John 3:13 falls under contradiction?

Question

John 3:13
No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man (Jesus).
That gets rid of Elijah, the man in Corinthians, and Enoch.

Answer 1

ascended--Gr.-anabaino, means to go up of own power, not taken up like Enoch, Elijah and John (Rev. 4:1).

Answer 2

Albert Barnes Notes on the Bible

Joh 3:13 -
And no man hath ascended into heavens - No man, therefore, is qualified to speak of heavenly things, Joh_3:12. To speak of those things requires intimate acquaintance with them - demands that we have seen them; and as no one has ascended into heaven and returned, so no one is qualified to speak of them but He who came down from heaven. This does not mean that no one had Gone to heaven or had been saved, for Enoch and Elijah had been borne there (Gen_5:24; compare Heb_11:5; 2Ki_2:11); and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and others were there: but it means that no one had ascended and “returned,” so as to be qualified to speak of the things there.

Answer 3

Nonsense. He was speaking of the Resurrection. Elijah and Enoch were translated never having tasted death. The man in Corinthians was probably a saint who had died at some time in history. Jesus is the only one who ascended as the Resurrected Lord. HUGE difference.

Answer 4

WOW!!!

The people that answer - I WILL PRAY FOR ALL OF YOU!

There is NO Condradiction. This takes the intimacy and understanding through the Holy Ghost. This is a conversation in Prayer that I have had with the Lord. There IS a difference between Heaven and Paradise. This is clearly further Explained - as I have been shown in the Book of Revelation.

Be in Peace.

Take Care and God Bless!

Answer 5

No contradiction. Jesus is the only one who has been resurrected, and can ascend and decend. This also points out His divine communication with the Father. Some scholars say the phrase, "the son of man which is in heaven", was added later. Not found in textual evidence.

Answer 6

No man, no one goes to heaven, but that he first was born from above.

That soul must first be born of women, where the soul entered the womb at conception, and when the flesh body dies, it is returned to the father. There is not a living being on this earth, that did not come down from the Father first, and at death shall return to the Father.

But what is meant here is in reference to obtaining salvation for their soul, or eternal life. All souls return to the Father, and many of those that do return will be condemned to destruction. The judgment takes place at the time of the great white throne judgment. Until that time, those sinning souls will stay right there in paradise where there is a great gulf between God and the sinning soul This is stated in the parable of the rich man, in Luke 16. There has been no soul destroyed to this date, that has passed on after death.

So what this thirteenth verse is saying, is about being born again. It means that you must be born from above. You can't be as those fallen angels (jude 1:6), and take short-cuts, but it must be done according to God's plan of salvation

Answer 7

How about the verse just before that one?

"If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" John 3:12

When you study the stories of Elijah, Enoch, John and Paul you will understand the difference of how they went up and how Jesus went up. Perhaps.

"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 2 Cor. 2:14

Answer 8

The word "Ascended" and "Taken" have different meanings.
Ascended into heaven means "He went up" taken into heaven means " Taken Up"
Went into heaven simply means Christ willed Himself there.
Taken into heaven, as Elijah and Enoch were, simply means
God took them unto Himself.
"Ascended" is a "Choice", "Taken" is not a "Choice".
God Bless You....Peace.

Answer 9

Assumed....BROUGHT UP to Heaven

Ascended -- GONE UP to heaven under one's own power. Elijah, Enoch and Virgin Mary were taken up to heaven.. Jesus ascended under his own power.....

Answer 10

In the Greek, John 3:13 says:
kai oudeis anabaino eis ouranos ei me katabaino ek ouranos huios anthropos ho on en ouranos

which means:
And nobody/nothing ascends/goes up/rises/mounts/bears up/springs up (indicative - simply statement of fact; perfect - action is done completely, once and for all time) into heaven if not/except come down to earth out of heaven son man that being in heaven.

The word/s "ei me" means "if not, except, but" and consists of "ei" - if, whether - and "me" - no, not lest. This allows for this scripture being a general rule, rather than a statement about events in the passage of time.

If the kingdom of heaven refers in one metaphorical rendering to heterosexual marriage, then this could be talking about the utter abasement of a son before a father. I hear there's a fair amount of being overawed at one's father if one is a son. You only get to appreciate heaven if you realise what the alternative is. Therefore, I think that the Abraham and Isaac story is a metaphor and conveys possibly the same meaning.

What Jesus learnt on earth must been absolute reliance on his Father's power. In the face of his best efforts, people treated him with utter disrespect. They still do. As one whose knowledge of the Law at age twelve surpassed that of the religious leaders, if the people were eager for a reality check about the basis of their claim to righteousness, he knew what he was talking about. But they weren't interested. I'm still not sure about the exact details of the crucifixion. The key element seems to be that it was intended to be a riddle to test him or his followers (Habakkuk 2:6) to see where the money was coming from. I assume that businesspeople didn't wait until AFTER he had left the scene to start a business empire based on his watered-down teachings. It fits with the way that business has always run. It's essentially one big cultic market research drug trial supposedly to negotiate the vagaries of human health in all its varieties. Therefore, the large number of participants required for the "experiments." Admittedly, they're all pretty diluted down and some of them, such as sexual harassment, seem difficult to reconcile with even an origin of well-meant interest, but the end result is supposed to reflect the progress or otherwise of medical science. It's Noah's flood all over again. I don't think the "flood" was literal. Water and oceans are used in the Bible to represent wicked people (Isaiah 57:20; James 1:6; Isaiah 5:30). I think there were doctors around who took the credit for bringing pregnancies to a successful birth, leaving the mothers out of the picture (Genesis 6:4), and possible ties to the occult. I think there was possibly genetic engineering of plants and mistreatment of animals. Hence the power of Noah's being able to charge of animals without recourse to "taming" techniques. Ark means a coffer for safeguarding. I was thinking that it was like a coffin, but in any case Noah's requisitioning of earth's natural resources (possibly a satirical dig at the efforts of cults in storing up supplies; compare with Genesis 2:19, 20 - people typically remember the names of things that they think will help them when they're in a fix), which belong to everybody really if they're not already claimed, possibly upset everybody's sense of godless anger at the impertinence of a righteous man to know his rights and sparked some sort of warfare with rival factions flooding over the land.

I think there could be various meanings for the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13:24, 44). Before marriage, it could indicate pursuits that a single man has that are like a field with a treasure in it. Specifically, Jesus was talking about being born again. This means being prepared to speak God's words, rather than trying to arrange one's own comforts in life with speech (1 Peter 1:23-25). In verse 17 of 1 Peter, it says to live one's life on earth as a "stranger" in reverent fear.