1994
Did worthy people continue to be translated and taken up long after Enoch’s city?
January 1994


“Did worthy people continue to be translated and taken up long after Enoch’s city?” Ensign, Jan. 1994, 53

Did worthy people continue to be translated and taken up long after Enoch’s city?

Monte S. Nyman, professor of ancient scripture, Brigham Young University. From the Pearl of Great Price and the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, we know that righteous people continued to be translated (taken from earth without tasting of death) after the city of Enoch was taken up. In Moses we read of a vision shown to Enoch of all the nations of the earth after Zion was taken up into heaven. (See Moses 7:23.) He was shown the power of Satan that was upon the earth, with angels descending and warning the inhabitants of the earth (see Moses 7:24–26); and “Enoch beheld angels descending out of heaven, bearing testimony of the Father and Son; and the Holy Ghost fell on many, and they were caught up by the powers of heaven into Zion.” (Moses 7:27).

In the JST, we read of the days of Melchizedek, who “was ordained an high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch.” In referring to Enoch’s day, it is recorded that this priesthood was after the order of the Son of God and gave men power to control the earth and its elements by the will of God. (JST, Gen. 14:27; see also JST, Gen. 14:28–31.) Through this priesthood, “men having this faith, coming up unto this order of God, were translated and taken up into heaven.” (JST, Gen. 14:32.)

Returning to the days of Melchizedek, it is stated that “his people wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven, and sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken, separating it from the earth, having reserved it unto the latter days, or the end of the world.” (JST, Gen. 14:34.)

Thus we have two witnesses to the translation of individuals between the days of Enoch and the flood as well as a declaration that the doctrine of translation of righteous men continued even after the flood, in the days of Melchizedek.