Many Catholics are aware that Jesus “opened the gates of heaven” and allowed the righteous dead to go there.
The Catechism even says it:
CCC 637 In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven’s gates for the just who had gone before him.
This leads to a question that comes up periodically: What about figures like Enoch and Elijah, who seem to have been assumed into heaven prior to the time of Christ?
The obvious answer, I’ve always held, is that they were exceptions. As a general rule, heaven was not open to those who lived before the time of Christ, but God is omnipotent, and he can make exceptions if he chooses.
Some of the people I’ve discussed this with seem to struggle with it, and I haven’t understood the source of their difficulty.
God can clearly give the blessings of the Christian age to someone prior to the time of Christ, on the basis of what Christ did. After all, that’s why the Virgin Mary was immaculately conceived. The Catechism explains:
CCC 492 The “splendor of an entirely unique holiness” by which Mary is “enriched from the first instant of her conception” comes wholly from Christ: She is “redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son.”
CCC 508 From among the descendants of Eve, God chose the Virgin Mary to be the mother of his Son. “Full of grace”, Mary is “the most excellent fruit of redemption” (SC 103): from the first instant of her conception, she was totally preserved from the stain of original sin and she remained pure from all personal sin throughout her life.
If God could apply the redemption Christ wrought to Mary before his death and resurrection, then he could similarly apply its fruits to others as well—at least on an exceptional basis.
And the way that Enoch and Elijah’s lives concluded was clearly exceptional.
In Enoch’s case, Genesis 5:24 says that God “took” him, but doesn’t say where. Sirach 44:16 and 49:14 make it clear that he was taken up from the earth, and Hebrews 11:5 adds “so that he should not see death.”
In Elijah’s case, 2 Kings 2:11 states that “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” First Maccabees 2:58 adds, “Elijah because of great zeal for the Law was taken up into heaven.”
Both 2 Kings and 1 Maccabees both use the ordinary Hebrew and Greek words for “heaven” (shamayim and ouranos, respectively)—indicating that heaven was where they went.
Recently I was rereading St. John Paul II’s general audience on heaven and noticed that he also acknowledged this:
The depiction of heaven as the transcendent dwelling-place of the living God is joined with that of the place to which believers, through grace, can also ascend, as we see in the Old Testament accounts of Enoch (cf. Gn 5:24) and Elijah (cf. 2 Kgs 2:11) [General Audience, July 21, 1999].
It thus seems that John Paul II—who is now himself in heaven—acknowledged the exceptional nature of Enoch and Elijah’s admission to that blessed realm.
Thank you for this Jimmy. My first impulse would also be to think they were taken but I do struggle with where. I assumed they were in a more exalted place than “Abraham’s bosom”. The reason I struggle with it is because it’s hard for me to imagine ANY human soul or body in Heaven with God, before Jesus Christ’s resurrected body ascended into Heaven. I just always assumed the first ‘human’ in Heaven was Jesus. I realize the benefits of the redemption were applied to Mary’s soul at her conception, but that does not seem the same as allowing a human to enter Heaven before Jesus’ human/glorified body entered Heaven. What are your thoughts on this?
Also, do you think it will be Enoch and Elijah to come back in the last days, or will it be two men who possess their same faith, trust and obedience to God?
The word ‘heaven’ can be obscure. Does it mean paradise, or the the true heaven of the New Jerusalem? Is it probable that Enoch and Elijah were in paradise until Christ opened the gates of the true heaven?
Of course, in Eternity, there is no time, so the temporal language we use cannot really adequately explain what happened to Enoch, Elijah and probably Moses. There is no spacial reality in Eternity, either, so they didn’t actually “go” anywhere. Whenever we talk about Eternity, we are using analogous language, and every analogy has its logical limits.
