"what heaven is like. There is almost no mention in the Hebrew Bible of heaven as a possible afterlife destination for human beings, who are instead described as ""resting"" in Sheol (, , ). The only two possible exceptions to this are Enoch, who is described in as having been ""taken"" by God, and the prophet Elijah, who is described in as having ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire. According to Michael B. Hundley, the text in both of these instances is ambiguous regarding the significance of the actions being described and in neither of these cases does"
"of Jonah and Elijah could be interpreted in this context: Prophet Jonah is the prototype of the Christ of the Resurrection, while Elijah of the Christ of the Ascension. In the Old Testament ""Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven"" on a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11). But Giorgio Vasari emphasized another aspect of Elijah's story in his description: ""...an Elijah, living by Grace, with his cruse of water and his bread baked in the ashes, under the juniper-tree."" Fabio Chigi repeated this in a letter. The statue was carved by Lorenzetto, Raphael's pupil, but unlike its counterpart,"
"heaven; before him, a calf is consumed as a burnt-offering to God. Below right, he is seated under a tree as an angel brings him food. Above right, the kneeling Elie sees Christ appearing in a blue sphere borne by two angels amid rosy clouds. In his right hand, Christ holds a phylactery inscribed: ‘The people of Israel have renounced God and demolished his temples.’ Above the hill, St. Elias is borne upwards in a chariot of fire drawn by four horses. He hands his folded cloak to his disciple Elisha, who stands on the summit. Elisha is about to"
"recklessly might invoke biblical or mythological allusions: Some referred to him as a jehu, recalling King Jehu of Israel, who was noted for his furious attacks in a chariot (2 Kings 9:20) before he died about 816 BC. Others dubbed him a Phaeton, harking back to the Greek Phaëton, son of Helios who, attempting to drive the chariot of the sun, managed to set the earth on fire. When there was no coachman, a ""postilion"" or ""postillion"" sometimes rode as a guide on the near horse of a pair or of one of the pairs attached to a coach. The"
"to Gen. x. 6, Cush, the Ethiopian, is a son of Ham. According to the ""Recognitiones"", the Persians believed that Zoroaster had been taken into heaven in a chariot (""ad cœlum vehiculo sublevatum""); and according to the Jewish legend, the above-mentioned Ethiopian was transported alive into paradise, an occurrence that, like the translation of Elijah, must have taken place by means of a ""vehiculum."" Another reminiscence of the Jewish legend is found in Baruch-Zoroaster's words concerning Jesus: ""He shall descend from my family"", since, according to the Haggadah, Baruch was a priest; and Maria, the mother of Jesus, was of"
"Buraq Al-Burāq ( ""al-Burāq"" or ""lightning"") is a magical horse in Islamic mythology, a creature from the heavens that transported the prophets. Most notably Buraq carried the Islamic prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and back during the Isra and Mi'raj or ""Night Journey"", as recounted in hadith literature. The ""Encyclopaedia of Islam"", referring to Al-Damiri's writings, considers Buraq to be a derivative of ""barq"" ""lightning"". According to ""Encyclopædia Iranica"", ""Boraq"" is the Arabized form of ""Middle Persian *""barāg"" or *""bārag"", 'a riding beast, mount' (New Pers. ""bāra"")"". Near East and Persian art almost always portrays Buraq with a human"
"the seraph Abdiel in the first day of the War of Heaven. In the Coptic ""Pistis Sophia"" (MS. Add. 5114.), Jesus bids the apostles preach that they ""be delivered from the rivers of smoke of Ariel."" Because of the association of Jerusalem with the name ""Ariel"", it is likely that this is an allusion to the fires of Gehenna (or Gehinnom), a valley near Jerusalem deemed cursed because of its association with early pagan religions (Ba'als and Caananite gods, including Moloch) where children were sacrificed by immolation. In later Jewish, Christian and Islamic scripture, Gehenna is a destination of the"
"heavenly journey during which they learned cosmic and divine secrets. Figures familiar to Jews would have included Enoch (from the Book of Genesis and a popular non-Biblical work called 1 Enoch); the 5th-century sage Ezra; Baruch the companion of the prophet Jeremiah (from a work called 2 Baruch, in which Baruch is promised he will ascend to heaven after 40 days); Levi the ancestor of priests; the Teacher of Righteousness from the Qumran community; the prophet Elijah (from 2 Kings); Moses, who was deified on entering heaven; and the children of Job, who according to the Testament of Job ascended"
