2 corinthians 12 commentary

2 CORITHIAS 12 COMMETARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Paul's Vision and His Thorn
1 I must go on boasting. Although there is
nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and
revelations from the Lord.
1. JAMISON, He proceeds to illustrate the glorying in infirmities (2Co 11:30). He
gave one instance which might expose him to ridicule (2Co 11:33); he now gives
another, but this one connected with a glorious revelation of which it was the sequel:
but he dwells not on the glory done to himself, but on the infirmity which followed it,
as displaying Christ's power. The oldest manuscripts read, I MUST NEEDS boast (or
glory) though it be not expedient; for I will come. The for gives a proof that it is
not expedient to boast: I will take the case of revelations, in which if anywhere
boasting might be thought harmless. Visions refers to things seen: revelations, to
things heard (compare 1Sa 9:15) or revealed in any way. In visions their
signification was not always vouchsafed; in revelations there was always an
unveiling of truths before hidden (Da 2:19, 31). All parts of Scripture alike are
matter of inspiration; but not all of revelation. There are degrees of revelation; but
not of inspiration. of--that is, from the Lord; Christ, 2Co 12:2.
2. GUZIK i. Paul's reluctance is expressed in his opening words of this chapter: It is
doubtless not profitable for me to boast. Paul is tired of writing about himself! He
would much rather write about Jesus! But the worldly thinking which made the
Corinthian Christians think little of Paul was also making them think little of Jesus,
even if they couldn't perceive it.
Visions and revelation ? whether they are of angels, Jesus, heaven, or other things -
are more common in the New Testament than we might think.i. Zechariah, the father
of John the Baptist, had a vision of an angel (Luke 1:8-23).
ii. Jesus' transfiguration is described as a vision for the disciples (Matthew 17:9).
iii. The women who came to visit Jesus' tomb had a vision of angels (Luke 24:22-24).
iv. Stephen saw a vision of Jesus at his death (Acts 7:55-56).
v. Ananias experienced a vision telling him to go to Saul (Acts 9:10).
vi. Peter had a vision of the clean and unclean animals (Acts 10:17-19 and 11:5).
vii. Peter had a vision of an angel at his release from prison (Acts 12:9).
viii. John had many visions on Patmos (Revelation 1:1).
ix. Paul had a revelation of Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 22:6-11 and 26:12-

20).
x. Paul had vision of a man from Macedonia, asking him to come to that region to
help (Acts 16:9-10).
xi. Paul had an encouraging vision while in Corinth (Acts 18:9-11).
xii. Paul had a vision of an angel on the ship that was about to be wrecked (Acts
27:23-25).
xiii. So, we should not be surprised if God should speak to us through some type of
visions and revelations of the Lord. But we do understand that such experiences are
subjective, and prone to misunderstanding and misapplication. In addition, whatever
real benefit there are to visions and revelations of the Lord, they are almost always
limited to the one receiving the visions and revelations. We should be rather cautious
when someone reports a vision or revelation they have regarding us.
xiv. How often people have wanted to tell me about their visions! I am always
suspicious. I want to know what they had for supper the night before! If people have
visions of this sort they are silent about them. (Morgan)
3. BARNES Verse 1. It is not expedient. It is not well; it does not become me. This may
either mean that he felt and admitted that it did not become him to boast in this manner;
that there was an impropriety in his doing it, though circumstances had compelled him--
and in this sense it is understood by nearly, or quite, all expositors; or it may be taken
ironically: Such a man as I am ought not to boast. So you say, and so it would seem. A
man who has done no more than I have; who has suffered nothing; who has been idle and
at ease as I have been, ought surely not to boast. And since there is such an evident
impropriety in my boasting and speaking about myself, I will turn to another matter, and
inquire whether the same thing may not be said about visions and revelations. I will
speak, therefore, of a man who had some remarkable revelations, and inquire whether he
has any right to boast of the favours imparted to him. This seems to me to be the
probable interpretation of this passage.
To glory. To boast, 2 Corinthians 10:8,13; 11:10. One of the charges which they alleged
against him was, that he was given to boasting without any good reason. After the
enumeration in the previous chapter of what he had done and suffered, he says that this
was doubtless very true. Such a man has nothing to boast of.
I will come. Marg., For I will. Our translators have omitted the word (~gar~) for in the
text, evidently supposing that it is a mere expletive. Doddridge renders it, nevertheless.
But it seems to me that it contains an important sense, and that it should be rendered by
THEN: Since it is not fit that I should glory, then I will refer to visions, etc. I will turn
away, then, from that subject, and come to another. Thus the word (~gar~) is used in
John 7:41, Shall, THEN, (~mh gar~) Christ come out of Galilee? Acts 8:31, How can
I, THEN, (~pwv gar~) except some man should guide me See also Acts 19:35; Romans
3:3; Philippians 1:18.
To visions. The word vision is used in the Scriptures often to denote the mode in which
Divine communications were usually made to men. This was done by causing some scene
to appear to pass before the mind as in a landscape, so that the individual seemed to see a

representation of what was to occur in some future period. It was usually applied to
prophecy, and is often used in the Old Testament. See Barnes Isaiah 1:1, and also See
Barnes Acts 9:10. The vision which Paul here refers to was that which he was permitted
to have of the heavenly world, 2 Corinthians 12:4. He was permitted to see what perhaps
no other mortal had seen, the glory of heaven.
And revelations of the Lord. Which the Lord had made. Or it may mean manifestations
which the Lord had made of himself to him. The word rendered revelations means,
properly, an uncovering, ~apokaluqeiv~, from ~apokaluptw~, to uncover; and denotes
a removal of the vail of ignorance and darkness, so that an object may be clearly seen;
and is thus applied to truth revealed, because the obscurity is removed, and the truth
becomes manifest.
4. Calvin
1. It is not expedient for me to glory Now, when as it were in the middle of
the course, he restrains himself from proceeding farther, and in this way he
most appropriately reproves the impudence of his rivals and declares that it
is with reluctance, that he engages in this sort of contest with them. For
what a shame it was to scrape together from every quarter
commendations, or rather to go a-begging for them, that they might be on
a level with so distinguished a man! As to the latter, he admonishes them
by his own example, that the more numerous and the more excellent the
graces by which any one of us is distinguished, so much the less ought he
to think of his own excellence. For such a thought is exceedingly dangerous,
because, like one entering into a labyrinth, the person is immediately
dazzled, so as to be too quick-sighted in discerning his gifts, 877877 “ Ses
dons et graces ;” — “His gifts and graces.” while in the mean time he is
ignorant of himself. Paul is afraid, lest this should befall him. The graces
conferred by God are, indeed, to be acknowledged, that we may be
aroused, — first, to gratitude for them, and secondly, to the right
improvement of them; but to take occasion from them to boast — that is
what cannot be done without great danger.
For I will come 878878 “ I will come Marg ‘ For I will’ Our Translators have
omitted ( γὰρ) , for, in the text, evidently supposing that it is a mere expletive.
Doddridge renders it ‘nevertheless.’ But it seems to me that it contains an
important sense, and that it should be rendered by then. ‘Since it is not fit that I
should glory, then I will refer to visions, etc. I will turn away, then, from that
subject, and come to another.’ Thus the word ( γὰρ) , for , is used in John
7:41, ‘Shall then ( μὰ γὰρ) Christ come out of Galilee?’ Acts 8:31, ‘How can I
then ( τὰς γὰρ) except some man should guide me?’” — Barnes. Granville Penn
renders the passage as follows: “Must I needs boast? It is not good indeed, yet I
will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.” This rendering he adopts, as
corresponding with the reading of the Vat. and most ancient MS. Καυχὰσθαι
δεὰ οὰ συμφὰρον μὰν ὰλεὰσομαι δὰ εὰς ὰπτασὰας καὰ ὰποκαλὰψεις
Κυρὰου — Ed. to visions. “I shall not creep on the ground, but will be
constrained to mount aloft. Hence I am afraid, lest the height of my gifts should
hurry me on, so as to lead me to forget myself.” And certainly, if Paul had
gloried ambitiously, he would have fallen headlong from a lofty eminence; for it
is humility alone that can give stability to our greatness in the sight of God.

