Teleportation, as we know it in pop culture, is a way of traveling instantaneously from one location to another in a split-second time frame.
Some people may have seen this as a technique in anime, such as Goku’s instant transmission in Dragon Ball Z or other titles.
My first introduction to this “science fiction” ability was through the X-Men’s Night Crawler, who can teleport based on what he sees.
But my interpretation may be a bit limiting. Here is a much geekier, pseudo-scientific explanation of Night Crawler’s mutant powers:
Under optimal conditions, teleporting only himself and his costume, Nightcrawler can displace himself a distance of about 2 miles east-to-west, and up to 3 miles north-to-south. Making a vertical teleportation upwards is difficult and dangerous. Nightcrawler has made a vertical teleportation “jump” of 2 miles by pushing himself to his physical limits.
Nightcrawler’s powers automatically displace liquids and gases when he arrives in the course of a teleportation. Nightcrawler’s momentum is retained throughout the process of teleportation: he arrives with whatever amount of inertia he left with.
For example, if he were falling from a great height, he could not teleport himself towards the ground in order to save himself; he would land with the same velocity that he teleported with. He can subtract this inertia by teleporting short distances upwards (as though taking two steps back for every one forward). As part of his power, Nightcrawler has also exhibited a limited ability to sense the teleportation of other beings.
The limits to the mass that Nightcrawler can carry with him while teleporting, and the limits to the distance over which he can teleport himself with additional load is unknown. When he transports a passenger over even moderate distances, they both feel weakened and ill, to the point of exhaustion. Teleportation over further distances could be fatal.
Through practice, Nightcrawler has increased the mass he can teleport with him. (He once teleported himself and Storm from the center of a small island into the water just off its coast without harming either of them). The upper limits of this capacity are as yet unknown.
from the X-Men fandom, Night Crawler Wiki page
Teleportation is not limited to Night Crawler from the X-Men or genetic pods in the 1980s The Fly movie.
In Acts 8:35-40, we see the event of Philip teaching the Ethiopian Eunuch about Jesus Christ through scripture.
When they arrive at a “certain water” in verse 36, the eunuch felt moved to get baptized, where Philip further instructed him that if he believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God with all they heart, nothing would stop him.
After the eunuch gets baptized, something special happens in verse 39: we see an instance of “teleportation” where the Spirit of the Lord “caught away” Philip and was no more.
The term “caught away,” according to Strong’s Concordance, means to “pluck,” “take by force,” or “catch up.”
The “no more” part does not mean Philip experienced death or even raptured as Enoch in Genesis but was plucked by the hand of God from his location with the eunuch to the city of Azotus until reaching Caesarea to continue his ministry.
Biblical teleportation is a form of travel physically invisible to the naked eye empowered by God himself.
