let’s look at that 5th verse of Hebrews 11 a bit more closely, especially homing in on that word “translated.” Let’s see if other scriptures will give us an understanding into what the writer of Hebrews meant when he said Enoch was translated. The English word “translated” in that text comes from the Greek word metatithemi (pronounced met-at-ITH’-ay-mee) and literally means “to change from one place to another, to transport.” Now all other related scriptures, even the context of Hebrews 11, forbids this to mean transported from earth to heaven. There is no mystical meaning to that word translated. It is an Old English word no longer used today. No one today would say the Nazis rounded up the Jews and translated them to concentration camps. We now use the word “transported.” But the Old English word translated meant just that, to transport someone from one place to another. An Englishman of the 17th Century WOULD have said “I translated my sheep to market this morning,” meaning “I transported my sheep to market this morning.” (Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. The modern word “translated” is a homograph. It is spelled exactly like the Old English word translated but has an entirely different meaning.)
We find this word metatithemi again in Acts 7, verse 16, where we read, “So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, and were CARRIED OVER (metatithemi) into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.” (verses 15 and 16). Jacob’s body was translated (Old English), or transported, or carried over from Egypt to Sychem, from one place on earth to another place on earth. Translated does NOT mean moved from earth to heaven.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley