“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”
- Genesis 5:24
Enoch as one who "walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away”
Entering Heaven Alive
⁷For as Heaven and earth become one, even the real world will vanish from your sight. ⁸The end of the world is not its destruction, but its translation into Heaven. ⁹The reinterpretation of the world is the transfer of all perception to knowledge. [CE T-11.VIII.6:7-9]
The fulfillment of the Kingdom, the translation of the world
Ascension - Jesus ascends into heaven in the presence of His disciples.
Assumption
The Books of Kings describes the prophet Elijah being taken towards "shamayim" in a whirlwind, but the word can mean either heaven as the abode of God, or the sky (as the word "heavens" does in modern English)
In Arthurian literature, Sir Galahad is returning to Camelot after taking the Holy Grail to Sarras when he is visited by Joseph of Arimathea and is carried into heaven by angels.
Entering heaven alive (called by various religions "ascension", "assumption", or "translation") is a belief held in various religions. Since death is the normal end to an individual's life on Earth and the beginning of the afterlife, entering heaven without dying first is considered exceptional and usually a sign of a deity's special recognition of the individual's piety.[1]
In the Hebrew Bible, there are two figures – Enoch and Elijah – who are said to have entered heaven alive, but both wordings are subject of debate. Genesis 5:24 says "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, for God took him," but it does not state whether he was alive or dead nor where God took him. The Books of Kings describes the prophet Elijah being taken towards the heavens (Hebrew: שָׁמַיִם, romanized: šāmayim) in a whirlwind, but the word can mean either heaven as the abode of God or the sky (as the word "heavens" does in modern English).[citation needed]
According to the post-biblical Midrash, eight people went to (or will go to) heaven (also referred to as the Garden of Eden and paradise) alive:[2]
- Enoch, Noah's great grandfather (Genesis 5:22–24)
- Elijah (2 Kings 2:11)
- Serah, daughter of Asher, son of Jacob (midrash Yalkut Shimoni, Yechezkel 367)
- Eliezer, the servant of Abraham who chose Rebecca to be Isaac's wife
- Hiram I, king of Tyre, who helped Solomon build the first temple
- Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian
- Jaabez, the son of Judah ha-Nasi, who was editor of the Mishnah
- Pharaoh's daughter, sometimes called Bithiah
- Four Rabbis Visited Heaven. Four entered the orchard: Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher (i.e., Elisha ben Avuya), and Rabbi Akiva. One looked and died. One looked and was harmed. One looked and cut down the trees. And one went up in peace and went down in peace.
In Mandaeism, the Left Ginza mentions that Shitil (Seth), the son of Adam, was taken alive to the World of Light without a masiqta (death mass).[22]
This site is traditionally associated with the biblical account of Christ's ascension, described in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, which state that Jesus led his disciples to Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, where he blessed them before being taken up into heaven. The rock is venerated as the last earthly point touched by Jesus. According to tradition, the left footprint was removed during the Middle Ages and is now located in the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.
Apotheosis
To be “Spirited away”