THE PROBLEM OF ENOCH

AND ELIJAH
BY AMBROSE ANDREANO

A ccording to mainstream Christian tradition, Enoch

and Elijah were the only people in human history to
have ever escaped death. Many believe that they are still
living somewhere on this planet. For years and years I
personally struggled through Enoch and Elijah, and the
implications of believing they literally ascended to
heaven, like Christ, but never died. This is made
especially troublesome when Athanasius says humanity
is without exception under the natural “law of death,” or
God is a liar. He says the following:

But if they went astray and became vile, throwing

away their birthright of beauty, then they would
come under the natural law of death and live no
longer in paradise, but, dying outside of it, continue
in death and in corruption. This is what Holy
Scripture tells us, proclaiming the command of
God, "Of every tree that is in the garden thou shalt
surely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil ye shall not eat, but in the day that ye do
eat, ye shall surely die." "Ye shall surely die”—not
just die only, but remain in the state of death and of
corruption1 [...] The law of death, which followed
from the Transgression, prevailed upon us, and
from it there was no escape. The thing that was
happening was in truth both monstrous and
unfitting. It would, of course, have been
unthinkable that God should go back upon His word
and that man, having transgressed, should not die2
[...]

1
Athanasius, On the Incarnation 3.3-5.
2
Ibid., 6.2-3.

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Thus, for Athanasius, for one to be properly classified as
human in Adam, one must die, because God said “ye
shall surely die.”3 However, we must look at the evidence
from the scriptures.

1. NEW TESTAMENT EVIDENCE

First, in the New Testament, John records the following
in his Gospel:

No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that

came down from heaven, even the Son of man
which is in heaven.4

And then elsewhere it says in the Epistle to the Hebrews:

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see

death; and was not found, because God had
translated him: for before his translation he had this
testimony, that he pleased God [...] These all died in
faith, not having received the promises, but having
seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and
embraced them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth.5

John Chrysostom tried to wiggle out of this dilemma in

Hebrews by saying Enoch is simply the one exception to
Paul’s list of saints, saying, “The word all [in “these all
died in faith”] is used here not because all had died, but
because with that one exception all these had died, whom
we know to be dead.”6 Critical thinkers will not find this
argument to be very convincing since it is mainly just a
deflection (and a highly arguable one at that), and it also
must be squared with the Athanasian law of death.
We also have an account of this very same act of
aerial translation in the person of Philip:

And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and

3
Genesis 2:17.
4
John 3:13.
5
Hebrews 11:5, 13.
6
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Hebrews 23.3.

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 they went down both into the water, both Philip and
the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they
were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the
Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him
no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But
Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he
preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.7

2. OLD TESTAMENT EVIDENCE

The Old Testament shows that Elijah was notorious for
his disappearing acts, because it happened all the time,
and people were already aware of this pattern of
supernatural location shifting, slippery fellow that he
was. Here is the testimony in 1 Kings showing how
whenever the king’s men came to take Elijah, God picked
him up and took him away from the danger so he should
not see death (presumably because God was not done
with him yet):

And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met

him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and
said, Art thou that my lord Elijah? And he answered
him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.
And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest
deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay
me? As the LORD thy God liveth, there is no nation
or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek
thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an
oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found
thee not. And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord,
Behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to pass, as
soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the
LORD shall carry thee whither I know not; and so
when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee,
he shall slay me: but I thy servant fear the LORD
from my youth.8

In 2 Kings we see that God was going to translate Elijah

again, and the people of Bethel knew the routine.
Eventually, Elijah was taken by a whirlwind
7
Acts 8:38-40.
8
1 Kings 18:7-12.

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accompanied by chariots of fire into the sky and out of
the sight of Elisha:

And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up

Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went
with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto
Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath
sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the
LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave
thee. So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of
the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to
Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the
LORD will take away thy master from thy head to
day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your
peace.9

Notice how afterwards the onlooking people went off to

look for Elijah, knowing where God usually takes him.
Why would people go on a three day journey through the
countryside to find a man who they believed is not even
on earth, but was rather taken up to the celestial realm of
the gods? They knew the routine, and they knew Elijah
was simply relocated:

And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with

thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray
thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the
Spirit of the LORD hath taken him up, and cast him
upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he
said, Ye shall not send.10

This is made clear in the scripture because seven years

later11 we find Elijah still on earth having written to the
King of Judah, Jehoram:

And there came a writing to him from Elijah the

prophet, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of
David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in
the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways
of Asa king of Judah [...]12

9
2 Kings 2:1-3.
10
2 Kings 2:16.
11
Seven years by comparing I Kings 22:42, and II Kings 3:1, 8:16.
12
2 Chronicles 21:12.

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Therefore, we can see that the texts which were typically
assumed to be in reference to Elijah being caught up to
heaven in a chariot of fire, never to be seen again,
preserved from the law of death, do not in fact testify to
this understanding when read carefully.

