Bodily Ascent to Heaven

An alternative version of Enoch’s ascent to heaven is found in the longer recension of 2 Enoch, also known as the book of the Secrets of Enoch, which was composed in Greek in the late first century CE but survives only in Old Church Slavonic. Whereas Enoch’s ascent in 1 Enoch has a visionary quality, here his ascent is bodily, which necessitates his apotheosis, or transformation into a heavenly being. Enoch remarks, “And I looked at myself, and I had become like one of his glorious ones, and there was no visible difference.” Apotheosis played an important role in later Jewish and Christian mysticism, in which Enoch is a major figure.