Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

Any Sci-fi buff will tell you Enoch, Elijah, Jesus and others were probably abducted by extraterrestrial aliens from another galaxy. Bible scholars, however, cannot accept such interesting conjectures. in this brief little section, we shall examine some of the early rabbinical and Christian debates on a very perplexing passage that has inspired much of the intertestamental literature of the early centuries.

5:24 וַיִּתְהַלֵּךְ חֲנוֹךְ אֶת־הָאֱלֹהִים וְאֵינֶנּוּ כִּי־לָקַח אֹתוֹ אֱלֹהִים – Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him – The Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan paraphrases the verse as follows: “And Enoch served in truth before God, and behold, he was not with the sojourners of earth, for he was withdrawn and he ascended to heaven by the word of God.” The apocryphal Wisdom of Ben Sira also makes mention of this legend: “Few have ever been created on earth like Enoch, for he was taken up from the earth” (Sira 49:14).

Louis Ginzberg writes that nowhere in the entire corpus of Tannaitic literature, nor in either the Babylonian or Jerusalem Talmud, is there any mention made of Enoch and his ascension to the heavens. This assessment is only partially correct. It seems to me that this may have been due more to polemical considerations, for Christians believed that Jesus experienced an ascension after his resurrection, which they likened to the ascension of Elijah and Enoch. For Christians, Enoch in a sense prefigures the “raptured elect” who are alive on the Last Day.[1] The rabbis demythologized Enoch’s death, and thus with one bold stroke, the rabbis also denied the Christian belief that Jesus, too, experienced an ascension. Enoch, like everyone else, was mortal; he died like all other people. Thus we find in the Midrash:

• On one occasion, some Christians asked R. Abbahu: “We do not find that Enoch died!”^[2] R. Abbahu inquired: “How so?” The Christians replied: “Because the Torah states, ‘then he was no more, because God took him,’ as it was similarly written in connection with Elijah.”

From these words, the Christians wished to find an antecedent to the idea of Jesus’s ascension in the Tanakh. Elijah “ascended” to Heaven, and the discussion continued:

• “As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching, crying out, “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen! But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces” (2 Kgs 2:11-12). But R. Abbahu challenged their argument: “If you wish to stress the importance of ‘taking,’ he answered, then examine how ‘taking’ is used in the Book of Ezekiel, where it says: ‘Mortal, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes’ (Ezek. 24:16).” R. Tanhuma observed: “He answered them well.” A matron asked R. Jose: “But we do not find death stated of Enoch?” He answered her: “If it said, ‘Enoch walked with God and is no more,’ I would agree with you. Since, however, it says, ‘and then he was no more,’ it means that he was no more in the world, i.e., having died, because God took him” (Gen. Rabbah 25:1).

Some of the medieval commentaries on the Talmud and on the Torah, as well as the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, argued that the verb לָקַח (läqah = “take”) implies ascension, both in Genesis 5:24 and Elijah’s ascension into the heavenly realm in 2 Kings 2:3, 10–11. This of course, flies in the face of R. Abbahu’s interpretation. We may surmise that R. Abbahu was familiar with the many legends concerning Enoch and Elijah, but he purposely chose to demythologize the text by stressing that “taking” is often used in the Tanakh as a metaphor for death. But did he really answer their question? Only partially, while a good case for Enoch’s death can be made, no such interpretation can be derived Elijah’s ascension, which the Early Church Fathers likened to Jesus’s ascension. As with many exegetical interpretations, one’s interpretation is, more often than not, seen through the interpretive lens of a faith tradition.

Notes:

[1] In other words, Enoch went directly to heaven without dying, as will believers who are alive at the Rapture. Charles Ryrie develops this theme in his commentary to the New Testament (1 Thess. 4:17).

^[2] The Christian challenge to R. Abbahu is reflected in the New Testament: e.g., “By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and ‘he was not found, because God had taken him.’ For it was attested before he was taken away that ‘he had pleased God.’ And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:5–6).