Saturday, February 20, 2021

Origen's Denial that Elijah and Enoch was Assumed ("Translated") into Heaven

 

 

“But still my flesh will set up a tent in hope” (Ps 15.9c). My Lord Jesus says this. His flesh first set up a tent in hope, for he was crucified and awoke on the third day, becoming the firstborn of the dead (Col 1.18, Rv 1.5). Once he arose, he was taken up into heaven and brought up from earth an earthly body, so that the heavenly powers were surprised, since they had never seen this spectacle, flesh ascending into heaven. Concerning Elijah, it is written that “he was taken up as into heaven” (2 Kgs 2.11. With “as,” Origen’s Septuagint Bible implies that Elijah was not necessarily taken up to heaven, but that something like that happened. The conjunction “as” does not occur in our received Hebrew text) and concerning Enoch, “God transported him” (Gn 5.24, Heb 11.5. The statement is ambiguous. It does not say that Enoch was bodily transported to heaven). Let anyone who wants to take offense at my language. I am venturing to say that, because he is firstborn of the dead, so he also was the first to bring flesh up into heaven. (Psalm 15 Homily 2 in Homilies on the Psalms: Codex Monacensis Graecus 314 [The Fathers of the Church; trans. Joseph W. Trigg; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2020], 70)