St. Clement of Alexandria (d. 215)

"Enoch, too, pleasing God, without circumcision, discharged the office of God's legate to the angels although he was a man, and was translated, and is preserved until now as a witness of the just judgment of God, because the angels when they had transgressed fell to the earth for judgment, but the man who pleased (God) was translated for salvation.

"In order to learn that bodies did continue in existence for a lengthened period, as long as it was God's good pleasure that they should flourish let these heretics read the Scriptures, and they will find that our predecessors advanced beyond seven hundred, eight hundred, and nine hundred years of age ; and that their bodies kept pace with the protracted length of their days, and participated in life as long as God willed that they should live. But why do I refer to these men? For Enoch, when he pleased God, was translated in the same body in which he did please Him, thus pointing out by anticipassion ,ne translation of the just. Elijah, too, was caught up when he was yet in the substance of the natural form; +hus exhibiting in prophecy the assumption of those who are spiritual, and that nothing stood in the way of their body being translated and caught up. For by means of the very same hands through which they were moulded at the beginning, did they receive this translation and assumption. For in Adam the hands of God had become accustomed to set in order, to rule, and to sustain His own workmanship, and to bring it and place it where they pleased. Where, then, was the first man placed? In paradise certainly, as the Scripture declares: 'And God planted a garden (paradisum) eastward in Eden, and there He placed the man whom he had formed.' And then afterwards, when man proved disobedient, he was cast out thence into this world. Wherefore also the elders who were disciples of the apostles tell us that those who were translated were transferred to that place (for paradise has been prepared for righteous men, such as have the Spirit) ; in which place also Paul the apostle, when he was caught up, heard words which are unspeakable as regards us in our present condition, and that there shall they who have been translated remain until the consummation of all things, as a prelude to immortality.

"If, however, anyone imagine it impossible that men should survive for such a length of time, and that Elias was not caught up in the flesh, but that his flesh was consumed in the fiery chariot, let him consider that Jonah, when he had been cast into the deep, and swallowed down into the whale's belly, was by the command cf God again thrown out safe upon the land.

"Look, for instance, to Elias the Thesbite, in whom we have a beautiful example of frugality, when he sat down beneath the thorn, and the angel brought him food. It was a cake of barley and a jar of water/ Such the Lord sent as the best for him."