trans-la'-shun: The verb "translate" is found once in the Old Testament (2 Samuel 3:10 the King James Version, in the sense of "to transfer") and 3 times in the New Testament (Colossians 1:13, methistemi, where it means "to transfer"; twice in Hebrews 11:5, where it has the quasi-technical sense of removing one from the earthly to the heavenly state without the intervening experience of death).

The noun "translation" occurs only in Hebrews 11:5, metathesis, where it refers to the transition, the general nature of which has just been described in connection with the verb. With their customary reserve in regard to such matters, the Scriptures simply record the fact of Enoch's translation without commenting either upon the attendant circumstances, or upon the nature of the change involved in his experience. Doubtless what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 applied in the case of Enoch and also in that of Elijah (2 Kings 2:11).

W. M. McPheeters

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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