This volume builds on the form-critical assessment of the Lukan ascension story (Luke 24: 50-53, Acts 1: 1-12) as a rapture story. It is motivated by the consideration that the "monotheistic principle" almost inevitably must have led to a re-estimate of the meaning and function of rapture in comparison with heathen rapture stories. The study seeks to investigate the Lukan ascension story in the light of the 1st-century Jewish rapture traditions (Enoch, Elijah, Moses, Baruch and Ezra among others). Arie Zwiep argues that the 1st-century Judaism provides a more plausible horizon of understanding for the ascension story than the Graeco-Roman rapture tradition, and that Luke develops his "rapture Christology" not as are interpretation of the primitive exaltation kerygma (G. Lohfink), but as a response to the eschatological question, ie: the delay of the parousia, so as to secure the unity of salvation history.