Jaabez, the son of Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi, who was editor of the Mishnah.Hiram, king of Tyre, who helped Solomon build the first temple.Eliezer, the servant of Abraham who chose Rebecca to be Isaac's wife.Serah, daughter of Asher, son of Jacob ( Midrash Yalkut Shimoni (Yechezkel 367)).Enoch, Noah's great grandfather ( Genesis 5:22–24).

The Books of Kings describes the prophet Elijah being taken towards 'shamayim' in a whirlwind, but the word can mean either heaven as the abode of God, or the sky (as the word 'heavens' does in modern English), and so again the text is ambiguous.Īccording to the post-biblical Midrash, eight people went to (or will go to) heaven (also referred to as the Garden of Eden and paradise) alive: Genesis 5:24 mentions Enoch as one who 'walked faithfully with God then he was no more, because God took him away', but it does not explicitly say whether he was alive or dead, and it does not say where God took him. In the Hebrew Bible, there are two exceptions to the general rule that humans could not go to heaven – Enoch and Elijah – but neither is clear. Since death is the normal end to an individual's life on Earth and the beginning of afterlife, entering heaven without dying first is considered exceptional and usually a sign of a deity's special recognition of the individual's piety. In Islam, it is believed that he ascended to heaven while still alive.Įntering heaven alive (called by various religions 'ascension', 'assumption', or ' translation') is a belief held in various religions.

Christians believe that Jesus ascended into heaven after his death on the cross. ( February 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Īscension of Jesus, by John Singleton Copley. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations.

Christ ascension into heaven