By Clement Harrold

April 9, 2026

One of the more puzzling elements in the Gospels is the fact that Matthew and John record the risen Jesus appearing to His followers in both Jerusalem and Galilee, whereas Luke has Jesus appearing only in the vicinity of Jerusalem.

To make matters worse, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus seems to explicitly instruct His disciples not to leave Jerusalem:

“And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high [i.e. at Pentecost]” (Luke 24:49).

This is further corroborated in Acts 1:4:

“And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.”

This leads to a conundrum.

If Luke’s Gospel tells us that the disciples were supposed to remain in Jerusalem until Pentecost, how do we reconcile this with the other Gospels informing us that the risen Jesus met with His disciples in Galilee (some 100 miles north of Jerusalem) on multiple occasions before His Ascension?

A Very Long Day ...

To answer this question, we need to understand what’s going on in the final chapter of Luke’s Gospel.

At first glance, it can seem as if all of the events of Luke 24 took place on a single day. The chapter begins by saying that the women followers of Jesus went to the tomb “on the first day of the week, at early dawn” (Luke 24:1). Then we’re told, “That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:13).

The Emmaus account ends by saying that Cleopas and his companion “rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them” (Luke 24:33).

Based on what Luke has told us so far, this implies that the disciples left Emmaus sometime on the evening of Easter Sunday.

When they get back to Jerusalem, Cleopas and his companion tell the disciples about everything that had taken place. But there’s more excitement to come: “As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you’” (Luke 24:36).

By this point it must be late evening on Easter Sunday.

As a side note, although Luke tells us that Cleopas and his companion “found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them” (Luke 24:33), it seems based on the description of events in John’s Gospel that the apostle Thomas was not present at this particular meeting (he will be present when Jesus appears to the disciples again eight days later). It could be that Luke is simply using “the eleven” as a shorthand for the remaining group of disciples following Judas’s betrayal, even if all eleven weren’t actually present on this occasion.

By this point, Jesus has conversed with His disciples, and in verses 42–43 He even ends up eating a piece of fish.

What happens next can seem confusing:

Then he said to them, “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:44–49)

Jesus has told His disciples to remain in Jerusalem until Pentecost, and the very next two verses describe how the Ascension took place:

“Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:50–51).

If you’ve been following up to this point, you’ll realize that an important question arises.

So far it seems that the events of Luke 24:1 all the way up until 24:43 all occur on the same day (i.e. Easter Sunday). What we need to consider, however, is whether verse 44 is describing a continuation of that same day. 
 

Making Sense of Luke

At first glance it seems that verses 43 and 44 must be describing the same day.

Luke uses the conjunction “then” to connect the two verses, and there’s nothing in the text to indicate that any days have elapsed between them.

Tempting though this approach may be, it suffers from two major drawbacks.

First, if the entirety of Luke 24—everything from the discovery of the empty tomb to the Ascension—really did occur in a single day, then this would contradict Luke’s own words in Acts 1:3:

“To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God.”

Second, this approach doesn’t make any sense in light of what we know from the other Gospels. The other Gospels explicitly inform us that Jesus appeared to His disciples not only in Jerusalem but also in Galilee during the forty days between His Resurrection and Ascension.

Given this, it follows that Jesus’ instruction to His disciples to remain in Jerusalem can’t have taken place on the day of His Resurrection.

It simply isn’t plausible to say that Luke 24:44–49 occurred on the same day (Easter Sunday) as the events of 24:1–43.

Rather, Luke 24:44–49 must be describing something that took place later on; in fact, it’s probably describing the instructions that Jesus gave on the very day of His Ascension. For forty days, Jesus appeared to His disciples in both Jerusalem and Galilee. But when the time came for Him to ascend into heaven, at that point He instructed His followers that they must not leave Jerusalem again until the day of Pentecost.

While this explanation of events might make Luke 24 feel a little strained, in reality it makes the best sense both of Luke’s own words and of the testimony of the other Gospels.

It’s helpful to bear in mind, too, that ancient authors often employed literary techniques such as chronological suppression, particularly when there was a need to preserve precious space on a scroll.

Given this, we should be careful not to read the final chapter of Luke’s Gospel too woodenly.

While it might sound to our modern ears as if all these events took place on Easter Sunday, we have good reason to think Luke is sandwiching together several different events that in reality took place over a forty-day period. 

Full List of Resurrection Appearances

With this in mind, here is a possible reconstruction of the various appearances of the Risen Jesus that we know about from the Gospels and from St. Paul. 

Easter Sunday appearances:

1. Appearance to the Blessed Mother (according to pious tradition)
2. Appearance to Mary Magdalene (near the tomb): John 20:11–18; Mark 16:9
3. Appearance to the other women (on the way from the tomb): Matt 28:9–10
4. Appearance to Simon Peter (location unknown): 1 Cor 15:5
5. Appearance to Cleopas and his companion (road to Emmaus): Luke 24:13–35; Mark 16:12
6. Appearance to the apostles minus Thomas (a house in Jerusalem): Mark 16:14–18; Luke 24:36–43; John 20:19–23

Eight days later:

1. Appearance to the apostles including Thomas (same house in Jerusalem): John 20:24–29
2. Galilee appearances:
   1. Appearance to a group of seven disciples (Sea of Tiberias): John 21:1–14
   2. Appearance to the eleven and the Great Commission (a mountain): Matt 28:16–20
   3. Appearance to more than 500 brethren at once (may be the same event as #9): 1 Cor 15:6
       

Final Jerusalem appearance:

1. Appearance at the Ascension (Jerusalem / Bethany): Mark 16:19–20; Luke 24:44–53; Acts 1:4–11
2. Other appearances:
   1. Appearance to James (location unknown): 1 Cor 15:7
   2. Appearance to Paul (location unknown): 1 Cor 15:8