3. ADDITIONAL DATA
The very same translation seen from Philip and Elijah is
again found in Ezekiel:

Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my

words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine
heart, and hear with thine ears. And go, get thee to
them of the captivity, unto the children of thy
people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus
saith the Lord GOD; whether they will hear, or
whether they will forbear. Then the spirit took me
up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great
rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD
from his place. I heard also the noise of the wings
of the living creatures that touched one another, and
the noise of the wheels over against them, and a
noise of a great rushing. So the spirit lifted me up,
and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the
heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was
strong upon me. Then I came to them of the
captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of
Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there
astonished among them seven days.13

In his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus says that Elijah

and Enoch were removed from the sight of the public so
that people would not know of their death:

Accordingly the king in a very little time died, as

Elijah had foretold; but Jehoram his brother
succeeded him in the kingdom, for he died without
children: but for this Jehoram, he was like his father
Ahab in wickedness, and reigned twelve years,
indulging himself in all sorts of wickedness and
13
Ezekiel 3:10-15.

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 impiety towards God, for, leaving off his worship,
he worshipped foreign gods; but in other respects he
was an active man. Now at this time it was that
Elijah disappeared from among men, and no one
knows of his death to this very day; but he left
behind him his disciple Elisha, as we have formerly
declared. And indeed, as to Elijah, and as to Enoch,
who was before the deluge, it is written in the
sacred books that they disappeared, but so that
nobody knew that they died.14

Moses even though his death was known, because of the

perceived providential significance of not being able to
find the corpse. Scripture says “So Moses the servant of
the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to
the word of the LORD. And he buried him in a valley in
the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man
knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.”15
Origen was one of the only theologians who
noticed this problem of Enoch and Elijah being compared
to Christ, because scripture gives the impression that
Christ’s resurrection and ascent into heaven was the first
event of its kind, taking evidence from Isaiah 34:6; 63:1.
Origen is also very aware of the mainstream view and
how many would be excessively reluctant to accept any
nuance of this topic and even take offense to another
suggestion. He makes a distinction between three words:
(1) the assumption of Elijah, (2) the translation of Enoch,
and (3) the ascension of Christ, saying the following in
his Commentary on Psalms:16

The Lord Jesus Christ, whose flesh was the first to

“rest in hope,” is saying these things. For he was
crucified and became “firstborn from the dead”;17
and after the resurrection he was assumed into
heaven18 and took his earthly body with him, so that
the heavenly powers were terrified and stunned
when they saw flesh ascending into heaven. For it is
14
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 9.2.2.
15
Deuteronomy 34:5-6.
16
The comments are on Psalm 16:9 in particular, salvaged by Pamphilus.
17
Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:5.
18
Cf. Mark 16.19; Luke 24.51; Acts 1.9, 11.

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 written of Elijah that he was, as it were, assumed
into heaven,19 and of Enoch, that he was
translated,20 but it is not said that he ascended into
heaven. The one who wants may take offense at our
words, but I shall nevertheless assert with all
confidence that, just as Christ is “firstborn from the
dead,” so he was the first to bring flesh to heaven.
After all, the heavenly powers are quite terrified at
the very novelty [of the thing], since they were now
seeing what they had never seen before: flesh
ascending into heaven. And that is why they say:
“Who is he who comes from Edom?”—that is, from
the earth, and, “The red of his vestments is from
Bosor”;21 for they saw in his body the marks of the
wounds from Bosor,22 that is, the marks that he had
received in the flesh.23

In trying to reconcile Chrysostom and Athanasius, one

may attempt to make the argument that the “two
witnesses” of Revelation 11:3 who are killed in
Revelation 11:7 are to be identified as Enoch and Elijah.
In other words, God has continued to extend their life
(presumably an event similar to Hezekiah’s life
extension24) but they would eventually die at a later date,
maintaining the Athanasian law of death. However, this
interpretation is predicated on unclear and arguable
grounds. For example, though the two witnesses may be
Enoch and Elijah, they just as well may not be Enoch and
Elijah. Though of course one would be obligated to make
the association to make the law of death work. And if we
grant Origen’s argument that Christ’s ascension was a
unique event, even according to the angelic realm, why
would they be surprised at the coming of Christ when
such an ascension already happened twice before? Would
this not in some way cheapen what Christ has
accomplished?
19
Cf. 2 Kings 2:1, 11.
20
Cf. Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5.
21
Isaiah 63:1.
22
Cf. Isaiah 34:6.
23
Pamphilus, Apology for Origen (FOTC 120), trans. Thomas P. Scheck
(Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), pp. 104-
105.
24
Cf. 2 Kings 20.

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4. CONCLUSION
This topic is difficult and mysterious regardless of
whatever one chooses to believe. Perhaps Enoch and
Elijah did eventually die like everyone else who
experienced translation, and were miraculously preserved
for a time as a sign to men; a way to send a message.
This would be similar to how Polycarp was miraculously
unable to be burned by fire before ultimately dying by
being pierced with a dagger.25 It seems clear to me that
translation means transportation from one location to the
other through the air, and does not mean one escapes
death, ascends physically to the realm of the gods to be
made immortal.
Understood this way, Enoch and Elijah did
eventually die afterwards, as do all human beings under
the law of death. One may believe that the lives of Elijah
and Enoch were literally preserved from death, but of
course one would also need to explain Christ associating
the prophesy of Elijah to be concerning John the Baptist
and not a literal return of Elijah as Elijah, as well as the
fact that there does not seem to be any scriptural support
for the suggestion that Elijah never died, but only that
men did not see him die. Whatever the case may be, it is
my hope that this essay is helpful for those who are
honest students of the scriptures.

25
Cf. Martyrdom of Polycarp 15-16.