trans-la'-shun: The verb "translate" is found once in the Old Testament (2Sa 3:10the King James Version, in the sense of "to transfer") and 3 times in the New Testament (Col 1:13, methistemi, where it means "to transfer"; twice inHeb 11:5, where it has the quasi-technical sense of removing one from the earthly to the heavenly state without the intervening experience of death).
The noun "translation" occurs only inHeb 11:5, metathesis, where it refers to the transition, the general nature of which has just been described in connection with the verb. With their customary reserve in regard to such matters, the Scriptures simply record the fact of Enoch's translation without commenting either upon the attendant circumstances, or upon the nature of the change involved in his experience. Doubtless what Paul says in1Co 15:51,52applied in the case of Enoch and also in that of Elijah (2Ki 2:11).
W. M. McPheeters