the author says something really interesting about Jesus. And when he has plundered the angel of death, he will rise on the third day and will remain in that world for 545 days. And then many of the righteous will ascend with him, whose spirits do not receive their robes until the Lord Christ descends, and they ascend with him. Then indeed they will receive their robes and their thrones and their crowns, when he is ascended into the seventh heaven. So when Jesus ascends back to heaven, other righteous people will ascend with him. He doesn't tell us who these are, but I think it's at least possible that they are the saints that Matthew mentions haven't been resurrected with Jesus, though we know almost nothing about them. That it would at least make sense for them to ascend with Christ. The next logical alternative would be that these saints returned to their graves, but the angel has already said that souls of all the righteous who had died up to that point were up in heaven. So the resurrected saints who had their souls with them down on earth would be plausible candidates to ascend. In any event, once Jesus ascends, all the righteous will get their robes, thrones, and crowns. What I find most interesting, though, is the reference to how long Christ stays on the earth after the resurrection in this passage. The author notes that Christ rises on the third day, but then he remains in this world for 545 days. In Acts 1, 3, Luke says that Christ only stayed on the earth for 40 days. So this is another case where the Ascension of Isaiah contains early Christian traditions that are not found in the Gospels and Acts. And it's not the only place that we know about this figure from. In his work against heresies, the second century church father, Irenaeus of Leon, reports that the Valentinian Gnostics held that Christ remained on earth for 18 months after the resurrection. And if you do the math, where an average month lasts just over 30 days, then 18 months works out to about 545 days. Now, the author of the Ascension of Isaiah is clearly not a Valentinian. His beliefs are completely different and much more orthodox, but this does reveal that some in the early church thought Christ stayed on earth for 18 months after the resurrection, but Luke the Historian sets the record straight and indicates it was only 40 days. And I said to him what I had asked him in the third heaven. Show me how everything which is done in that world is known here. And while I was still speaking to him, behold, one of the angels who were standing by, more glorious than that angel who had brought me up from the world, showed me books, but not like the books of this world. And he opened them. And the books had writing in them, and not like the books of this world. And they were given to me, and I read them. And behold, the deeds of the children of Israel were written there, their deeds which you know, my son Joseph. And I said, truly, nothing which is done in this world is hidden in the seventh heaven. So this explains how the angels of the third heaven could know what happens on the earth, even though they never talk about it because of how evil it is. Up in the seventh heaven, there are books and here we should think scrolls because that was the standard form of books at the time. And these scrolls contain a record of the deeds of men. This is also similar to the heavenly books we read about in Daniel and in Revelation. Isaiah also sees a bunch of robes, thrones, and crowns in heaven that are there to be given to those who come to believe in Jesus. Now Isaiah has a vision of the pre-incarnate son. And I saw one standing there whose glory surpassed that of all, and his glory was great and wonderful. And when they saw him, all the righteous whom I had seen and the angels came to him. And Adam and Abel and Seth and all the righteous approached first and worshiped him, and they all praised him with one voice. And I also was singing praises with them, and my praise was like theirs. And then all the angels approached and worshiped and sang praises. And he was transformed and became like an angel. And then the angel who led me said to me, worship this one. And I worshiped in sang praises. And the angel said to me, this is the Lord of all the praise which you have seen. So here everybody's worship in the pre-incarnate Christ, which indicates that he is definitely a divine person, but he's transformed to look like an angel, which is preparation for his descent through the heavens that we'll talk about shortly. Then Isaiah sees the Holy Spirit. And while I was still speaking, I saw another glorious person who was like him, and the righteous approached him and worshiped and sang praises. And I also sang praises with them. But his glory was not transformed to accord with their form. And then the angels approached and worshiped him. And I saw the Lord and the second angel, and they were standing. And the second one whom I saw was on the left of my Lord. And I asked the angel who led me, and I said to him, who is this one? And he said to me, worship him, for this is the angel of the Holy Spirit who has spoken in you, and also in the other righteous. So everybody also worships the Holy Spirit, which indicates that he also is a divine person, even though the author uses angelomorphic language to refer to him. And the Holy Spirit is not transformed because he's not going to be descended into earth in a concealed way