Between visions and revelations there is this distinction — that a revelation is
often made either in a dream, or by an oracle, without any thing being
presented to the eye, while a vision is scarcely ever afforded without a
revelation, or in other words, without the Lord’s discovering what is meant by it.
879
5. CLARKE, It is not expedient for me - There are several various readings on
this verse which are too minute to be noticed here; they seem in effect to represent the
verse thus: “If it be expedient to glory, (which does not become me), I will proceed to
visions,” etc. The plain meaning of the apostle, in this and the preceding chapter, in
reference to glorying is, that though to boast in any attainments, or in what God did by
him, was in all possible cases to be avoided, as being contrary to the humility and
simplicity of the Gospel; yet the circumstances in which he was found, in reference to the
Corinthian Church, and his detractors there, rendered it absolutely necessary; not for his
personal vindication, but for the honor of the Gospel, the credit of which was certainly at
stake.
I will come to visions - Οπτασιας· Symbolical representations of spiritual and
celestial things, in which matters of the deepest importance are exhibited to the eye of
the mind by a variety of emblems, the nature and properties of which serve to illustrate
those spiritual things.
Revelations - Αποκαλυψεις· A manifestation of things not before known, and such as
God alone can make known, because they are a part of his own inscrutable counsels.
6. GILL, It is not expedient doubtless for me to glory,.... Though it was lawful
for him to glory, and was necessary in the present circumstances of things, in vindication
of himself, and to preserve the Corinthians from being carried away with the
insinuations of the false apostles; and so for the honour and interest of Christ and the
Gospel; yet it was not expedient on some other accounts, or profitable and serviceable to
himself; he might find that it tended to stir up pride, vanity, and elation of mind in him,
and might be interpreted by others as proud boasting and vain glorying; wherefore he
chose to drop it, and pass on to another subject; or rather though it was not expedient to
proceed, yet, before he entirely quitted it, he thought it proper to say something of the
extraordinary appearances of God unto him. Some copies, and the Vulgate Latin version,
read, if there was need of glorying, it is not indeed expedient; the Syriac version, there
is need of glorying, but it is not expedient; and the Arabic version, neither have I need
to glory, nor is it expedient for me: I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord;
such as the Lord had made to him, and not man; and which were not the fruit of his own
fancy, or the delusions of Satan; but were from the Lord Jesus Christ, and his glory. The
apostle might very well speak of visions or heavenly appearances, since he was
favoured with many; his conversion was owing to a vision or appearance of Christ to
him, whom he saw with his bodily eyes, and heard him speaking to him, and which he
calls the heavenly vision; at another time when at Troas, a vision appeared to him in
the night, and a man of Macedonia stood and prayed him to come over and help them;
and when at Corinth the Lord spoke to him by a vision, and bid him not be afraid, but go
on preaching the Gospel, because he had much people there to be brought in through his
ministry: and as for revelations, besides what are ordinary and common to all believers,
he had extraordinary ones; the Gospel and the scheme of it, the knowledge of the several

particular doctrines of it, were not attained to by him in the common way, but he had
them by the revelation of Jesus Christ; the several mysterious parts of it, particularly
that of the calling of the Gentiles, to which might be added, the change that will be upon
the living saints at Christ's second coming, were made known to him by revelation; and
sometimes in this extraordinary way he was directed to go to such or such a place, as at a
certain time he went up to Jerusalem by revelation, where he was to do or suffer many
things for the sake of Christ: though he had no revelation of anything that was different
from, and much less contrary to the Gospel, and as it was preached by the other
apostles; for there was an entire agreement between him and them in their ministry; see
Gal_2:2, and these visions and revelations were for his instruction, direction, and
encouragement in the ministration of the Gospel; and being of an extraordinary nature,
were suitable to those extraordinary times, and not to be expected in an ordinary way,
nor is there any need of them now; besides, these were visions and revelations of the
Lord, and not the effects of enthusiasm, and a warm imagination, nor diabolical
delusions, or the pretensions and cheats of designing men; and were for the
confirmation and establishment of the Gospel, and not to countenance a new scheme, or
introduce a new dispensation; wherefore all visions and revelations men pretend to,
which are for such a purpose, are to be despised and rejected.
7. HERY, The narrative the apostle gives of the favours God had shown him, and the
honour he had done him; for doubtless he himself is the man in Christ of whom he
speaks. Concerning this we may take notice, 1. Of the honour itself which was done to
the apostle: he was caught up into the third heaven, 2Co_12:2. When this was we cannot
say, whether it was during those three days that he lay without sight at his conversion or
at some other time afterwards, much less can we pretend to say how this was, whether
by a separation of his soul from his body or by an extraordinary transport in the depth of
contemplation. It would be presumption for us to determine, if not also to enquire into,
this matter, seeing the apostle himself says, Whether in the body or out of the body, I
cannot tell. It was certainly a very extraordinary honour done him: in some sense he was
caught up into the third heaven, the heaven of the blessed, above the aerial heaven, in
which the fowls fly, above the starry heaven, which is adorned with those glorious orbs:
it was into the third heaven, where God most eminently manifests his glory. We are not
capable of knowing all, nor is it fit we should know very much, of the particulars of that
glorious place and state; it is our duty and interest to give diligence to make sure to
ourselves a mansion there; and, if that be cleared up to us, then we should long to be
removed thither, to abide there for ever. This third heaven is called paradise (2Co_12:4),
in allusion to the earthly paradise out of which Adam was driven for his transgression; it
is called the paradise of God (Rev_2:7), signifying to us that by Christ we are restored to
all the joys and honours we lost by sin, yea, to much better. The apostle does not
mention what he saw in the third heaven or paradise, but tells us that he heard
unspeakable words, such as it is not possible for a man to utter - such are the sublimity
of the matter and our unacquaintedness with the language of the upper world: nor was it
lawful to utter those words, because, while we are here in this world, we have a more
sure word of prophecy than such visions and revelations. 2Pe_1:19. We read of the
tongue of angels as well as men, and Paul knew as much of that as ever any man upon
earth did, and yet preferred charity, that is, the sincere love of God and our neighbour.
This account which the apostle gives us of his vision should check our curious desires
after forbidden knowledge, and teach us to improve the revelation God has given us in
his word. Paul himself, who had been in the third heaven, did not publish to the world
what he had heard there, but adhered to the doctrine of Christ: on this foundation the

church is built, and on this we must build our faith and hope. 2. The modest and humble
manner in which the apostle mentions this matter is observable. One would be apt to
think that one who had had such visions and revelations as these would have boasted
greatly of them; but, says he, It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory, 2Co_12:1. He
therefore did not mention this immediately, nor till above fourteen years after, 2Co_
12:2. And then it is not without some reluctancy, as a thing which in a manner he was
forced to by the necessity of the case. Again, he speaks of himself in the third person, and
does not say, I am the man who was thus honoured above other men. Again, his humility
appears by the check he seems to put upon himself (2Co_12:6), which plainly shows that
he delighted not to dwell upon this theme. Thus was he, who was not behind the chief of
the apostles in dignity, very eminent for his humility. Note, It is an excellent thing to
have a lowly spirit in the midst of high advancements; and those who abase themselves
shall be exalted.
8. IVP
Ecstatic Experiences (12:1-6) In the Western church we cultivate and
value people with vision--those forward-looking, direction-setting individuals
who can see where God would have the church move in the coming decades.
Little place, however, is given to visions per se--that is, to something beheld
in a God-given dream, trance or ecstasy. Yet visions were a regular means of
divine communication in biblical times. In the Old Testament visions were a
familiar medium by which God let it be known what he was going to do (Dahn
1978:514). They are also common in the New Testament. In fact, the
outpouring of the Spirit in the latter days is associated with sons and
daughters prophesying, young men seeing visions and old men dreaming
dreams (Acts 2:17). Typical examples are the vision Peter had of heaven
opening and something like a large sheet being let down by its four corners
(Acts 10:9-15) and the vision Paul had of a man standing and begging him to
come over to Macedonia (Acts 16:9). The value that the early church placed
on such experiences can be seen from the fact that Paul in his boasting turns
last to visions and revelations (12:1).
Paul cannot pass up an opportunity to reiterate that all this boasting serves
no good purpose. There is nothing to be gained by going on to such
experiences; but it is necessary (NIV I must go on, v. 1). This is the only
time that Paul says he must boast. It can be fairly concluded that his rivals
have laid claim to visionary and revelatory experiences. But this in and of
itself was probably not enough to force his hand. The Corinthians must have
looked on the ecstatic as the trump card in what was already thought to be a
winning hand. So Paul feels compelled to match his rivals' boasting or lose
the church to those he thinks are deceitful workers and Satan's henchmen
(11:13-15, 20).
Still, even though he finds it necessary, he does not find it a profitable
exercise (NIV there is nothing to be gained). The Greek term sympheron in
Paul's writings typically refers to what is beneficial or helpful. Here it denotes
that which is useful. What use are ecstatic experiences for ministry? Can they
equip? Can they direct? Can they instruct? They cannot even be properly

