Matthew here narrates that on receiving the direction of the women, the eleven went away to a mountain in Galilee fixed on before Jesus' death. (Matthew xxvi. 32, he had said, "After I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.") How or in what form they saw him there is left untold. Most of them adored, but some doubted. The appearance, therefore, could not have been a close one, such as was vouchsafed to Thomas (John xx. 27), for then no one could have doubted. Belief in such cases is not matter of choice. How Jesus vanished after his appearance on the Galilean mount is not mentioned. Matthew was a witness of the ascension of Jesus, if Mark and Luke's accounts be true, but he passes by this most striking event in silence. Mark's second narrative, too, in no way confirms the journey to Galilee. On the contrary, it states that the parting charge of Jesus and his ascension took place after he had appeared and spoken to the eleven as they sat at meat. Where this occurred, and on what day, is somewhat ambiguous; but the inference is that it was at Jerusalem, and on the day of the resurrection. Luke, however, is quite explicit on this point. According to him on the very day (Luke xxiv. 13, 33, 36, 50, 51) of the resurrection Jesus appeared to the eleven at Jerusalem, gave them his parting charge, led them out to Bethany, and was there parted from them and carried into heaven. So far from there being any journey to Galilee, they were expressly commanded (chap. xxiv. 49) to tarry at Jerusalem. Here Luke, the recorder of the reports of eye-witnesses, states that the disciples were ordered to tarry in Jerusalem on the very day when, according to Matthew, an eye-witness, they were ordered to proceed to Galilee. And John, the other eyewitness, one of the eleven, makes no mention of a journey to Galilee immediately following the first announcement of the resurrection, or of the appearance of Jesus on the mountain there, but, on the contrary, affirms that Jesus appeared to his disciples at Jerusalem on the evening of the day of the resurrection, and also on that day week. (c.) Mark xvi. 12, 13. He appeared in another form to two of them in a country walk: they told the rest, who were still incredulous. Luke xxiv. 13-35. Jesus that same day, i.e., the day of the resurrection, joined two of them on their way to the village of Emmaus, near Jerusalem; at first they did not know him, but on breaking bread they recognised him. On this he vanished. John does not confirm these appearances, and they are inconsistent with Matthew's journey of the eleven to Galilee. (d.) Mark xvi. 14-20. Then he appeared to the eleven as they sat at meat, reproached them with their unbelief, gave them the charge to preach the gospel; and then, after he had spoken, he was received into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.