in the fashion that the son is going to. Isaiah also sees him stand into the left of the son, which indicates that he is in the third place among the divine persons. And now Isaiah sees who has the first place, the Father. And I saw the great glory that is God the Father, while the eyes of my spirit were open. But I could not thereafter see nor the angel who was with me, nor any of the angels whom I had seen worship my Lord. But I saw the righteous as they beheld with great power, the glory of that one. And my Lord approached me and the angel of the spirit and said, "See, how it has been given to you to see the Lord? And how, because of your power, has been given to the angel who is with you? And I saw how my Lord and the angel of the Holy Spirit worshiped and both together praised the Lord. And then all the righteous approached and worshiped, and the angels approached and worshiped, and all the angels sang praises." So here Isaiah gets to see God the Father, and you'll recall from last week that Belkira, the false prophet, twisted this claim into a charge against Isaiah, claiming that Isaiah said he was greater than Moses, since Moses only got to see God from behind. And in Isaiah's inaugural vision in the canonical book of Isaiah, he got to see God sitting on his throne. Here in the Ascension of Isaiah, he gets to see him again, though he never claimed to be greater than Moses. And here Isaiah says that he could only see the great glory for a moment, and I could not thereafter see. Also, it's interesting that the righteous humans get to see God the Father, but the angels don't, even though they're worshiping him. It's also worth noting that the Son and the Holy Spirit also worship the Father here, and that strikes some people as odd. I mean, assuming that if they're divine, then they shouldn't worship the Father, but I think that's mistaken, because what worship is, is attested to the worth of something. That's where the word worship comes from. It's from worship, and we want to give everyone their dues and testify to their proper worth. So since all three persons have the same divine nature, all three of them are of infinite worth. And so each of the three would naturally recognize and attest to the worth of the other two. So I think that the persons of the Godhead do literally worship each other, like in the gospel of John, which makes it clear that from the very first verses of the book that the word was with God and the word was God, and yet it, and it climaxes with Thomas' confession that Jesus is my Lord and my God, yet just a few verses earlier in John, 2017, Jesus says that he's ascending to my Father and your Father to my God and your God. So I don't see any conflict between the statements that Jesus is divine and Jesus also worship in the Father. That's just given the Father his proper dues. However, here in the Ascension of Isaiah, the worship that the Holy, the Son and the Holy Spirit give to the Father may be performing another function. For the author, it may be a way of acknowledging that although the Son and the Spirit are themselves divine persons, the Father still has the first place in the Trinity. As later theologians would say, he is the our hay or source of the Trinity from whom the Son and the Holy Spirit proceed. Isaiah then hears a great chorus of praise in worship of God the Father, and then something special happens. And I heard the voice of the Most High, the Father of my Lord, as he said to my Lord Christ, who will be called Jesus. Go out and ascend through all the heavens. You shall descend through the firmament and through that world as far as the angel who is in shale. But you shall not go as far as perdition. And you shall make your likeness like that of all who are in the five heavens. And you shall take care to make your form like that of the angels of the firmament, and also like of the angels who are in shale. And none of the angels of that world shall know that you are Lord with me of the seven heavens and of their angels. And they shall not know that you are with me. And when I lift up my voice to the sixth heaven, that you may judge and destroy the princes and the angels and the gods of that world and the world which is ruled by them. For they have denied me and said, we alone are. There is no one besides us. And afterward you shall ascend from the gods of death to your place. And you shall not be transformed in each of the heavens. But in glory you shall ascend and sit at my right hand. And then the princes and the powers of that world will worship you. This command I heard the great glory giving to my Lord. So here God the father commands the son to descend through the heavens and to descend through the firmament to the earth and ultimately to shawl though the place of the dead, though he's not supposed to go as far as perdition or the place of the damned, which is conceptualized as being under shawl. This corresponds to what we say in the creed that he descended into hell with hell being an old fashioned word for the place of the dead, not the place of the damned the way it is today. And as he makes this descent, the son is supposed to transform his appearance to be like the angels of the places he's passing through. And from what we've previously been told to take on the form of a man on earth and then the form of the angels in shawl so that nobody knows who he really is. Then referring to the resurrection and the