communicated (things that man is not permitted to tell, v. 4). So what good
are they? If they possess no ministerial value, why then boast about them as
his rivals are doing? And why are the Corinthians placing such importance on
them? That the Corinthians would value ecstatic experiences is not
surprising. They were highly prized in the Greco-Roman world and in
Judaism. Even in rabbinic circles there is frequent mention of visions, fiery
appearances and voices (Oepke 1964b:456).
Having cleared the air about the senselessness of such boasting, Paul finds it
nonetheless necessary to proceed to visions and revelations (v. 1). The
phrase is without parallel in the New Testament, so Paul may be picking up
the language of the Corinthian intruders. The distinction betoeen a vision and
a revelation is not immediately obvious. The Greek term optasia denotes that
which is seen (compare optical). Apokalypsis (revelation), on the other
hand, is a broader term that applies to all forms of divine disclosure and can
involve the whole range of senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch). It
is strange that Paul puts what he recounts in verses 1-10 in the category of
visions and revelations. It is not actually a vision, since he heard
inexpressible things rather than saw them (v. 4). Nor is it a revelatory event
in any explicit sense. It comes closest to an ecstasy--that is, a transportation
out of one's normal, mundane sphere of existence into the supramundane
realm of the divine (v. 2, heaven). So perhaps it is best to understand visions
and revelations as a catchall phrase for a wide range of supramundane
experiences. Whatever Paul experienced, it was decidedly of the Lord. The
genitive could be objective: visions and revelations of the Lord himself
(Phillips). Or, more probably, it is subjective: visions and revelations from the
Lord (TEV, NIV, JB, NEB).
In order to match his rivals boast for boast, Paul breaks a vow of silence and
mentions an ecstatic experience that occurred fourteen years earlier (v. 2).
This would place the event during the so-called silent years, when Paul was in
the region of Syria and Cilicia (Acts 9:30; Gal 1:21). It happened well before
his evangelistic foray in Corinth (c. A.D. 50-52), but not before his Damascus
road encounter with the risen Christ (I know a man in Christ).
The story is narrated in the third-person singular: I know a man. . . . He
heard inexpressible things. Paul's use of the third person is indeed puzzling.
He cannot be telling about someone else's experience; otherwise there would
be no grounds for personal boasting. Plus, all the details of the story point to
its being a personal experience. Attempts to explain it are wide-ranging: it is
symptomatic of his aversion to boasting (Bruce 1971:246); he did it to avoid
suggesting that he was special because of his experiences (M. J. Harris
1976:395); the style reflects the sense of self-transcendence that such
experiences seem to entail (Furnish 1984:544); he didn't allocate much
importance to it (Loubser 1991:77); he will speak personally only of things
that show weakness (Kasemann 1942:66-67); or he is distancing his
apostolic self from the self in which he has been forced to boast (Baird
1985:654). But it may simply be that speaking of himself impersonally is the
only way he can look at the experience with any kind of detachment (Barclay
1954:256; Murphy-O'Connor 1991:118). Paul is already a reluctant

competitor. To boast of ecstatic experiences in a personal way may just have
been beyond him.
Compared to other first-century accounts of heavenly journeys, Paul's is
notably terse. Only too things are mentioned. One, he was caught up to the
third heaven (v. 2), and too, he heard inexpressible things (v. 4). The NIV
caught up might more accurately be translated seized or snatched
(harpazw). The verb means to grasp something forcibly (plunder, steal)
and suddenly (snatch). Luke uses it of the Spirit's physically seizing Philip
and transporting him to another geographical location (Acts 8:39-40), while
in eschatological contexts it denotes a mighty operation of God (as in 1 Thess
4:17; Rev 12:5; Foerster 1964:472-73).
Paul says that he was snatched up to the third heaven. Heaven is the abode
of God and of those closely associated with him (see our Father in heaven,
Mt 6:9; the angels in heaven, Mk 13:32). A journey to heaven where
revelations are received about things on the other side is a familiar idea in
first-century apocalyptic and rabbinic materials (Bietenhard 1976:191-92).
The notion of a multiplicity of heavens began to surface in the
intertestamental period (2 Macc 15:23; 3 Macc 2:2, king of the heavens;
Wisdom of Solomon 9:10, the holy heavens; Tobit 8:5, the heavens).
Some Jewish materials speak of only one heaven (such as Philo; 2 Esdras
4:9), while others tell of three (Testament of Levi 2-3, the uppermost
heaven), five (3 Baruch 11, the angel led me to the fifth heaven) and even
seven heavens (such as Pesiqta Rabbati 98a, God opened seven heavens to
Moses).
Paul is not sure whether he was in the body or out of the body when he
made his heavenly journey (v. 2). Bodily translation is a distinctly Jewish
notion (as in he immediately became invisible and went up into heaven and
stood before God, Testament of Abraham 8; compare 1 Enoch 12:1). Even
so, a Hellenistic Jew like Philo can state that it is contrary to holy law for what
is mortal to dwell with what is immortal (Who Is the Heir of Divine Things
265; compare Josephus Jewish Wars 7.8.7). For the Greek and Gnostic alike
it was the soul freed from the body that was able to soar to heaven. Ecstatic
experiences of this sort often entailed a loss of sense perception and
voluntary control, so that Paul may genuinely have not known whether he
was physically transported to heaven or not. God alone holds this knowledge
(God knows, vv. 2-3), and to Paul's way of thinking it mattered very little.
What mattered was what he heard. This man, he says, heard inexpressible
things (vv. 3-4). The phrase arreta rhemata can mean words that are either
ineffable (too lofty to be spoken) or inexpressible (too difficult to verbalize).
Things that a man is not permitted to tell, in the second half of verse 4,
makes the former option the likelier one. The verb exestin (permitted)
denotes that which is lawful or allowable (compare 1 Cor 6:12; 10:23). Paul
has no right to share the details of his experience, and so he doesn't. His
rivals, on the other hand, freely divulge and in so doing call into question the
genuineness of their purported experiences.
Paul seems to start all over again in verses 3-4: And I know that this man--
whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know . . . Is he relating

a second ecstatic experience? The opening and suggests this. But the
virtually identical phraseology says otherwise. Paul's fumbling and restarting
are merely symptomatic of great unease. Even though his hand is forced, he
is having a hard time getting the words out.
This second time around, the third heaven is identified as paradise.
Paradeisos is a Persian loanword for a circular enclosure and is generally used
of a garden or park area (Bietenhard and Brown 1976:760-61). Mytes from
many nations speak of a land or a place of blessedness on the edge of the
known world. Paradise for the first-century Jew, on the other hand, was
located in heaven--or even in a third heaven (2 Enoch 8.1-8; Adam and Eve
40.1)--and was thought to be the abode of the righteous after death (3
Baruch 10.5, the place where the souls of the righteous come when they
assemble). It was in this uppermost heaven of all that God dwelt, and with
him the archangels (Testament of Levi 3). So the very fact that Paul was
transported to God's abode meant that he could compete with anything his
rivals boasted about. Jesus, it will be remembered, promised one of the men
crucified with him that he would be with him in paradise that very day (Lk
23:40-43). So also in Revelation 2:7 the right to eat of the tree of life in
paradise is promised to the one who overcomes.
About a man like that, Paul says, I will boast; on the other hand, I will not
boast about myself (or, more accurately, on behalf of a man . . . on behalf
of myself [hyper + the genitive]; v. 5). The distinction betoeen the narrator
and the individual in question is maintained. Why this is becomes clearer with
the final phrase of verse 5: I will not boast except about my weaknesses
(technically, in my weaknesses [en + the dative]). Paul can boast if he
looks at himself dispassionately. But when he considers himself personally,
he can commend only what his rivals would consider weaknesses (Bruce
1971:247).
An important qualifier is thrown in at this point. If I should choose to boast, I
would not be a fool (v. 6). The term fool (a + phrwn, or un-wise) denotes a
lack of sense or reason. Although Paul plays the fool, what he says is by no
means foolish. And if he chose to boast in something other than his
weaknesses, he would not be making a fool of himself (as the Corinthian
intruders were). Why not? Because, unlike his rivals, who had an
exaggerated opinion of themselves that had little or no foundation in reality,
he would be speaking the truth. So Paul could legitimately boast, but he
refrains from doing so for too reasons. First, he would have no one think
more of [him] than is warranted by what he does or says (v. 6). The word
translated warranted (logisetai) means to draw a logical conclusion from a
given set of facts (Eichler 1978:822-23). Paul wants the Corinthians'
judgment of him to be based on what they themselves have witnessed and
not pie-in-the-sky claims that he makes about himself. Second, he refrains
because of the surpassingly great revelations that he experienced (v. 7).
Hyperbole has the force of a superlative (JB extraordinary; NEB
magnificent) rather than a comparative (NIV surpassing). So extraordinary
were the revelations that others would be tempted to think highly of him if he
were to share the details. And so he refrains from saying any more.

9. BI, On Paul being caught up to the third heaven
In the words of the apostle, in his Epistle to the Colossians, I call upon you, “If ye be
risen with Christ, seek those things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand
of God.” “Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth.” Yes, to
such an exercise of the affections we have constant need to exhort one another. Perhaps
we know too little of the glorious things above in order to love them heartily. First, let us
consider the event itself; secondly, what the apostle saw in heaven.
1. Who is the man that speaks to us in our text? The more remarkable the things are
which any one relates, the more important it is to know who our informant is,
whether he deserves credit. Now, you are aware that the speaker on this occasion is
no fanciful enthusiast, no mere sentimentalist. He is a man who in numerous
passages of his Epistles zealously opposed religious delusions and a false spirituality,
and strove to fix both himself and the Church on the written, firm, prophetic Word,
and not on feelings, visions, and ecstasies. Indeed, we may say of him that a calm
reflective understanding predominated in him more than in any other of the
apostles. He was also a man of learning. It cannot be imagined for one moment that
vainglory and self-exaltation prompted him to give the narrative contained in our
text. Oh! in what a light do we, imperfect Christians, appear when placed by the side
of this great apostle! We who are used to experience only some slight measure of
answer to prayer and of spiritual elevation. Only think! for fourteen years he kept
this matter to himself! How does this impress on it the stamp of truth! Let us now
consider the statements of the apostle. He begins with saying, “It is not expedient for
me, doubtless, to glory.” Do not imagine (he means to say) that I wish to utter this
for my own glory. “I knew a man in Christ,” he goes on to say. Paul speaks of himself
as of a third person. In looking back on a period of life long since passed, a person
feels as if he was contemplating another and not himself. At such a distance a person
judges of himself with more freedom, impartiality, and truth. Paul calls himself “a
man in Christ.” He enjoyed the great privilege to lose sight of his own personality,
and only to view himself in the attire of his Surety. He had a special reason for calling
himself on this occasion “a man in Christ.” He wishes in doing so to meet the
question how it came to pass that he was so highly honoured; it was because he was a
man in Christ that before him the gates of paradise must fly open. He says, “I was
caught up”; according to the word used in the original, I was forcibly carried away.
He was caught up from the earth. But whither? To some blessed star, from whence,
as Moses viewed the promised land, so he might view the land of glory glimmering in
the distance? Oh no, his flight went further. He was in the very heart of this land.
How often in the dark seasons of his life had he looked with sighs to this distant
region! How often had he thought that he would willingly resign everything on earth
that only a fleeting glance might be allowed him through the impenetrable veil which
covers that land of immortal beauty! There he stood. The tumult of the world was
hushed around him. Oh what a life in those serene fields of light and love! In those
palmy groves of everlasting peace what forms, what visions, what tones of praise!
2. Was Paul then literally in heaven? Is there, in fact, a world of blessedness behind
the clouds? Truly I think that Paul was not the first to inform us of that. He says, “He
was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for
a man to utter.” And his meaning appears to be simply this: what he had heard and