"the temple priests and the king of Babylon, Nimrod. The news spread like fire in the kingdom and people were coming from all places to watch the execution. A huge pit was dug up and a large quantity of wood was piled up. Then the biggest fire people ever witnessed was lit. The flames were so high up in the sky that even the birds could not fly over it for fear of being burnt themselves. Ibrahim's hands and feet were chained, and he was put in a catapult, ready to be thrown in. During this time, Angel Jibril came"
"followers into Garveyism by finding the charismatic metaphor: Bedward and Garvey were as Aaron and Moses, one the high priest, the other prophet, both leading the children of Israel out of exile. Garvey's middle name was considered by people to be a mix of the two names Moses and Messiah. Later Bedward proclaimed that he was a reincarnation of Jesus Christ and that, like Elijah, he would ascend into heaven in a flaming chariot. He then expected to rain down fire on those that did not follow him, thereby destroying the whole world. In 1921 he and 800 followers marched"
"No names of angels are mentioned until the Book of Daniel, where Michael and Gabriel make their appearance. This led the Rabbis to assert that the names of the angels were something that the returning exiles brought with them from Babylonia. Gabriel was believed to have been the angel who delivered Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah from the fiery furnace. Nevertheless, the king endeavored to induce Daniel to worship the idol by trying to make him believe that it was something alive and real; and he ordered that there be placed in its mouth the frontlet (""tzitz"") of the high priest,"
"that the Children of Israel ""could travel by day or night"". YHWH, the God of the Bible, manifested himself in this pillar of fire or cloud in order to directly guide and comfort the Israelites while he rescued them from their Egyptian slavery. Throughout the Israelite's time in the desert, traveling from Egypt to Canaan (the Promised Land), YHWH continually used this pillar of fire and cloud to lead his people and to remind them of his presence. When the pillar of God moved forward, the people of Israel would pack up their camp and follow behind it. Similarly, when"
"and the Gospel from Matthew 24. The Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod commemorates Daniel, together with the Three Young Men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), on December 17. Daniel (Arabic: دانيال, ""Danyal""), is not mentioned in the Qur'an, but there are accounts of his prophet-hood in later Muslim literature. He was carried off to Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem, where he was rescued from lions with the aid of the prophet Jeremiah. (In Bel and the Dragon it is the prophet Habakkuk who plays this role). Another source (Tabiri) retells how Daniel interpreted the king's dream of"
"v. 4, God appears from Teman and Paran. His majesty is described as a glory of light and brightness; pestilence precedes Him. The mountains tremble violently; the earth quakes; the people are sore afraid. God rides in a chariot of war, with horses—a conception found also in Isa. xix. 1, where God appears on a cloud, and in Ps. xviii. 10, where He appears on a cherub. The biblical prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel receive their commissions as prophets amid glorious manifestations of God. Isaiah sees God on a high and lofty throne. More precisely, however, he sees not Him but"
"fails, but goes on to try storming Heaven in person, in a chariot driven by birds. The story attributes to Abraham elements from the story of Moses' birth (the cruel king killing innocent babies, with the midwives ordered to kill them) and from the careers of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who emerged unscathed from the fire. Nimrod is thus given attributes of two archetypal cruel and persecuting kings – Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh. Some Jewish traditions also identified him with Cyrus, whose birth according to Herodotus was accompanied by portents, which made his grandfather try to kill him. A confrontation is"
"The ""Likeness of a Man"" sits on a throne made of sapphire. The Bible later makes mention of a third type of angel found in the Merkabah called """"seraphim"""" (lit. ""burning"") angels. These angels appear like flashes of fire continuously ascending and descending. These ""seraphim"" angels power the movement of the chariot. In the hierarchy of these angels, ""seraphim"" are the highest, that is, closest to God, followed by the ""hayyot"", which are followed by the ""ophanim"". The chariot is in a constant state of motion, and the energy behind this movement runs according to this hierarchy. The movement of"