ascension, he will return from the place of the dead coming back to earth, then through the firmament, then through the heavens until he gets back to his place in the seventh heaven. Only during his ascension he won't be transformed in himself anymore. He will appear in the glorious form of the sun so that all will recognize and worship him and recognize that the rule of the evil angels is over, that they have been defeated by the sun. So the beloved descends from the seventh heaven to the sixth and when he gets to the fifth heaven he starts disguising himself changing his disguise repeatedly so that he looks like the angels who are native to each of the five lower heavens in the lower three heavens. He's also asked for the password which he gives. He gives the password so that nobody knows who he is. Then we come to the firmament. And again he descended into the firmament where the prince of this world dwells. And he gave the password to those who were on the left and his form was like theirs. And they did not praise him there, but in envy they were fighting one another. For there is there a power of evil and envying about trifles. And I saw when he descended and made himself like the angels of the air that he was like one of them. And he did not give the password for they were plundering and doing violence to one another. So again we see those who dwell in the firmament fight in each other again in contrast to what we read about Satan's army in three of the four gospels. Now we come to the birth of the beloved on earth. And I saw a woman of the family of David the prophet whose name was Mary. And she was a virgin and was betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph a carpenter. And he also was of the seed and family of the righteous David a Bethlehem in Judah. And he came into his lot. And when he was betrothed she was found to be pregnant and Joseph the carpenter wished to divorce her. But the angel of the spirit appeared in this world. And after this Joseph did not divorce Mary but he did not reveal this matter to anyone. And he did not approach Mary but kept her as a holy virgin although she was pregnant. And he did not live with her for two months. So here the author records that both Joseph and Mary were of the house of David. As in the gospel of Matthew he mentions that Joseph planned to divorce Mary when he learned that she was pregnant. But we've seen that the author most likely had not read the gospels or at least in regard them as authoritative. So he's drawn on his he's drawn as Jesus traditions from non gospel sources. In addition to saying that Mary was of the house of David which neither Matthew nor Luke mentions in their infancy narratives. The author also says that the reason Joseph didn't divorce Mary was because the angel of the spirit appeared in this world. Whereas Matthew says that it was an angel of the Lord that appeared to Joseph in a dream. If we harmonize those two statements it would make the angel of the Lord who appeared to Joseph the angel of the Holy Spirit. But the author doesn't mention a dream here so we can't be sure that that's the intent. Finally the author mentions that that Joseph didn't live with Mary for two months something that's also not mentioned in the gospels. And after two months of days while Joseph was in his house and Mary his wife but both alone it came about when they were alone that Mary then looked with her eyes and saw a small infant and she was astounded and after her astonishment had worn off her womb was found as it was at first before she had conceived. And when her husband Joseph said to her what has made you astounded his eyes were opened and he saw the infant and praised the Lord because the Lord had come into his lot and a voice came to them do not tell this vision to anyone. But the story about the infant was spread abroad in Bethlehem. Some said the virgin Mary is given birth before she had been married two months but many said she did not give birth the midwife did not go up to her and we did not hear any cries of pain. And they were all blinded concerning him. They all knew about him but they did not know from where he was. And they took him and went to Nazareth in Galilee. And I saw, oh has a cayenne jokes of my son and say to the other prophets also who are standing by that it was hidden from all the heavens and all the princes and every god of this world. And I saw that in Nazareth he sucked the breasts like an infant and was customary that he might not be recognized. So mission accomplished on keeping Jesus' identity as the son of God hidden from everybody. What's really interesting here is that there is a long standard tradition in the church that Jesus had a miraculous and painless birth. This is not required by Catholic teaching but it has been the common view. And here we have early first century testimony for this. Mary and Joseph are at home and suddenly Mary sees a small infant and her womb is like it was before. You know her stomach is no longer big with pregnancy. Then Joseph sees the child too. We also have other early references to Jesus having a miraculous birth. It's mentioned in the odes of Solomon which date to around the year 100. And it's mentioned in the infancy gospel of James also known as the Proto Evangelium of James which dates to the earlier mid-second century. But this document from AD 67 is the earliest record we have of Jesus having a miraculous birth. And