Where were Moses and Elijah before and after the Transfiguration?
Paul asks where Moses and Elijah were before the Transfiguration, where they went afterward, and whether it was body and soul or only soul.
Answer
They were in heaven, body and soul. Elijah went up in a whirlwind in 2 Kings, body and soul, and Moses' burial site could never be found, the obvious explanation being that he too was taken to heaven in body and soul, which is why both could appear bodily on the mount of Transfiguration. They were not in paradise or Eden, which is gone, and not in the limbo of the fathers; if Moses were in limbo he would be there until the end of time and could not appear in AD 33. As for Enoch and Elijah being the two witnesses of Apocalypse 11, no. That passage is symbolic, and those who try to literalize it fall into naming names, whether Elijah, Enoch, Jeremiah, or Moses. The number two is the symbolism of witness, as when Jesus sent the seventy out two by two and Paul requires two or three witnesses for every fact. This is a logical conclusion from what Scripture gives us, not a defined teaching.