Elijah's Ascension to Heaven

The event

Near the end of his ministry, Elijah makes one final circuit with Elisha — from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and finally to the Jordan River — and at each stop tells his understudy to stay behind, and each time Elisha refuses, insisting he will not leave him. Fifty members of a local company of prophets watch from a distance, sensing that something momentous is about to happen.

At the Jordan, Elijah strikes the water with his rolled-up cloak and it parts, just as it had for Joshua generations before, and the two cross on dry ground. Elijah asks Elisha what he would like before he is taken, and Elisha requests a double portion of his spirit — the customary inheritance portion of a firstborn son, a bold request to carry on Elijah's ministry in full measure. Elijah tells him it will be granted only if Elisha sees him actually being taken.

Then, without warning, a chariot of fire and horses of fire appear and separate the two, and Elijah goes up in a whirlwind to heaven — one of only two people in the entire Old Testament, alongside Enoch, never to die at all. Elisha cries out, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!", tears his own clothes in grief, and picks up Elijah's fallen mantle. When he strikes the Jordan with it and the water parts again, the watching prophets know at once that Elijah's spirit and calling now rest on Elisha.

Dating

Traditional datings split between c. 852 and c. 848 BC. The earlier date follows the order of Kings: the ascension (2 Kings 2) precedes the Moab campaign (2 Kings 3), fought early in Joram of Israel's reign (852-841 BC) with Elisha already ministering, and Josephus and Seder Olam place the translation at the end of Ahaziah's reign (852 BC). The c. 848 alternative rests on Elijah's letter to Jehoram of Judah (2 Chronicles 21:12-15), whose sole reign began in 848 — but Jehoram's coregency from 853 BC allows the letter to fit the earlier date.

Scripture references

• 2 Kings 2:1-18