seen during this visit to the other world was of such a peculiar kind that it was
absolutely impossible to express it in human language. Oh yes, the apostle might
have been cordially willing to have painted before our eyes an image of that blessed
world, but whence could he take the colours for the painting? Would he have taken
something from the light of the sun, from the blooming meadows of our earthly
spring, from the groves and solemn stillness of our summer mornings? Alas! he
would only have dipped his pencil in poor dull shades. All this the apostle felt, and he
preferred being silent. He might have been willing to describe to us how the saints
appeared. Oh, gladly would he have told us in what glory his Lord and Saviour there
appeared to him. But what could he say? But there is still another circumstance
which perhaps gives us a greater idea of the glory of what Paul heard and felt in the
third heaven than even his silence—I mean the ardent longing of the apostle to
return again to the blessedness that he had once enjoyed. But his wishes could not be
taken into consideration. He was obliged to return to this dark earth and to the
toilsome path of his apostleship. But after his return his renunciation of the world
and its lusts was rendered complete. His conversation is henceforth in heaven. Paul
knew that he could return to the blessedness he had beheld by no other path than
death. Well, be it so, no hour was more longed for by him than that. What the apostle
saw on this occasion we certainly cannot see in the same way, but we may still behold
it in the mirror of an unimpeachable testimony. (F. W. Krummacher.)
I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.—
Paul’s vision
How did St. Paul come to speak of himself under the personality of another?
1. Natural diffidence. For the more refined a man is the more he will avoid direct
mention of himself. All along he has been forced to speak of self. Fact after fact was
wrung out.
2. St. Paul speaks of a divided experience of two selves: one Paul in the third heaven,
enjoying the beatific vision; another on earth, buffeted by Satan. The former he
chose rather to regard as the Paul that was to be. He dwelt on the latter as the actual
Paul, lest he should mistake himself in the midst of the heavenly revelations. Such a
double nature is in us all. In all there is an Adam and a Christ—an ideal and a real.
Witness the strange discrepancy often between the writings of the poet or the
sermons of the preacher and their actual lives. And yet in this there is no necessary
hypocrisy, for the one represents the man’s aspiration, the other his attainment. But
the apostle felt that it was dangerous to be satisfied with mere aspirations and fine
sayings, and therefore he chose to take the lowest—the actual self—treating the
highest as, for the time, another man (verse 5). Were the caterpillar to feel within
himself the wings that are to be, and be haunted with instinctive forebodings of the
time when he shall hover about flowers and meadows, yet the wisdom of that
caterpillar would be to remember his present business on the leaf, lest, losing himself
in dreams, he should never become a winged insect at all.
I. The time when this vision took place. The date is vague—“about fourteen years ago.”
Some have identified it with that recorded (Act_9:1-43) at his conversion. But—
1. The words in that transaction were not “unlawful to utter.” They are three times
recorded.

2. There was no doubt as to St. Paul’s own locality in that vision. So far from being
exalted, he was stricken to the ground.
3. The vision was of an humbling character: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?”
II. Paul had known many such visions (verse 7).
1. This marks out the man. Indeed, to comprehend the visions we must comprehend
the man. For God does not reveal His mysteries to men of selfish or hard or
phlegmatic temperaments, but to those of spiritual sensitiveness. There are
physically certain sensitivenesses to sound and colour that qualify men to become
gifted musicians and painters—so spiritually there are certain susceptibilities, and on
these God bestows strange gifts, sights, and feelings not to be uttered in human
language. The Jewish temperament—its fervour, moral sense, veneration,
indomitable will, adapted it to be the organ of revelation.
2. Now all this was, in its fulness, in St. Paul. A heart, a brain, and a soul of fire; all
his life a suppressed volcano; his acts “living things with hands and feet,” his words
“half battles.” A man, consequently, of terrible inward conflicts (read Rom_7:1-25.).
You will find there no dull metaphysics; all is intensely personal. So, too, in Act_16:1-
40. He had no abstract perception of Macedonia’s need of the gospel. To his soul a
man of Macedonia cries, “Come over and help us.” Again (Act_18:1-28), a message
came in a vision. St. Paul’s life was with God, his very dreams were of God. He saw a
Form which others did not see, and heard a Voice which others could not hear (Act_
27:23).
3. But such things are seen and heard under certain conditions. Many of St. Paul’s
visions were when he was—
(1) “Fasting.” “Fulness of bread “ and abundance of idleness are not the
conditions in which we can see the things of God.
(2) In the midst of trial. In the prison, during the shipwreck, while “the thorn
was in his flesh.”
4. This was the experience of Christ Himself. God does not lavish His choicest gifts,
but reserves them.
5. Yet though inspiration is granted in its fulness only to rare, choice spirits, in
degree it belongs to all Christians. There have been moments, surely, in our
experience, when the vision of God was clear. They were not moments of fulness or
success. In some season of desertion you have in solitary longing seen the sky-ladder
as Jacob saw it, or in childish purity—for “Heaven lies around us in our infancy”—
heard a voice as Samuel did; or in feebleness of health, when the weight of the bodily
frame was taken off, Faith brightened her eagle eye, and saw far into the tranquil
things of death; or in prayer you have been conscious of a Hand in yours, and a
Voice, and you could almost feel the Eternal Breath upon your brow.
III. The things seen are unutterable.
1. They are “unspeakable” because they are untranslatable into language. The fruits
of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, etc.
how can these be explained in words? Our feelings, convictions, aspirations,
devotions, what sentences of earth can express them? In Revelations 4 John in high
symbolic language attempts, but inadequately, to shadow forth the glory which his
spirit realised, but which his sense saw not. For heaven is not scenery, nor anything

appreciable by ear or eye; heaven is God felt.
2. They are “not lawful for a man to utter.” Christian modesty forbids. There are
transfiguration moments, bridal hours of the soul, and not easily forgiven are those
who would utter the secrets of its high intercourse with its Lord. You cannot discuss
such subjects without vulgarising them. God dwells in the thick darkness. Silence
knows more of Him than speech. His name is secret, therefore beware how you
profane His stillness. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. To each of
His servants He giveth “a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no
man knoweth save he that receiveth it.” (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
St. Paul’s rapture and thorn in the flesh
Paul probably refers to the “trance,” or vision, of Act_22:1-30.
I. Some explanation of this remarkable passage.
1. The nature of the vision. It was in a state in which the mental faculties, apart from
the senses, are so engrossed by certain objects as to render the mind incapable of
attending to any other. Such raptures were one of the ancient modes of inspiration.
God spake to Moses, David, and the prophets in visions, and their return in the days
of the apostles served to evince the identity of the two dispensations in their origin
and authority.
2. The special communications made in this vision. If the “third heaven” is the place
where God immediately resides, we are sure that “paradise” is the same, from the
promise to the penitent malefactor. There Paul “heard unspeakable words,” etc.
Doubtless the inhabitants of heaven conceive of objects in a manner as superior to
our modes of conception as are the objects themselves to those of earth. How, then,
could they communicate their conceptions to beings of our limited and dull faculties!
In like manner the apostle on his return to his former state would find an
insurmountable impediment to the communications of what he had seen and heard.
But though not to be described in the language of sense, it would appear from the
effect left on his mind that the revelation was of the most exhilarating nature; a tone
had been given to his character, and a new and seraphic passion had been kindled in
his soul. He felt for ever afterwards as a man to whom heaven was not altogether
future.
3. The affliction with which he was immediately visited.
II. The general instruction which it furnishes. Note—
1. The wisdom and goodness of God in those severe afflictions with which even
eminent saints may be visited.
2. The Divine nature of Christ, and His immediate presidency over the affairs of the
whole Church. This Divine Saviour is particularly employed about the mission of His
servants, their qualifications for office, their trials, supports, and deliverance. Hence
the propriety of direct address to Him in critical circumstances, while, in the
ordinary course of affairs, the ultimate object of address is the Almighty Father.
3. The existence of paradise and a third heaven as the receptacle of the souls of
believers. What ground, then, for the notion of a sleepy condition of the soul after
death? (J. Leifchild, D. D.)