independently of the gospels the author also attests to the tradition that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But that he grew up in Nazareth. And when he had grown up he performed great signs and miracles in the land of Israel and in Jerusalem. And after this the adversary envied him and roused the children of Israel who did not know who he was against him. And they handed him to the ruler and crucified him. And he descended to the angel who is in shell. In Jerusalem indeed I saw how they crucified him on a tree. And likewise how after the third day he rose and remained many days. So this recapitulates in short form the ministry death and resurrection of Jesus. It mentions that the devil envied him but only as a performer of great signs and miracles because the author holds that the devil didn't know he was really the son of God. The author mentions that he descended to the angel who is in shawl or the place of the dead. And from earlier we know he was still in disguise at that point. So he's now completed his descent through the heavens the firmament and earth to shawl though he did not go as far as perdition or the place of the damned. Then after being raised on the third day he stayed on earth many days which from earlier we know the author held to be 545 days or 18 months but now the big surprise comes. And I saw when he sent out the twelve disciples and ascended. And I saw him and he was in the firmament but was not transformed into their form. And all the angels of the firmament and Satan saw him and worshiped. And there was much sorrow there as they said. How did our Lord descend upon us? And we did not notice the glory which was upon him, which we now see was upon him from the sixth heaven. And he ascended into the second heaven and he was not transformed. But all the angels who were on the right and on the left and the throne in the middle worshiped him and praised him and said how did our Lord remain hidden from us as he descended and we did not notice. And in the same way he ascended into the third heaven and in the same way they praised him and spoke. And in the fourth heaven and also in the fifth they spoke in exactly the same way. But there was one glory and from it he was not transformed. And I saw when he ascended into the sixth heaven that they worshiped him and praised him. But in all the heavens the praise grew louder and I saw how he ascended into the seventh heaven and all the righteous and all the angels praised him. And then I saw that he sat down at the right hand of that great glory whose glory I told you I could not behold. And also I saw the angel of the Holy Spirit sat on the left. So Jesus sends out the twelve disciples and we heard about what would happen to them last episode. Then Jesus begins ascending back to the seventh heaven. When he gets to the firmament he's so glorious that the demons must worship him but they're shocked at how he got down here without them noticing. And the same is true of all the angels as he goes up through the heavens. As he rises there is an ever-growing chorus of praise and worship until he gets back to the seventh heaven where he takes his seat at the right hand of the Father with the Holy Spirit sitting at the left hand of the Father. Isaiah also reminds us that he wasn't able to withstand looking at the glory of the Father. So no, he wouldn't claim it to be greater than Moses. "The angel said to me, Isaiah, son of Amos, it is enough for you, for these are great things, for you have observed what no one born of flesh has observed, and you shall return into your robe of flesh until your days are complete. Then you shall come here. These things I saw." And so the vision ends with the angel telling Isaiah he'll he'll go back to his body and will come back up here after his death and so the out-of-body experience ends. But we get a final postscript where Isaiah finishes relating all of this to good King Hezekiah. "And Isaiah told these things to all those who are standing before him, and they sing praises. And he spoke to Hezekiah the king and said, 'These things I have spoken, and the end of this world and all the vision will be brought about in the last generation.' And Isaiah made him swear that he would not tell this to the people of Israel and that he would not allow any man to copy these words. And then they shall read them. But as for you, be in the Holy Spirit that you may receive your robes and the thrones and crowns of glory which are placed in the seventh heaven. Because of these visions and prophecies, Samuel Satan sawed Isaiah the son of Amaz the prophet in half by the hand of Manasseh. And Hezekiah gave all these things to Manasseh in the 26th year of his reign. But Manasseh did not remember these things nor place them in his heart. But he became the servant of Satan and was destroyed. Here ends the book of Isaiah the prophet with his ascension. So Isaiah finishes relating his vision to Hezekiah and the select others. He says that it will be brought about in the last generation, which means that the author, like many in the first century, thought that they were living in the last generation. So the second common was right around the corner. The author also has an explanation for why this book hasn't been known all the way down through history. Because he told Hezekiah not to let anyone copy the written record of what he was saying. So the book was kept stored up until the last