He Who Descended from Heaven

[newton3005]

Jesus in John 3:13 says, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” Words and sentences can be tricky, especially when they’ve been through centuries of translations. At first reading, it sounds like Jesus is implying he is the only one who ascended into heaven. Well, as a matter of faith we may presume at this point that millions of people who were judged to be righteous, including those who may have spent a little time in purgatory before God admitted them, have ascended into heaven. Otherwise, what is the point of what it says in Psalms 23:6, and what Jesus says in Matthew 25:31-46?

So what did Jesus mean in John 3:13? Seems that in referring to “no one,” he might mean that the people currently living on earth at the time didn’t ascend into heaven. As for himself, did he imply that HE ascended into Heaven?

Jesus’ resurrection wouldn’t come until later, when it’s mentioned in Matthew 28:1–6. So it seems odd if Jesus refers to himself as having already ascended into heaven before he came down from there.

It is believed, from the reading of John 1:1 and John 1:14, that Jesus was with God at the beginning, when the Word took form. Or did Jesus first descend to earth a third time, in an age before his disciples came into being? Seems anything is possible. Here, we might consider the last verse of John, which says in John 21:25, “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Perhaps Jesus, in possibly descending to earth not twice, with the second time being in spirit, but three times, was one of those things.

 

[JulieB67]

I read it quite differently -

It goes back to this verse -

John 3:3 "Jesus answered and said unto him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

The word "again" in the Greek is anothen which means "from above". So it's basically stating the same thing with Christ reiterating in verse 13

He goes on to tell Nicodemus if I've told you earthly things and you don't believe how are you going to believe in heavenly things?

John 3:12 "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?"

John 3:13 "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He That came down from heaven, even the Son of man Which is in heaven.

We know from Eccl that when the silver cord breaks the spirit returns to the Father which gave it. -Born from above.

There's a deeper study there...