Discrepancies as to where Jesus went after his resurrection. Matthew, dismissing Jesus from history with these words, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" (28 : 19), seems to know nothing of the ascension; for it in utterly incompatible with the assumption that he is an honest and faithful historian. He could not possibly neglect recording so important an event had he known it, and the plain inference--the irresistible conclusion is that if he did not record it, it was because no such thing had occurred.
See with what brevity Mark concludes the career of Jesus. Mark gives these as the parting words of Jesus: "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." (16 : 19.)
How brief is the description of this wonderful scene! No writer that had witnessed such a sight could possibly condense his thoughts and feelings concerning it into one sentence. He would have had much to say; namely, of his own thoughts and emotions on the occasion, and what other witnesses said and did at the time the event occurred. Writers who go into particulars on less marvelous affairs would not be likely to dash off the most wonderful event that had ever happened before human eyes in one sentence. The thing is utterly improbable and incredible. "He was received up into heaven" reveals the credulity and superstition of the times. How could the writer know where he had gone, if he had once passed away from his sight? Moreover, he knew nothing of a local heaven or of a personal God, yet he says that Jesus "sat (down) on the right hand of God," as though the Infinite Power which pervades the universe had two hands and was made in the image of man!
The only rational explanation we can put upon such language is to suppose it written by one who was not present at the time referred to, but had heard of it and had undertaken to give his version of what he heard, perhaps in the attempt trying to reconcile two or three different versions of the story, and at the same time weave in his own opinion on the subject. At any rate, whoever wrote it, the writer does not claim to have been an eye-witness, and the legendary character of the account proves that the myth had been handed down to him.