“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)