10. PULPIT COMMENTARY, 2 Corinthians 12:1 - Visions and revelations
I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. The apostle had been dwelling on
his personal experiences. He had been compelled by the evil things that were said of
him to refer to his own life, conduct, and sufferings for Christ's sake, in self-vindication.
He would, however, not have spoken one word about these things if the
honour of Christ had not been bound up with his claim to apostleship. He had now
said everything that needed to be said about himself; and it was every way pleasanter
and healthier to turn away from his own doings and sufferings, and to fix his heart
and his thoughts upon what God had done for him. Upon the Divine visions and
revelations given to him he in great part rested his apostolic claim. To him an apostle
was, just what a prophet of the olden time had been, a man who had direct and
personal communications with the Lord Jesus, and received instructions
immediately from him. For such instances in St. Paul's career, see Acts 9:4-6; Acts
16:9; Acts 18:9; Acts 22:18; Acts 23:1-35. 11; Acts 27:23; Galatians 2:2; and the
scenes recorded in the chapter now before us. This claim to direct revelation the
enemies of St. Paul denied, and laughed to scorn his pretensions as the indications of
insanity. Dean Plumptre tells us that in the Clementine Homilie's—a kind of
controversial romance representing the later views of the Ebionite or Judaizing
party, in which most recent critics have recognized a thinly veiled attempt to present
the characteristic features of St. Paul under the pretence of an attack on Simon
Magus, just as the writer of a political novel in modern times might draw the
portraits of his rivals under fictitious names—we find stress laid on the alleged
claims of Simon to have had communications from the Lord through visions and
dreams and outward revelations; and this claim is contrasted with that of Peter, who
had personally followed Christ during his ministry on earth. What was said then, in
the form of this elaborate attack, may well have been said before by the more
malignant advocates of the same party. The charge of insanity was one easy to make,
and of all charges, perhaps, the most difficult to refute by one who gloried in the
facts which were alleged as its foundation—who did see visions and did 'speak with
tongues' in the ecstasy of adoring rapture. Compare the expression, whether we be
beside ourselves, in 2 Corinthians 5:13. When the particular visions came to which
reference is made in the passage before us cannot certainly be known. St. Paul only
aids us by referring to the time as about fourteen years ago. The suggestion we
prefer is that they were granted during the time of his fainting after the stoning at
Lystra, and were the Divine comfortings of that hour of sorest peril and distress
(Acts 14:19).
I. VISIONS AND REVELATIONS ARE AGENCIES WHICH GOD HAS ALWAYS
USED. They do not belong to any one age. We have no right to say that they are
limited to ancient times. There have always been the true and the counterfeit; but the
true should not be missed or denied because the false have been found out. There are
good gold coins, or men would not trouble to make spurious sovereigns. Fanaticism
deludes its victims into imaginary visions, but souls that are kin with God, and open
to him, can receive communications from him. Illustrate from all ages, e.g. Noah,
Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Joseph,

aged Simeon, Zacharias, etc. So in the Christian age we find visions granted to
Cornelius, Philip, Peter, and John, as well as Paul, and traces of prophets, such as
Agabus, and even of prophetesses. St. Paul's visions were probably of the nature of a
trance; the mind being absorbed in contemplation may be prepared to receive Divine
revealings. It is right to subject all claims to visions to careful scrutiny, and the
things communicated to men at such times must be tested by their harmony with the
written revelation; but we need not refuse to recognize the truth that God has direct
relations to souls now as certainly as in past ages. Both truth and duty may still be
directly revealed.
II. THEY COME TO CERTAIN PREPARED INDIVIDUALS. Not to masses, not to
Churches, not to meetings. The vision is for individuals, who are thus made agents in
the communication to men of the Divine thought and will. F.W. Robertson says, To
comprehend the visions we must comprehend the man. For God gives visions at his
own will, and according to certain and fixed laws. He does not inspire every one. He
does not reveal his mysteries to men of selfish, or hard, or phlegmatic temperaments.
He gives preternatural communications to those whom he prepares beforehand by a
peculiar spiritual sensitiveness. There are, physically, certain sensitivenesses to
sound and colour that qualify men to become gifted musicians and painters; so,
spiritually, there are certain strong original susceptibilities (I say original, as derived
from God, the origin of all), and on these God bestows strange gifts and sights, deep
feelings not to be uttered in human language, and immeasurable by the ordinary
standard. Such a man was St. Paul—a very wondrous nature, the Jewish nature in all
its strength. We know that the Jewish temperament fitted men to be the organs of a
revelation. Its fervour, its moral sense, its veneration, its indomitable will, all
adapted the highest sons of the nation for receiving hidden truths and
communicating them to others.
III. THEY COME ON PARTICULAR OCCASIONS. By the law of Divine economy,
only when they are the precise thing demanded, the only agency that will efficiently
meet the case.
IV. THEY COME IN GRACIOUSLY ADAPTED FORMS. Heard voices sometimes, at
other times dreams, ocular visions, symbols, trances, and mental panoramas. Close
by showing that, because the modern mode is direct to souls, immediate to the
shaping of men's thoughts, and not through symbols, or dreams, or visions, we need
not lose the conviction that, upon due occasions still, God gives to some amongst us
insight and revelation of his truth.—R.T.
11. PULPIT COMMENTARY, I. APOSTOLIC PSYCHOLOGY. The words reveal
certain ideas which Paul had concerning the human mind. He had the idea:
1. That whilst here it is capable of existing separate from the body. Whether in the
body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell. If he had been certain
that the soul could not exist whilst here apart from the body, would he have spoken
thus? And who is not conscious of the mind having experiences in which the body

does not participate? Paul speaks of himself as entering regions far away.
(a) The atmospheric, There the clouds travel and perform their functions.
(b) The starry. There the sun, moon, and stars appear.
(c) The heavens that lie beyond the heavenly orbs; where God and his holy angels are
supposed to have their special residence. Up to this third heaven Paul was caught.
2. That whilst here it is capable of receiving extraordinary revelations apart from the
body. Heard unspeakable words. Things of the soul may be unutterable either from
necessity or from impropriety. The deepest things of the heart are unutterable in any
language. Perhaps what Paul saw and heard in the spirit was neither possible nor
proper to communicate. There are but few of us who have not received impressions
of distant things. We are often caught away to distant scenes, and see and hear
extraordinary things.
3. That whilst here it may exist apart from the body and the man not know it.
Whether in the body, I cannot tell. He was so charged with spiritual things that he
had lost all consciousness of matter and his relations to it. The man whose soul is
flooded with the higher elements of being does not know for the time whether he is
in the body or out of the body.
4. That wherever or however it exists it constitutes the man. I knew a man in
Christ. That which had these wonderful revelations he regarded as the man. To the
apostle the body was the costume of the man, which he put on at birth and took off at
death. In fact, he regarded the body as his not him, the soul as himself.
II. APOSTOLIC PIETY. There are three things concerning piety here.
1. Humility. That the man of whom Paul here speaks is himself scarcely admits of a
doubt. Why should he speak of himself in the third person? It is because of that
modesty of nature which is ever the characteristic of a truly great soul. Humility is an
essential attribute of piety.
2. Christism. A man in Christ. To be in Christ is to live in his ideas, character,
spirit, as the atmosphere of being. He who lives in the spirit of Christ becomes a
man.
3. Transport. His soul was borne away in ecstasy. The time when the revelation
occurred is specified—fourteen years ago. Strange that he did not speak of it

before. Piety has its hours of ravishments, ecstasies, and transfigurations.
2 Corinthians 12:6-10 - Soul schooling.
For though, etc. These words teach us several things concerning soul discipline.
I. THAT THE EXERCISE OF SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE IS EXPEDIENT FOR THE
BEST OF MEN. Paul required it. He says, Lest I should be exalted above measure.
1. Pride is a great spiritual evil. This is implied in the discipline with which the
apostle was now visited. To be exalted above measure [or, 'overmuch'] is, of course,
to be proud, and to be proud is to be in a position inimical to soul progress.
2. Good men have sometimes great temptations to pride. Paul's temptation seems to
have arisen from the abundance of the revelation of which he speaks.
II. THAT THE MODE OF SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE IS SOMETIMES VERY
PAINFUL. Paul was visited with a thorn in the flesh. What the thorn was is a
question for speculation; our object is practical. Two things deserve notice here.
1. That suffering stands connected with Satan. This painful dispensation was a
messenger from Satan. The great original sinner is the father of suffering.
2. Both suffering and Satan are under the direction of God. He uses them as his
instruments for good. Satan himself is the servant of the Holy One.
III. THAT THE MEANS OF SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE ARE SOMETIMES
MISUNDERSTOOD. Paul prays to be delivered from that thorn in the flesh which
was sent for his good, and he does so frequently—thrice. Notice:
1. The ignorance which sometimes marks our prayers. We often pray against our own
interests. There are some blessings which are positively promised by God, such as
pardon for sin, etc., for which we may pray incessantly; and there are others which
we may esteem desirable, but which are not promised. These we must seek in
submission to his will.
2. The kindness of God in not always answering our prayers. He knows what is best.
The great Father may refuse the cry of his children for toys here, but he will give
them estates in the great hereafter.