generation. And then the book closes where it began with Hezekiah trying to talk godly sense into his son, Manasseh. In the 26th year of his reign, which is part one, when the book is set, Hezekiah gave a copy of the vision we've just heard to Manasseh. But Manasseh didn't pay attention. And he ended up saw in Isaiah in half as we heard last week. We've now read our way through the ascension of Isaiah. And we've already covered things about it from the reason perspective, like when it was written, which you estimate to be 8067, as we heard last week. What can we say about the book from the faith perspective? For example, how many heavens are there in reality? Well, in 2 Corinthians 2, 12, St. Paul speaks of being caught up to the third heaven. So that would indicate at least three. And he may have meant he went to the highest heaven, but that's not certain. St. Paul may well have had the common view that there are seven heavens, although we also encounter other numbers besides three and seven in the literature of this period. However, I suspect the reality, you know, if you're asking how many heavens are there in reality, I suspect it's more complex than this. The New Testament says repeatedly that we will be rewarded for the good works we do under the impulse of God's grace. And given the vast number of good actions that we perform by free will and the vast number of people involved, that would naturally result in billions of different levels of reward and glory tailored to the individual humans who receive them. I thus think that conceiving of the afterlife as heaven seven heavens or whatever number is accommodated to our present ability to understand and imagine things. In other words, it's a simplification to make it easier for us to understand. But the reality would be vastly more complex. And this method of simplification is common to all descriptions of the afterlife, because our present imaginations are limited by our earthly experience. And we can't fully imagine what the next life is going to be like. Any idea where the idea of seven heavens came from? This is more of a reason perspective than a faith perspective question. But the number seven is one of the special numbers in Hebrew culture. There are a lot fewer special numbers than you'll hear some people say, but there are some, including seven, 12, 40, and a few others. Seven tends to signify completeness. So seven heavens would signify the complete range of heavens. In terms of why seven is a special number, you could chalk it up to just random intellectual development in Hebrew culture, or to the fact that seven is a prime number and prime numbers are special. But these days, I actually suspect it's something else. Our ancestors spend a lot of time staring up at the night sky because they didn't have the internet to entertain themselves. They also didn't have the light pollution that we have now. So they had a really clear view of the sky. And many people thought that the stars were celestial beings, like gods or angels. But they noticed that the stars fell into two categories. Most of the stars were what were called fixed stars. They don't change their position with respect to each other. They just rotate around the celestial pole every 24 hours. They're the stars that make up the constellations like Ursa Major or the Great Bear. And we know people were talking about Ursa Major back to at least 1500 years, 15,000 years ago. But there are a few stars that are weirdos. They're lights in the sky that do move around against the background fixed stars. And since they wander around the sky, they're called wandering stars. The Greek word for star is astair. And the Greek word for wanderer is planetes. So a wandering star is an astor planetes, or what we would call a planet. Well, classically, there are seven planets or lights in the sky that move with respect to the fixed stars. These include the sun and our sister planet the moon, because they're lights in in the sky that change position with respect to the fixed stars, as well as the five much smaller lights, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Those are the only planets that our ancestors could see with the naked eye. And so I suspect that the reason the number seven came to represent completeness one random chance and one because the Israelites had a special fascination with prime numbers. It was because that was the complete number of the classical planets. One of the things that's really striking about the ascension of Isaiah is just how trinitarian it is. What do you make of that? I think it's really impressive. It shows how the idea of the Trinity goes right back to the first century and how Christians were trying to figure out how to best articulate it. We can deduce the Trinity from passages in the New Testament, but today we use language to express it that was hammered out at the Council of First Nicaea in AD 325, which defined the divinity of Christ, and the First Council of Constantinople in 381, which defined the divinity of the Holy Spirit. And together these two councils gave us what is technically known as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which we more popularly call the Nicene Creed. Despite the fact that the author of the Ascension of Isaiah didn't have the language that would be used 300 years later, he has a very clear divide between those who are to be worshiped and those who are not. The father, the