How many times did Jesus rise and come back down?

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There is evidence in Luke/Acts that Jesus ascended to heaven at least twice: on the evening of his resurrection, then forty days later. There is no biblical record of Jesus returning to earth, although one could assume this happened after the first ascension.

First of all, Luke 24:13 tells us that what follows occurred on the same day as the resurrection:

And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.

Then, Luke 24:33-36 tells us that the two returned to Jerusalem and that Jesus appeared to them the same evening:

And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

And the same evening, Jesus took the disciples towards Bethany, where he was lifted up to heaven:

And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

Another, more famous occasion occurs after forty days, near the mount of Olivet(Acts 1:3,9):

Acts 1:3: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Acts 1:9: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Only the author of Luke/Acts writes of Jesus being taken up bodily to heaven in the sight of the disciples (The 'Long Ending' of Mark was written later and briefly follows the lead of Luke). The first occasion, in Luke's Gospel, was on the day of his resurrection. When writing Acts, some time after publishing Luke, he may have wished to bring the Jewish festival of the Pentecost into his story, and so wrote of the ascension after forty days and then the Pentecost on the fiftieth day.

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