IV. THAT THE SUPPORTS UNDER SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE ARE ALWAYS
ABUNDANT. My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in
weakness. Observe:
1. The nature of the support. Strength. What matters the weight of the burden it
the strength is equal to bear it with ease?
2. The principle of the support. Grace. It comes, not from merit, but from grace
free and unbounded.
3. The influence of the support. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Rest upon me. Spread over
me like a tent to screen me from the scorching sun. I glory in my infirmities. The
cup may be bitter, but it has curative virtues. Tempests may toss, but those storms
will purify the atmosphere round the heart and bear us away from scenes on which
our hearts are set. All prayer is answered when the mind of the suppliant is brought
into cordial submission to the Divine will.
2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago
was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was
in the body or out of the body I do not know—
God knows.
1. JAMISON, above--rather, simply fourteen years ago. This Epistle was written
A.D. 55-57. Fourteen years before will bring the vision to A.D. 41-43, the time of his
second visit to Jerusalem (Ac 22:17). He had long been intimate with the
Corinthians, yet had never mentioned this revelation before: it was not a matter
lightly to be spoken of.
I cannot tell--rather as Greek, I know not. If in the body, he must have been
caught up bodily; if out of the body, as seems to be Paul's opinion, his spirit must
have been caught up out of the body. At all events he recognizes the possibility of
conscious receptivity in disembodied spirits.
caught up-- (Ac 8:39).
to the third heaven--even to, c. These raptures (note the plural, visions,

revelations, 2Co 12:1) had two degrees: first he was caught up to the third
heaven, and from thence to Paradise (2Co 12:4) [CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA,
Miscellanies, 5.427], which seems to denote an inner recess of the third heaven
[BENGEL] (Lu 23:43; Re 2:7). Paul was permitted not only to hear the things of
Paradise, but to see also in some degree the things of the third heaven (compare
visions, 2Co 12:1). The occurrence TWICE of whether in the body . . . I know not,
God knoweth, and of lest I should be exalted above measure, marks two stages in
the revelation. Ignorance of the mode does not set aside the certain knowledge of
the fact. The apostles were ignorant of many things [BENGEL]. The first heaven is
that of the clouds, the air; the second, that of the stars, the sky; the third is spiritual
(Eph 4:10).
2. GUZIK Then why does he use the third person at all? Because Paul, in describing
this remarkable spiritual experience, is describing just the kind of thing that the
super apostles among the Corinthian Christians would glory in. When he described
his humble experiences in 2 Corinthians 11:23-30, he did not hesitate to write in the
first person. No one would think he was glorifying himself as the super apostles
did. But here, he walks more carefully. He is doing every thing he can to relate this
experience without bringing glory to himself.
Fourteen years ago: This dating by Paul does little to help us know when this
happened, because scholars are not in agreement regarding when 2
Corinthians was written.
i. Suggestions have been made the experience he describes happened
during Paul's ten years in Syria and Cilicia (Galatians 1:21-2:1), at his
stoning in Lystria (Acts 14:19), or during his time in Antioch (Acts 13:1-
3).
ii. The important thing to notice is that Paul kept quiet about this for fourteen years,
and now he mentions it reluctantly.
3. BARES
Verse 2. I knew a man in Christ. I was acquainted with a Christian; the phrase, in
Christ, meaning nothing more than that he was united to Christ, or was a Christian.
See Romans 16:7. The reason why Paul did not speak of this directly as a vision
which he had himself seen, was probably that he was accused of boasting, and he
had admitted that it did not become him to glory. But though it did not become him
to boast directly, yet he could tell them of a man concerning whom there would be
no impropriety evidently in boasting. It is not uncommon, moreover, for a man to
speak of himself in the third person. Thus Caesar in his Commentaries uniformly
speaks of himself. And so John in his Gospel speaks of himself, John 13:23,24;
19:26; 21:20. John did it on account of his modesty, because he would not appear to
put himself forward, and because the mention of his own name, as connected with
the friendship of the Saviour in the remarkable manner in which he enjoyed it, might
have savoured of pride. For a similar reason Paul may have been unwilling to

mention his own name here; and he may have abstained from referring to this
occurrence elsewhere because it might savour of pride, and might also excite the
envy or ill-will of others. Those who have been most favoured with spiritual
enjoyments will not be the most ready to proclaim it. They will cherish the
remembrance in order to excite gratitude in their own hearts, and support them in
trial; they will not blazon it abroad as if they were more the favourites of Heaven
than others are. That this refers to Paul himself is evident for the following reasons:
(1) His argument required that he should mention something that had occurred to
himself. Anything that had occurred to another would not have been pertinent.
(2.) He applies it directly to himself, (@Co 12:7,) when he says that God took
effectual measures that he should not be unduly exalted in view of the abundant
revelations bestowed on him.
About fourteen years ago. On what occasion, or where this occurred, or why he
concealed the remarkable fact so long, and why there is no other allusion to it, is
unknown; and conjecture is useless. If this epistle was written, as is commonly
supposed, about the year 58, then this occurrence must have happened about the
year 44. This was several years after his conversion, and of course this does not refer
to the trance mentioned in Acts 9:9, at the time when he was converted. Dr. Benson
supposes that this vision was made to him when he was praying in the temple after
his return to Jerusalem, when he was directed to go from Jerusalem to the Gentiles,
(Acts 22:17,) and that it was intended to support him in the trials which he was
about to endure. There can be little danger of error in supposing that its object was
to support him in those remarkable trials, and that God designed to impart to him
such views of heaven and its glory, and of the certainty that he would soon be
admitted there, as to support him in his sufferings, and make him willing to bear all
that should be laid upon him. God often gives to his people some clear and elevated
spiritual comforts before they enter into trials, as well as while in them; he prepares
them for them before they come. This vision Paul had kept secret for fourteen years.
He had doubtless often thought of it; and the remembrance of that glorious hour was
doubtless one of the reasons why he bore trials so patiently, and was willing to
endure so much. But before this he had had no occasion to mention it. He had other
proofs in abundance that he was called to the work of an apostle; and to mention
this would savour of pride and ostentation. It was only when he was compelled to
refer to the evidences of his apostolic mission that he refers to it here.
Whether in the body, I cannot tell. That is, I do not pretend to explain it. I do not
know how it occurred. With the fact he was acquainted; but how it was brought
about he did not know. Whether the body was caught up to heaven; whether the soul
was for a time separated from the body; or whether the scene passed before the
mind in a vision, so that he seemed to have been caught up to heaven, he does not
pretend to know. The evident idea is, that at the time he was in a state of
insensibility in regard to surrounding objects, and was unconscious of what was
occurring, as if he had been dead. Where Paul confesses his own ignorance of what
occurred to himself, it would be vain for us to inquire; and the question how this was
done is immaterial. No one can doubt that God had power, if he chose, to transport

the body to heaven; or that he had power for a time to separate the soul from the
body; or that he had power to represent to the mind so clearly the view of the
heavenly world, that he would appear to see it. See Acts 7:56. It is clear only that he
lost all consciousness of anything about him at that time, and that he saw only the
things in heaven. It may be added here, however, that Paul evidently supposed that
his soul might be taken to heaven without the body, and that it might have separate
consciousness, and a separate existence. He was not, therefore, a materialist, and he
did not believe that the existence and consciousness of the soul was dependent on
the body.
God knoweth. With the mode in which it was done, God only could be acquainted.
Paul did not attempt to explain that. That was to him of comparatively little
consequence, and he did not lose his time in a vain attempt to explain it. How happy
would it be if all theologians were as ready to be satisfied with the knowledge of a
fact, and to leave the mode of explaining it with God, as this prince of theologians
was. Many a man would have busied himself with a vain speculation about the way
in which it was done; Paul was contented with the fact that it had occurred.
Such an one caught up. The word which is here used (~arpazw~) means, to seize
upon, to snatch away as wolves do their prey, (John 10:12;) or to seize with avidity
or eagerness, Matthew 11:12; or to carry away, to hurry off by force, or
involuntarily. See Joh 6:15 Ac 8:39 23:10. In the case before us there is implied
the idea that Paul was conveyed by a foreign force; or that he was suddenly seized
and snatched up to heaven. The word expresses the suddenness and the rapidity
with which it was done. Probably it was instantaneous, so that he appeared, at once
to be in heaven. Of the mode in which it was done, Paul has given no explanations;
and conjecture would be useless.
To the third heaven. The Jews sometimes speak of seven heavens, and Mohammed
has borrowed this idea from the Jews. But the Bible speaks of but three heavens;
and among the Jews in the apostolic ages, also, the heavens were divided into three:
(1.) The aerial, including the clouds and the atmosphere, the heavens above us, until
we come to the stars.
(2.) The starry heavens--the heavens in which the sun, moon, and stars appear to be
situated.
(3.) The heavens beyond the stars. That heaven was supposed to be the residence of
God, of angels, and of holy spirits. It was this upper heaven, the dwelling-place of
God, to which Paul was taken, and whose wonders he was permitted to behold--this
region where God dwelt, where Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father,
and where the spirits of the just were assembled. The fanciful opinions of the Jews
about seven heavens may be seen detailed in Schoettgen or in Wetstein, by whom
the principal passages from the Jewish writings relating to the subject have been
collected. As their opinions throw no light on this passage, it is unnecessary to detail
them here.
4. Calvin
2. I knew a man in Christ As he was desirous to restrain himself within
bounds, he merely singles out one instance, and that, too, he handles in
such a way as to show, that it is not from inclination that he brings it
forward; for why does he speak in the person of another rather than in his
own? It is as though he had said, “I should have preferred to be silent, I

