The Bible says nothing that would validate a belief in seven heavens, but the word heaven itself has several meanings. The last is Empyrean, the immaterial dwelling place of God. Above these heavens, in which the righteous are rewarded after death, are four more levels. In Dante’s epic poem, the seven celestial bodies represent ever more virtuous natures. In Islam and Zoroastrianism both, the heavens are levels of paradise reserved for increasingly devout worshipers.ĭante Alighieri combined Babylonian mythology with Christian metaphor when he wrote The Divine Comedy. Centuries before, the Zoroastrian priest Arta Viraf supposedly made a similar trip to heaven. In each heaven he met a character from the Bible or another prophet of Islam. Hadith literature tells how Muhammad was taken on a journey through all seven heavens. Islam combines the seven heavens of Judaism with a story from Zoroastrianism. As the astronomical and meteorological sciences have advanced, Jews have rejected a literal seven heavens and now see them as metaphorical-there’s no way hail could come to earth from Jupiter, after all. The Jewish “heavens,” associated with the same celestial bodies, contain a mix of people, angels, demons, Nephilim, and natural phenomena, the specifics changing with the teacher. Either way, rabbis adapted the myth, integrating it into the Talmud-their extra-scriptural writings. Historians aren’t sure when the Jews first learned of Babylon’s seven heavens Abraham might have been exposed to such a belief before he left Ur, or Hebrew scholars may have learned of it while exiled to Babylon. Each of the seven heavens was associated with a particular god and a celestial body: the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, the sun, Jupiter, and Saturn. Rather, they divided the different heavens into seven levels of space between the earth’s atmosphere and the spirit of the heavens beyond was the Zodiac. The ancient Babylonians did not teach that the seven heavens were for humans. Those who live extraordinarily pious lives can break out of this cycle and experience Nirvana, a state of eternal existence. When the dead have spent all the time their good deeds have earned them, they are reincarnated and return to earth. The six higher worlds above us are places of increasing wonder and delight where people who have accumulated good karma go after they die. In Hinduism, there are seven higher worlds and seven lower worlds the earth is the lowest higher world. Two of the oldest religions that teach seven heavens are Hinduism and the ancient Babylonian cult. The expression also implies that there are seven heavens to be had, which is a common teaching among several religions. The phrase 'in seventh heaven' means to experience great joy or contentment.

7th heaven house