Moses died and was buried, but Enoch and Elijah did not die. Deut. 34:5-8
I think that at the Transfiguration, the apostles Peter, James, and John witnessed a vision of Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus because Moses and Elijah represented the Law and the Prophets, respectively; and both were to be ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
John the Baptist was the first fulfillment of “Elijah to come,” but I think that Elijah the Prophet will return to earth for the ultimate fulfillment of Malachi 4:5-6,. See also Luke 16:16, Matthew 11:12-14, Matthew 17:9-13, Revelation 11:4-13
This article states that Mary remained pure of all personal sin throughout her life. Do you think that Mary was tempted to sin, like Jesus in the desert, but never gave in to temptation? Were Jesus and Mary able to resist temptations more easily than us because they did not experience the concupiscence that is an effect of original sin?
I do not think that Enoch and Elijah are presently in the third heaven with God. I think that they have been and are still in a Paradise-like-Eden place awaiting their return to earth to preach to the Jews when the Antichrist is here, and I also think that they will be killed by him.
I know that the first 19 chapters of Revelation/Apocalypse were fulfilled when Jerusalem, its Temple, and its people were destroyed in 70 A.D. , but I think that there will be an additional fulfillment shortly before Jesus returns. Enoch and Elijah will return to earth to preach to the Jews to convert them to Christianity and so they will be murdered by the Antichrist. This has been prophesied by some saints and also by others.
http://www.catholicrevelations.org/PR/st%20bede.htm
http://www.catholicrevelations.org/PR/st%20ephraem.htm
http://www.catholicrevelations.org/PR/antichrost%20by%20eves%20dupont.htm
Before His own death which re-opened the gates of heaven for humans which Adam’s sin had closed, Jesus specifically stated that no one (meaning human beings; not angels) had ascended into heaven. Most likely He meant that no human being had yet ascended into the third heaven where God’s throne is.
John 3:13 (NRSVCE) “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”
Dear Jimmy,
I am so thankful for your blog. My son, Thomas, introduced me to your blog as well as your delicious recipes! 🙂
Have a blessed day.
Jennifer
Elisha and Enoch are the two Prophets who are sent by God back to earth to preach to the people of Jerusalem during the “END OF DAYS”. They are killed by the anti-christ and returned to heaven
Evidence?
So basically the passage in the discussion is:
[2 Kings]
{2:11} And as they continued on, they were conversing while walking. And behold, a fiery chariot with fiery horses divided the two. And Elijah ascended by a whirlwind into heaven.
As a Spanish speaking reader as well, I have never had any problem interpreting this verse as if Elijah went to “Heaven”, but up to the sky. In Spanish, the word “Cielo”, means “Heaven” and “Sky”, but interpreting this particular passage, I think it seems obvious that the Word is saying that he went up to the sky, not Heaven.
Similarly here:
[Matthew]
{14:19} And when he had ordered the multitude to sit down upon the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish, and gazing up to heaven, he blessed and broke and gave the bread to the disciples, and then the disciples to the multitudes.
“Gazing up to heaven” can clearly be interpreted that our Lord Jesus “looked up to the sky”.
Of course, our Lord Jesus prays to our Father who is in Heaven, but Jesus literally looked up to the sky which is a way to look beyond of what is on earth.
Jesus Christ has said it very clearly:
[John]
{3:13} And no one has ascended to heaven, except the one who descended from heaven: the Son of man who is in heaven.
(He said this to Nicodemus before His Passion and Resurrection).
AND
{14:6} Jesus said to him: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
That the Spanish word for heaven can also mean sky is irrelevant, as the scriptures were written in Hebrew and Greek. Jimmy quotes the words for heaven in both those languages. Your argument would have some merit if the Hebrew and Greek words for heaven also mean sky.
My point is about interpretation of Scripture, not the literal translation of languages. John 3:13 is what I mean.
I want to add once again that John 3:13 was said by Jesus Christ to Nicodemus after the events of Enoch and Elijah took place, and before His Passion and Resurrection. According to the revelations given by the Virgin Mary to St. Bridget of Sweden, only Jesus and our Lady are in Heaven in body and soul (our Lady was assumed after Christ had ascended – and taking in consideration our current earthy timeline).