"in a tomb. The Gospel of Matthew account begins with the same modified quotation from Isaiah, moving the Malachi and Exodus material to later in the text, where it is quoted by Jesus. The description of John is taken directly from Mark (""clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey""), along with the proclamation that one was coming who would baptise with the Holy Spirit ""and fire"".() Unlike Mark, Matthew describes John as critical of Pharisees and Sadducees and as preaching ""the kingdom of heaven is at hand"" and"
"hell, except for Judas, Cain, and Herod the Great. This is followed by a flashback described by a gardener to the night when angels, fiery chariots, and God, descended to earth, and resurrected Jesus. Bartholomew is present at the scene, and is shown the highest level of heaven so that he can see the liturgy going on there to celebrate the resurrection. Bartholomew then has a flashback about a divine visitation at the Mount of Olives. Meanwhile, Thomas is busy resurrecting ""Siophanes"" (possibly a transcription error and meant to read ""Theophanes""), his son. On returning to life, Siophanes describes what"
"four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in the Bible, as well as being the focus of the subsequent books of the New Testament. Some stories common to all four Gospels include that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, subsequently traveled as an itinerant preacher and healer, took on twelve apostles, miraculously fed 5000 people at least once, entered Jerusalem on a donkey, drove merchants from the Second Temple, predicted his betrayal by one of his disciples, was crucified, but resurrected from death. It must be noted that each gospel represents a different perspective, with some different information and"
"came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."" The phrase has become a byword for divine energy, and inspired the title of the 1981 film ""Chariots of Fire"", in which the hymn Jerusalem is sung. The plural phrase ""chariots of fire"" refers to 2 Kings 6:16–18. Blake lived in London for most of his life, but wrote much of ""Milton"" while living in the village of Felpham in Sussex. Amanda Gilroy argues"
"heaven following their resurrection from the dead. Non-Jewish readers would have been familiar with the case of the emperor Augustus, whose ascent was witnessed by Senators; Romulus the founder of Rome, who, like Jesus, was taken to heaven in a cloud; the Greek hero Heracles (Hercules); and others. The common thread linking all the New Testament ascension references, reflected in the major Christian creeds and confessional statements, is the exaltation of Jesus, meaning that through his ascension Jesus took his seat at the right hand of God in Heaven: ""He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand"
"prophet Idris to be the same person as Enoch from the Bible. This is because the Qu'ran states that God ""raised him to a lofty station"", and that has been taken to be a term for ascending, upon which it is concluded that ""Idris"" was ""Enoch"". In the Hebrew bible the word for ""heavens"" is ""shamayim"". This is plural - it means ""heavens"", not ""heaven"" - but seems nevertheless to have a singular meaning: i.e., the older parts of the bible speak of ""heavens"" in the plural but evidence for a belief in more than one heaven from the bible"
"unit are told in pictorial form by the story from Greek mythology of the winged chariot of Helios which was brought to earth by a bolt of lightning thrown by Zeus. A summary of the story is as follows: Helios, the sun, drove across the heavens from east to west daily, in a winged chariot drawn by the celestial horses. His son, Phaeton, in order to please his mother, and to satisfy those who doubted that he was really a son of Helios, obtained permission from his father to take his place in the chariot for one day. Phaeton had"
"hierarchy in the ranks of the trinity. Further, it is suggested that the angels escorting Isaiah in his ascension are none other than Jesus (""the Beloved"") and the Angel of the Holy Spirit. By the text labeling Jesus and the Holy Spirit as angelic beings, a Christology and pneumatology are established that distinguish ""the LORD"" from ""my LORD"" and the Holy Spirit. This would be cause to label the story as heretical in the Western Orthodox tradition, along with similar theological beliefs, such as Arianism. Nonetheless, early Jewish-Christians, most likely in the Palestinian region, would have found this story influential"
"lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly."" (Isaiah 6:1–3) And one cried to another, ""Holy, holy, holy, is YHWH the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory."" (verses 2–3) One seraph carries out an act of ritual purification for the prophet by touching his lips with a live coal from the altar (verses 6–7). The text describes the ""seraphim"" as winged celestial beings with a fiery"
"with his divinity to heaven. The Gospel of Matthew relates that immediately after Christ died, the earth shook, there was darkness, the veil in the Temple was torn in two, and many people rose from the dead and walked about in Jerusalem and were seen by many people there. According to the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the Harrowing of Hell was foreshadowed by Christ's raising of Lazarus from the dead prior to his own crucifixion. The hymns proper to the weekend suggest that as he did on earth, John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus in Hell by prophesying"
"flame in the midst of a bush that burned but was not consumed. God called to Moses from the bush, and Moses answered: ""Here I am."" God told Moses not to draw near, and to take off his shoes, for the place on which he stood was holy ground. God identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, reported having seen the Israelites' affliction and heard their cry, and promised to deliver them from Egypt to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. God told Moses that God was sending Moses to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out"
"their god. Two altars were set up on Mt. Carmel, one dedicated to Baal, one to Yahweh, and a bull sacrificed upon each altar. When Baal's supporters called upon their god to send fire and consume the sacrifice, nothing happened. When Elijah called on Yahweh, fire came down from heaven immediately and consumed the offering. Elijah ordered the people to seize the prophets of Baal and Asherah, and they were all slaughtered. After the prophets were slain, Elijah fled from Jezebel's wrath (). Elijah fled for his life to the wilderness, where he mourned the devotion of Israel to Baal"
"Sought out, not Forsaken. The prophet asked Who came in crimson garments from Edom, mighty to save, and why God’s apparel was red like one who trod in the wine vat. God said that God had trodden the winepress in anger alone, and trampled in fury, for the day of vengeance was in God’s heart, and God’s year of redemption had come. God looked and found none to help to uphold God’s will, so God trod down the peoples in anger, and poured out their blood. The prophet spoke of God’s mercies and praises, of God’s great goodness toward Israel,"
"157-158: "" And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah Jesus son of Mary, Allah's messenger They slew him not nor crucified, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture ; they slew him not for certain, but Allah took him up unto Himself. Allah is ever Mighty, wise."" Rather than describing the crucifixion of Jesus, Gospel of Barnabas describes him being raised up into heaven It can be likened to the description of Elijah in 2 Kings, Chapter 2."
"dies without recovering from his injuries in accordance with Elijah's word. According to , Elisha (Eliseus) and ""the sons of the prophets"" knew beforehand that Elijah would one day be assumed into heaven. Elisha asked Elijah to ""let a double portion"" of Elijah's ""spirit"" be upon him. Elijah agreed, with the condition that Elisha would see him be ""taken"". Elijah, in company with Elisha, approaches the Jordan. He rolls up his mantle and strikes the water. The water immediately divides and Elijah and Elisha cross on dry land. Suddenly, a chariot of fire and horses of fire appear and Elijah"
"In another interpretation the fire refers to the Book of Isaiah, in which he mentions the burning anger of God. The last icon on the Prophets tier depicts a young man wearing a turban. It is the last uncertain icon in the row, probably portraying Habakkuk. He holds a package containing the stew he took for Daniel when he was in the lion's den with the help of an angel. The Feasts, Apostles and Prophets tiers are divided by two large icons in the middle. One of them is the Christ in Majesty situated directly above the Royal Door. At"
"a major prophet who did not die on the cross but was taken alive by angels to God. Other passages, however, conflict with the teachings of the Qur'an—as, for instance, in the account of the Nativity, where Mary is said to have given birth to Jesus without pain or as in Jesus's ministry, where he permits the drinking of wine and enjoins monogamy—though the Qur'an allegedly acknowledges each prophet had a set of their own laws that might differ in some aspects from each other. Other examples include that hell will only be for the committers of the seven deadly"