son, and the Holy Spirit are to be worshiped, so they're definitely divine persons, and nobody else is to be worshiped, so nobody else is divine. And although you have to read carefully to notice this, he avoids the implication that there are three gods, because although he does refer to the God of righteousness, when he's talking about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, he never uses the word God for any one of the three. So there's one God, a God of righteousness, and there are three divine persons to be worshiped, but he doesn't identify any one of the three as God. He also preserves the order of the Trinity with the Father as the first person be in the arhay or origin of the Trinity, then the beloved or son in the second place indicated by the fact he sits on the Father's right hand, and then the Holy Spirit in the third place indicated by the fact he sits on the Father's left hand. He does use angelomorphic language, particularly for the Holy Spirit, but the idea of the Trinity is clearly here, even if he hasn't expressed it in modern terms. One of the things that scholars recognize about the ascension of Isaiah is that it wasn't really written by the prophet Isaiah in the eighth century BC. It's clearly a work of the first century, which makes an example of what scholars call pseudo-pigrapha, or works with a false author's name on them. What do you make of that? Scholars generally hold that pseudo-pigrapha were falsely attributed by ancient authors to give them more authority. You know, if you discover a book that looks like a lost book written by Moses or Enoch or Isaiah, then you'll take it more seriously than a book written by a recent guy you've never heard of. We're already, we've already encountered pseudo-pigrapha in our previous Law Scriptures episode. You know, the book of Jubilees, which we discussed in episode 319, wasn't really written by Moses. And the book's inside First Enoch, which we discussed in episodes 323 and 324, were really written by Enoch. But the ascension of Isaiah is the first time we've encountered pseudo-pigraphy in a Christian context. Since the previous books we've covered were of Jewish origin. What this shows us is that there were at least some Christians who indulged in this practice. But beyond that, I'm not sure what to make of it. Some scholars like Jonathan Knight have suggested that the author was himself a Christian prophet, or at least was connected with a group of Christian prophets. And he was presenting material that he or they had seen in a vision. I guess that's possible. You know, the the contents of the book, though, seem to be based on several different early traditions and speculations about how Isaiah died, which is part one of the book, and about how the world would end and the role of Nero, which is also in part one. And the author's interpretation of Paul's remark about the rulers of this world not knowing who Jesus was, which is in part two of the book, as we heard today. Hypothetically, the author may have heard these traditions and speculations, and then thought he had a prophetic experience in which they were woven together in a narrative about Isaiah. He might then write a book thinking that it was an accurate historical account of what happened in the eighth century. And maybe there even he thinks there was this book written in the eighth century. And now he's seen it all in a vision and he's reconstructed that book. That's possible. But you're not convinced. No, that seems too convenient for me. It's too neat a solution. On the other hand, the author is really sincere about the core prophetic message he's given. He does believe that Isaiah was on into he does think that the world is about to end and that Nero is the Antichrist. And he does think that Jesus descended through the heavens disguised as an angel, appeared as a man, and then reassended with everyone marveling at him. He also thinks that Christians do have robes, thrones, and crowns stored up for them in heaven and that you need to be faithful to Jesus to get these. I just have a hard time getting inside his head and figuring out exactly how he squared convey in these true theological messages in his mind with the use of a deceptive narrative framework involved in Isaiah. Because it's hard to be a true servant of God if you're constantly if you're consciously lying to people. Maybe I'll get greater insight into what he was thinking in the future. As I study more pseudopigraphic literature, but as of now, I'm just not sure how he put all this together in his mind. You said that the author may have known some of the writings of Saint Paul, but that he didn't know the gospels or at least didn't regard them as authoritative. Do you have any other thoughts about the book's relationship to the New Testament? Well, as we've covered, I think it was written contemporaneously with the New Testament as we covered in episode 140 on when the gospels are written. I think the evidence points to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John being written between about AD 55 and 65. And I think that the evidence points to the Ascension of Isaiah being written about AD 67. We haven't yet done an episode on the book of Revelation, though we will. I mean, the book of Revelation itself. And I think that the evidence points to it being written in the second half of the year 68. So the Ascension of Isaiah is a year to a year and