How does one interpret scripture correctly without the correct translation of the original languages?
The “Message” that the Sacred Author want to give us is more important than the “literal” translation of the original written language for not all of Sacred Scriptures is literal, there are some passages that are figurative, others metaphorical, others prophetic. Also, some particular “words”, same words, have different meanings that need to be interpreted in whole context of a determined message. One example, the Aramaic word for “brethren” or “brother” can also mean step-brother, and even near or distant relatives. A particular reason that the “Message” is more important than the literal text by itself alone is that God has permitted that the original manuscripts of Sacred Scriptures have disappeared, the oldest papyrus (paper) manuscripts that have been found are copies of copies. Have the infallibility of Sacred Scriptures been lost by this? No. Not at all, for Sacred Tradition and the Sacred Magisterium of the Church protects Sacred Scriptures and prevents it from losing its infallibility. For this reason, all of the translations of the Bible, in all of its different languages, preserve its infallibility given the proper interpretation in accord of Tradition and Scriptures (2 Peter 1:20); (2 Peter 3:16).
So, how is Sacred Scripture properly interpreted and understood? In light of Tradition, Scripture, Magisterium of the Church (not merely by focusing on some verses here and others there).
In light of All Sacred Scripture: Since AFTER the events that took place with Enoch and Elijah Jesus, the Messiah, God Himself, has said that nobody have gone to Heaven, except Himself (John 3:13), this mean that the Sacred Author did not mean that Elijah went to The literal Heaven in 2 Kings 2:11, Elijah was literally taken up to the sky (as when Jesus literally looked up to the sky in Matt 14:19), but not to the literal Heaven. Also, everyone must die first, then be judged, in order to (according to judgment) have access into the literal Heaven (Hebrews 9:27). And this is backed by the revelations given by our Lady to St. Bridget of Sweden (after the Ascension of our Lord and the Assumption of our Lady): “Know, too, that there is no human body in Heaven than the glorious body of my Son and mine”.- Revelations of St. Bridget, TAN Books, pg. 69.
Some theologians propose that Enoch and Elijah are the two prophets from the book of Revelations (Rev 11 [11:3]), so what happened to them is that they were brought into Eternity (where there is no time and space), so in a blink of an eye (for them), they will be presented into the eschatological distant future (for us) during the reign of the Antichrist, and there they will be martyred.
And this answers my question…how?
Thank you very much for the information you are giving us as for me im realy uplifted .
Sir,
I certainly agree that God may do as he wishes, and certainly these Holy men are an exception that proves the rule, but if ANYONE should have been given this blessing, should it not have been given to his step father St Joseph of all people?
There has never been a tradition that St. Joseph ascended, there has always been a tradition that he had a particularly happy death, and there is definitely a tradition that his tomb is a cave close to the Holy Family’s house in Nazareth.
If I wanted to get mystical about it, I would say that Jesus as a man was probably greatly helped by the example of St. Joseph’s calm facing of death. Men often learn certain things best from other men. Joseph was also the kind of guy who probably didn’t want anything special.
OTOH, I think there are a few legends that Joseph rose again after the Harrowing of Hell, along with the patriarchs and the “saints” in Jerusalem. You will see pictures occasionally of Jesus opening Sheol and greeting St. Joseph, although usually Ss. Adam and Eve and St. David are the ones given more attention by artists.
Re: Enoch and Elijah – They technically didn’t “ascend.” They were taken up (“assumed”), but they didn’t go up by their own power. If angels come and get you in a fiery chariot, that is a whole lot of difference from just heading up to the Mount of Olives, waving a cheery farewell, and then walking up through the clouds.
The Transfiguration was an apparition of some sort, not a vision. Moses and Elijah were actually there making a personal appearance, albeit it’s not clear whether Moses was in his body or not. (Probably he was.)