should have preferred to keep the whole matter suppressed within my own
mind, but those persons 880880 “ Ces opiniastres ambitieux ;” — “Those
ambitious, obstinate persons.” will not allow me. I shall mention it,
therefore, as it were in a stammering way, that it may be seen that I speak
through constraint.” Some think that the clause in Christ is introduced for
the purpose of confirming what he says. I view it rather as referring to the
disposition, so as to intimate that Paul has not here an eye to himself, but
looks to Christ exclusively.
When he confesses, that he does not know whether he was in the body, or out
of the body, he expresses thereby the more distinctly the greatness of the
revelation. For he means, that God dealt with him in such a way, 881881 “ Que
Dieu a tellement besongne et precede enuers luy ;” — That God had in such a
manner wrought and acted towards him.” that he did not himself understand
the manner of it. Nor should this appear to us incredible, inasmuch as he
sometimes manifests himself to us in such a way, that the manner of his doing
so is, nevertheless, hid from our view. 882882 “ Est incomprehensible a nostre
sens ;” — “Is incomprehensible to our mind.” At the same time, this does not, in
any degree, detract from the assurance of faith, which rests simply on this
single point — that we are aware that God speaks to us. Nay more, let us learn
from this, that we must seek the knowledge of those things only that are
necessary to be known, and leave other things to God. (Deuteronomy 29:29.)
He says, then, that he does not know, whether he was wholly taken up — soul
and body — into heaven, or whether it was his soul only, that was caught up
Fourteen years ago Some 883883 “ Ne se contentans point de ceci ;” — “Not
contenting themselves with this.” enquire, also, as to the place, but it does not
belong to us to satisfy their curiosity. 884884 “ Mais nous n’auons point
delibere, et aussi il n’est pas en nous de satisfaire a leur curiosite ;” — “But we
have not determined as to this, and it does not belong to us to satisfy their
curiosity.” The Lord manifested himself to Paul in the beginning by a vision,
when he designed to convert him from Judaism to the faith of the gospel, but he
was not then admitted as yet into those secrets, as he needed even to be
instructed by Ananias in the first rudiments. 885885 “ Es premiers
commencemens de la religion ;” — “In the first elements of religion.” (Acts
9:12.) That vision, therefore, was nothing but a preparation, with the view of
rendering him teachable. It may be, that, in this instance, he refers to that
vision, of which he makes mention also, according to Luke’s narrative. (Acts
22:17.) There is no occasion, however, for our giving ourselves much trouble as
to these conjectures, as we see that Paul himself kept silence respecting it for
fourteen years, 886886 “ This vision Paul had kept secret for fourteen years. He
had doubtless often thought of it; and the remembrance of that glorious hour
was doubtless one of the reasons why he bore trials so patiently, and was willing
to endure so much. But before this he had had no occasion to mention it. He
had other proofs in abundance that he was called to the work of an Apostle; and
to mention this would savour of pride and ostentation. It was only when he was
compelled to refer to the evidences of his apostolic mission that he refers to it
here.” — Barnes. — Ed. and would not have said one word in reference to it, had
not the unreasonableness of malignant persons constrained him.

Even to the third heaven. He does not here distinguish between the different
heavens in the manner of the philosophers, so as to assign to each planet its
own heaven. On the other hand, the number three is made use of (κατ ὰζοχὰν)
by way of eminence, to denote what is highest and most complete. Nay more,
the term heaven, taken by itself, denotes here the blessed and glorious kingdom
of God, which is above all the spheres, 887887 “ Par dessus tons les cieux ;” —
“Above all the heavens.” and the firmament itself, and even the entire frame-work
of the world. Paul, however, not contenting himself with the simple term,
888888 “ Non content de nommer simplement le ciel ;” — “Not contented with
simply employing the term heaven. ” adds, that he had reached even the
greatest height, and the innermost recesses. For our faith scales heaven and
enters it, and those that are superior to others in knowledge get higher in
degree and elevation, but to reach the third heavens has been granted to very
few.
5. CLARKE
Fourteen years ago
On what occasion or in what place this transaction took place we cannot tell; there
are many conjectures among learned men concerning it, but of what utility can they
be when every thing is so palpably uncertain? Allowing this epistle to have been
written some time in the year 57, fourteen years counted backward will lead this
transaction to the year 42 or 43, which was about the time that Barnabas brought
Paul from Tarsus to Antioch, Acts 11:25,26, and when he and Paul were sent by the
Church of Antioch with alms to the poor Christians at Jerusalem. It is very possible
that, on this journey, or while in Jerusalem, he had this vision, which was intended
to be the means of establishing him in the faith, and supporting him in the many
trials and difficulties through which he was to pass. This vision the apostle had kept
secret for fourteen years.
Whether in the body I cannot tell
That the apostle was in an ecstasy or trance, something like that of Peter, Acts 10:9,
there is reason to believe; but we know that being carried literally into heaven was
possible to the Almighty. But as he could not decide himself, it would be ridiculous in
us to attempt it.
Caught up to the third heaven.
He appeared to have been carried up to this place; but whether bodily he could not
tell, or whether the spirit were not separated for the time, and taken up to the third
heaven, he could not tell.
The third heaven-The Jews talk of seven heavens, and Mohammed has received the
same from them; but these are not only fabulous but absurd. I shall enumerate
those of the Jews.
1. The YELUM, or curtain, - Which in the morning is folded up, and in the evening
stretched out. Isaiah 40:22: He stretcheth out the heavens as a CURTAIN, and
spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.
2. The firmament, or EXPANSE, In which the sun, moon, stars, and constellations
are fixed. Genesis 1:17: And God placed them in the FIRMAMENT of heaven.
3. The CLOUDS, or AETHER, Where the mill-stones are which grind the manna for
the righteous. Psalms 78:23, Though he had commended the CLOUDS from above,
and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down manna,

4. The HABITATION, Where Jerusalem, and the temple, and the altar, were
constructed and where Michael the great prince stands and offers sacrifices. 1 Kings
8:13: I have surely built thee a HOUSE TO DWELL IN, a settled place for thee to
abide in for ever. But where is heaven so called? Answer: In Isaiah 63:15: Look
down from HEAVEN, and behold from the HABITATION, , of thy holiness.
5. The DWELLING-PLACE, Where the troops of angels sing throughout the night, but
are silent in the day time, because of the glory of the Israelites. Psalms 42:8: The
Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day time, and in the night his song
shall be with me. But how is it proved that this means heaven? Answer: From
Deuteronomy 26:15. Look down from thy holy habitation, the DWELLING-PLACE of
thy holiness; and from heaven, and bless thy people Israel.
6. The FIXED RESIDENCE, Where are the treasures of snow and hail, the repository
of noxious dews, of drops, and whirlwinds; the grotto of exhalations, heavens thus
denominated? Answer: In 1 Kings 8:39,49, Then hear thou in HEAVEN thy
DWELLING-PLACE, thy FIXED RESIDENCE.
7. The ARABOTH, Where are justice, judgment, mercy, the treasures of life; peace
and blessedness; the souls of the righteous, the souls and spirits which are reserved
for the bodies yet to be formed, and the dew by which God is to vivify the dead.
Psalms 89:14, ; Isaiah 59:17; ; Psalms 36:9, ; Judges 6:24; ; Psalms 24:4;
1 Samuel 25:29; ; Isaiah 57:20: All of which are termed Araboth, Psalms 68:4. Extol
him who rideth on the heavens, ba ARABOTH, by his name Jah.
All this is sufficiently unphilosophical, and in several cases ridiculous.
In the sacred writings three heavens only are mentioned. The first is the atmosphere,
what appears to be intended by rekia, the firmament or expansion, Genesis 1:6. The
second, the starry heaven; where are the sun, moon, planets, and stars; but these
two are often expressed under the one term shamayim, the two heavens, or
expansions, and in Genesis 1:17, they appear to be both expressed by rekia
hashshamayim, the firmament of heaven. And, thirdly, the place of the blessed, or
the throne of the Divine glory, probably expressed by the words shemei
hashshamayim, the heavens of heavens. But on these subjects the Scripture affords
us but little light; and on this distinction the reader is not desired to rely.
Much more may be seen in Schoettgen, who has exhausted the subject; and who has
shown that ascending to heaven, or being caught up to heaven, is a form of speech
among the Jewish writers to express the highest degrees of inspiration. They often
say of Moses that he ascended on high, ascended on the firmament, ascended to
heaven; where it is evident they mean only by it that he was favoured with the
nearest intimacy with God, and the highest revelations relative to his will,
understand St. Paul thus, it will remove much of the difficulty from this place; and
perhaps the unspeakable words, 2 Corinthians 12:4, are thus to be understood. He
had the most sublime communications from God, such as would be improper to
mention, though it is very likely that we have the substance of these in his epistles.
Indeed, the two epistles before us seem, in many places, to be the effect of most
extraordinary revelations.
6. GILL, I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago,.... Which is to be
understood of himself, as appears from 2Co_12:7, where he speaks in the first person;
and the reason why he here speaks in the third, is to show his modesty and humility, and
how much he declined vain glory and popular applause; and whilst he is speaking of
himself, studies as it were to conceal himself from being the person designed, and to