a half earlier than Revelation. I doubt that any of the authors of the New Testament had read the Ascension of Isaiah, though I think it is hypothetically possible that John read it before he wrote Revelation because John corrects some things that the Ascension of Isaiah gets wrong. The Ascension of Isaiah thinks Nero is the final anti-Christ and that Jesus is about to return and destroy him. But John makes it clear in Revelation 20 that there will be a long period of time symbolized by a millennium or a thousand years before the final villain of world history. However, I so he corrects that impression. However, I only raised the idea of John reading the Ascension of Isaiah as a hypothetical possibility. John could have been inspired to correct this impression that it's all about to end right now because other Christians thought the end of the world was right upon them and he wanted to make it clear under divine inspiration and due to his prophetic vision that this was not the case. Lots of other people thought they were right at the end and so John did need to correct them, but he didn't necessarily need to correct the author of the Ascension of Isaiah in particular. Still, the Ascension of Isaiah gives us a really fascinating look at what some Christians in the first century thought was about to happen. So Jimmy, what's your bottom line here? The Ascension of Isaiah is a remarkable book. It's a real treat to be able to read an early Christian apocalypse that was written contemporaneously with the New Testament and before the book of Revelation. It's interesting to see the way it weaves in traditions we've heard about from other places like Isaiah being saw in half. It's interesting to see it speculate in on Saint Paul's statement about the rulers of this age, not known who Christ was. And it's a special interest in to see it include in Jesus traditions that were circulating independently of the Gospels, like saying Jesus stayed on earth for 545 days after the resurrection and him having a miraculous birth. The Ascension of Isaiah is also perplexing in that I can't fully get into the author's head and figure out how he squared his sincerity about his message with the fact that he was also lying about the book being written by Isaiah. The book definitely is not divinely inspired, but it's still a fascinating glimpse into what some first century Christians believed. And what further resources can we offer on this? We'll have links to James Charlesworth's book, Old Testament pseudopigrapha volume two, which includes a translation of the work as well as an introduction to it. Also, Jonathan Knight's commentary, The Ascension of Isaiah, Jan Bremer and others book, The Ascension of Isaiah, Richard Baucom's book, The Climax of Prophecy, and an online translation of The Ascension of Isaiah. And now it's time to hear from you. What are your theories about The Ascension of Isaiah? Let us know by visiting SQPN.com or the Jimmy Akins Mysterious World Facebook page, sending us an email to feedback@mysterious.fm, sending a tweet to @mys_world, visiting the starquest discord community at SQPN.com/discord, or calling our mysterious feedback line at 619-738-4515. That's 619-738-4515. I also want to thank Rob Mady for his voice over work on this episode. And special thanks to Oasis Studio 7 for the video and animation work on this episode. Do go to my YouTube channel, youtube.com/JimmyAkins, to see the video version of the podcast. It adds the video adds a lot. While you're there, please do check out my other videos and be sure to help me by liking, commenting, and sharing the video, which tells YouTube that it needs to share it with more people. And you know, I am trying to grow my channel, so please do subscribe and hit the bell notification so you're always notified whenever I have a new video. And Jimmy, what's our next episode going to be about? Next week, we're going to be looking at the mystery of the man who put Jesus to death, Pontius Pilate. What we do and don't know about him, whether he was really as bad as some skeptics claim, what happened to him after he left office, and whether he should even be considered a saint. So you won't want to miss that. Folks, follow Jimmy Akins' mysterious world in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, your favorite podcast app, or at Jimmy's YouTube channel, where you should make sure to hit the bell to get notifications. Be sure to get your very own mysterious world t-shirt, mug, and more in our merchandise shop at SQPN.com/merch. And you can find the links to Jimmy's resources from our discussion on our show notes at mysterious.fm/333. And remember, to help us continue to produce the podcast, please visit SQPN.com/give. Jimmy Akins' mysterious world is also brought to you in part by The Grady Group, a Catholic company bringing financial clarity to their clients across the United States, using safe money options to produce reasonable rates of return for their clients. Learn more at gradygroupinc.com. Jimmy Akins' mysterious world is also brought to you in part through the generous support of Aaron Ferguson Electric in Automation, making connections for life for your automation and smart home needs in North and Central Florida at AaronV.com. Until next time, Jimmy Akins, thank you for exploring with us our mysterious world. Thanks, Dom. And once again, I'm Dom Betanelli. 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