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Genesis 3 records the fall of man and the resulting consequence of death for man at the end of the course of his life on earth and the decay of his body and its return to the ground from which it came. (Genesis 3:19) However, the Bible also mentions persons who were at least partially exempted from this consequence.

The first example is found in Genesis itself. In Genesis 5 there is a list of the descendents of Adam saying how long each lived and then they died. This goes on for many verses until you get to Enoch. He lived for a much shorter time than any of the others before him, and the formula “Then he died” changes to “Then Enoch walked with God, and he was no longer here, for God took him.” (Gen. 5:24). This clearly implies that he did not die, but rather was taken alive to God’s abode.

Likewise Elijah the prophet did not die, but was taken to heaven in a whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11)

Jesus did die, but His body did not decay. Instead, He rose to life again three days after His death. Forty days after that He ascended into heaven (Acts 1: 2, 9) - unlike Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead, but who nevertheless died again.

Although not explicitly recorded in the Bible, the Jews believed that Moses’ body had been taken to heaven. This is implicitly referred to in Jude 9.

Revelation 12:1-17 can be seen as an implicit reference to the early Christian belief that Jesus’ mother was also taken to heaven at the completion of her life on earth.