The first clue that Jesus’s map of heaven differs from ours is found in the word itself. The view of heaven in ancient languages underscores that it is not a single place or a proper name; we should not speak about heaven as a singular location like London, Wrigley Field, or the Pacific Ocean.
The ancient cultures that shaped the Bible understood “the heavens” to be a vast realm surrounding the earth. First, they spoke of the heavens when referring to the sky or atmosphere. When Jesus mentioned “the birds of the air,” the actual language he used was “the birds of the heavens” (Matt. 6:26). While modern people distinguish between the atmosphere and outer space, ancient cultures viewed the heavens as everything in the air and above the earth. This perspective helps correct hyperimaginative thinking about heaven.
“The heavens” also referred to the dwelling place of God—the invisible, intangible realm occupied by the Lord and his hosts. When this meaning is intended, English Bibles often ignore the plural Hebrew or Greek word and use the singular instead. For example, Isaiah 66:1 is typically translated as “Heaven is my throne,” which may conjure images of a distant celestial city. However, the Hebrew text says, “The heavens are my throne,” suggesting God occupies the atmosphere immediately surrounding us. This provides a unique homesick for heaven perspective that emphasizes God’s accessible presence.
The reason is simple. Our modern scientific knowledge has influenced how we translate these ancient texts. We want to differentiate the natural realm of the atmosphere from the supernatural realm of the spirits. Therefore, our English Bibles will say birds, clouds, thunder, or rain occupy “the air” but that God and his angels occupy “heaven,” when all of these verses actually use the same plural word—“the heavens.” By imposing our mental map of heaven onto the Bible, we obscure or erase the mental map of the biblical writers and of Jesus himself. Instead, we come to believe that heaven is a distant place accessible only after death and that God could not possibly be as near as the air filling our lungs.
The implications of this, as Dallas Willard notes, are a warped understanding of God, his kingdom, and the message of Jesus. “The damage done to our practical faith in Christ and in his government-at-hand by confusing heaven with a place in distant outer space, or even beyond space, is incalculable. Of course, God is there too. But instead of heaven and God also being always present with us, as Jesus shows them to be, we invariably take them to be located far away and, most likely, at a much later time—not here and not now.”
READ MORE: Acts 2:42–47; Ephesians 2:11–22
Content taken from What If Jesus Was Serious about Heaven? by Skye Jethani, ©2023. Used by permission of Brazos Press.
