The Eighth Day

In diebus octo assumpsit, et duxit in montem. Quid est quod iste dicit: In diebus octo post haec verba. Ne forte quia is qui verna Christi audit et credit, resurrectionis tempore gloriam Christi videbit; octava enim die facta est resurrectio; unde et plerique psalmi in octavam inscribuntur. Aut forte ut ostenderet nobis quia dixerat quod is qui propter Dei verbum perdiderit animam suam, salvam faciet eam; quoniam promissa sua in resurrectione restituat. Sed Matthaeus et Marcus post dies sex assumptos hos esse memorarunt  De quo possemus dicere, post sex millia annorum, Mille enim anni in conspectu Dei tamquam dies una: sed plures quam sex millia computantur anni: et malumus sex dies per symbolum intelligere, quod sex diebus mundi opera sunt creata; ut per tempus opera, per opera mundum intelligamus. Et ideo mundi temporibus impletis, resurrectio futura monstratur: aut quia is qui supra mundum ascenderit, et hujus saeculi momenta transcenderit, velut in sublimi locatus, futurae resurrectionis expectabit aeternum. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Evangelii secundum Lucam, Liber VII

On the eighth day he took them up and led them on to the mountain. 1 What is the meaning of him saying, 'On the eighth day after these words' unless perhaps that he who is a servant of Christ, who hears and believes, shall see in time the glory of the resurrection of Christ. For the eighth day is the resurrection, whence many Psalms are written in eight sections. 2 Or perhaps that it might be shown to us that he said that he who for the word of God gives his own soul, that he will save it, because His promise will restore in the resurrection. But Matthew and Mark recall that he took them up on the sixth day. 3 Concerning which we are able to say, after six thousand years, 'For a thousand years are as a day in the sight of God ' 4 but more than six thousand years are reckoned, and we prefer to understand the six days as a figure, that in six days the things of the world were created, that through time the works were done, and through the works we might understand the world. And therefore with the fullness of the time of the earth, the future resurrection will be shown. Or because this is of the one who has risen above the world, and this age transcended, and as in sublime place, is expecting the eternity of the future resurrection. Saint Ambrose, On The Gospel of Luke, Book 7 1 Lk 9.28 2 cf Ps 6 and 11 3 Mt 17.1 , Mk 9.1 4 Ps 89.4