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Summary
- The Bible names two people God took without death: Enoch, who “walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24), and Elijah, who “went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11).
- Hebrews says Enoch “was translated that he should not see death,” because he pleased God (Hebrews 11:5).
- Jesus is not one of them: he died, rose on the third day and was taken up forty days later (1 Corinthians 15:3–4; Acts 1:3, 9).
- Moses died at 120, and God buried him in Moab (Deuteronomy 34:5–6).
- The Catholic dogma of the Assumption (1950) leaves open whether Mary died first; the Orthodox Church teaches that she died before she was raised.
- The believers still alive when Christ returns “shall be caught up” to meet him (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
- Irenaeus taught that Enoch and Elijah wait in paradise; Tertullian and Hippolytus took them to be the two witnesses of Revelation 11.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- King James Version: Genesis 5:1–32; 2 Kings 2:1–12, 2:16–17; 2 Chronicles 21:12; Deuteronomy 34:5–7; Malachi 4:5; Matthew 11:14; 17:1–3; Luke 23:43; John 3:12–13; 14:6; Acts 1:3, 1:9, 1:12; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, 51–52; Philippians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17; Hebrews 9:27; 11:5–6, 11:13; Jude 9; Revelation 11:3, 11:12, BibleGateway. Douay-Rheims (1899 American edition): Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 44:16; 48:9, BibleGateway.
- Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, apostolic constitution (1 November 1950), paragraph 44, vatican.va.
- John Paul II, General Audience of 25 June 1997, “The Dormition of the Mother of God”, vatican.va.
- Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2, Worship: “Dormition of the Theotokos”, Orthodox Church in America, oca.org.
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.5.1, tr. Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 1, New Advent.
- Tertullian, A Treatise on the Soul 50, tr. Peter Holmes, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 3, New Advent.
- Hippolytus, Treatise on Christ and Antichrist 43, tr. J. H. MacMahon, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 5, New Advent.
- John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel According to John, vol. 1, on John 3:13, tr. William Pringle, Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
- “Did Elijah and Enoch Go to Heaven?”, Awake!, 8 May 1976, pp. 28–29, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Watchtower Online Library.
- “Elijah”, The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), JewishEncyclopedia.com.
- “Paradise”, The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), JewishEncyclopedia.com.
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