draw off the mind of the reader from him to another person; though another cannot be
intended, for it would not have been to his purpose, yea, quite beside it, when he
proposes to come to visions and revelations he had of the Lord, to have instanced in the
rapture of another. Moreover, the full and certain knowledge he had of this man, of the
place he was caught up to, and of the things he there heard, best agrees with him; as also
his attesting, in such a solemn way, his ignorance of the manner of this rapture, whether
in the body or out of the body, and which he repeats and refers to the knowledge of God,
clearly shows he must mean himself; besides, it would otherwise have been no instance
of any vision of his, nor would the rapture of another have at all affected his character,
commendation, and praise, or given him any occasion of glorying as this did: though he
did not choose to take it, as is clear by his saying that if he gloried of it he should not be a
fool, yet forbore, lest others should entertain too high an opinion of him; and after all, he
was in some danger of being elated with this vision along with others, that the following
sore temptation was permitted, to prevent his being exalted with it above measure: and
when he calls this person, meaning himself, a man, it is not to distinguish him from an
angel, whose habitation is in the third heaven, and so no wonderful thing to be found
there; or from any other creature; nor perhaps only to express his sex, a man, and not a
woman, though the Syriac version uses the word גברא , peculiar to the masculine sex; but
merely to design a person, and it is all one as if it had been said, I knew a person, or I
knew one in Christ: and the phrase in Christ, is not to be connected with the word
know, as if the sense was, that he called Christ to witness the truth of what he was
about to say, and that what he should say was not with a view to his own glory, but to the
glory and honour of Christ only; but it is to be connected with the word man, and
denotes his being in Christ, and that either, as Dr. Hammond thinks, in a singular and
extraordinary manner; as John is said to be in the spirit, Rev_1:10, that is, in an
ecstasy; and so here this man was in the Spirit of Christ, and transported by him to see
visions, and have revelations; or rather it intends a spiritual being in Christ, union to
him, the effect of which is communion with him. The date of
fourteen years ago, may refer either to the time when the apostle first had the
knowledge of his being in Christ, which was at his conversion; he was in Christ from all
eternity, being given to him, chosen in him, loved by him; set as a seal upon his heart, as
well as engraven on the palms of his hands, and represented by him, and in him, in the
everlasting covenant; and so in time, at his crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection,
ascension, and session at the right hand of God; in consequence of all which, when the
set time was come, he became a new creature, was converted and believed in Christ, and
then he knew himself to be in him; he was in him secretly before, now openly; and this
was about fourteen years before the writing of this epistle; the exact time of his
conversion might well be known and remembered by him, it being in such an
extraordinary manner: or also this date may refer to the time of his rapture, which some
have thought was some time within the three days after his conversion, when he was
without sight, and neither ate nor drank; some have thought it to be eight years after his
conversion; but the most probable opinion is, that it was not at Damascus, but when he
was come again to Jerusalem, and was praying in the temple, and was in a trance or
ecstasy, Act_22:17, though the difference there is among chronologers, and the
uncertainty of their conjectures, both as to the time of the apostle's conversion, and the
writing of this epistle, makes it very difficult to determine this point. They that make this
rapture to be at the time of his conversion, seem to be furthest off of the truth of things;
for whether his conversion be placed in the 34th year of Christ, as some, or in the 35th,
as others, or in the 36th; and this epistle be thought to be written either in the 56th, or

58th, or 60th, the date of fourteen years will agree with neither: they indeed make things
to agree together best, who place his conversion in the year 36, make this rapture to be
eight years after, in the year 44, and this epistle to be written in the year 58. Dr.
Lightfoot puts the conversion of the apostle in the year 34, the rapture of him into the
third heaven, in the year 43, at the time of the famine in the reign of Claudius, Act_
11:28, when he was in a trance at Jerusalem, Act_22:17, and the writing of this epistle in
the year 57. That great chronologer, Bishop Usher, places Paul's conversion in the year
35, his rapture in the year 46, and the writing of this epistle in the year 60. So that upon
the whole it is hard to say when this rapture was; and it may be, it was at neither of the
visions recorded in the Scripture, which the apostle had, but at some other time nowhere
else made mention of: when, as he here says,
such an one was caught up to the third heaven, the seat of the divine Majesty,
and the residence of the holy angels; where the souls of departed saints go immediately
upon their dissolution; and the bodies and souls of those who have been translated,
caught up, and raised already, are; and where the glorified body of Christ is and will be,
until his second coming. This is called the third heaven, in respect to the airy and
starry heavens. The apostle refers to a distinction among the Jews of ושמיא מיצעאי ושמיא
עילאי תתאי שמיא , the supreme heaven, the middle heaven, and the lower heaven (f); and
who also make a like division of worlds, and which they call והעולם האמצעי ועולם עליון עולם
השפל , the supreme world, and the middle world, and the lower world (g); and
sometimes (h) the world of angels, the world of the orbs, and the world of them below;
and accordingly the Cabalistic doctors talk of three worlds; תליתאה עלמא , the third
world, they say (i), is the supreme world, hidden, treasured, and shut up, which none
can know; as it is written, eye hath not seen, c. and is the same with the apostle's
third heaven. The state and condition in which he was during this rapture is expressed
by the following words, put into a parenthesis,
whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell,
God knoweth: whether his soul remained in his body, and he was caught up soul and
body into heaven, as Elijah was carried thither soul and body in a chariot with horses of
fire; or whether his soul was out of his body, and he was disembodied for a time, as Philo
the Jew (k) says that Moses was ασωματον, without the body, during his stay of forty
days and as many nights in the mount; or whether this was not all in a visionary way, as
John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and Ezekiel was taken by a lock of his head,
and lifted up by the Spirit between earth and heaven, and brought in the visions of God
to Jerusalem, cannot be said. The apostle did not know himself, and much less can any
other be able to say how it was; it is best with him to refer and leave it to the omniscient
God; one of the four persons the Jews say entered into paradise, who are hereafter
mentioned in See Gill on 2Co_12:4, is said to have his mind snatched away in a divine
rapture (l); that is, he was not himself, he knew not where he was, or whether in the
body or out, as says the apostle.
7. HENRY, The apostle was pained with a thorn in the flesh, and buffeted with a
messenger of Satan, 2Co_12:7. We are much in the dark what this was, whether some
great trouble or some great temptation. Some think it was an acute bodily pain or
sickness; others think it was the indignities done him by the false apostles, and the
opposition he met with from them, particularly on the account of his speech, which was

contemptible. However this was, God often brings this good out of evil, that the
reproaches of our enemies help to hide pride from us; and this is certain, that what the
apostle calls a thorn in his flesh was for a time very grievous to him: but the thorns
Christ wore for us, and with which he was crowned, sanctify and make easy all the
thorns in the flesh we may at any time be afflicted with; for he suffered, being tempted,
that he might be able to succour those that are tempted. Temptations to sin are most
grievous thorns; they are messengers of Satan, to buffet us. Indeed it is a great grievance
to a good man to be so much as tempted to sin.
2. The design of this was to keep the apostle humble: Lest he should be exalted above
measure, 2Co_12:7. Paul himself knew he had not yet attained, neither was already
perfect; and yet he was in danger of being lifted up with pride. If God love us, he will
hide pride from us, and keep us from being exalted above measure; and spiritual
burdens are ordered, to cure spiritual pride. This thorn in the flesh is said to be a
messenger of Satan, which he did not send with a good design, but on the contrary, with
ill intentions, to discourage the apostle (who had been so highly favoured of God) and
hinder him in his work. But God designed this for good, and he overruled it for good,
and made this messenger of Satan to be so far from being a hindrance that it was a help
to the apostle.
8. HAWKER, The Apostle saith, that he knew a man in Christ; and there can be no
doubt, from what he soon after added, concerning the abundance of revelations given to
him (2Co_12:7), that he meant himself. And it was no uncommon thing, in the Eastern
world, for men to speak of themselves as in the third person. Indeed it is not unusual
now. And upon the present occasion, Paul studied to avoid all vain-glory. By the
expression itself of a man in Christ, it Is plain Paul meant one of Christ’s people, his
seed, his chosen. And of all these it must be said, that every individual of Christ’s seed
was in Christ from all eternity, for they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of
the world, Eph_1:4. And all the purposes and grace designed the Church in time, with
the sure hope of eternal life in the world to come, were all given to every individual of the
Church , before the world began, 2Ti_1:9; Tit_1:2. Of Christ’s whole seed, it may be truly
said, as was said by the Holy Ghost of Levi, being in the loins of his father Abraham,
when Melchizedeck met him; so all of Christ’s seed were in Him, and He their
everlasting Father from all eternity, Heb_7:10; Isa_9:6. Hence those sweet promises:
Isa_44:3; Isa_59:21.
A man in Christ is one of the members of Christ’s mystical body: And having been
chosen in Christ, when Christ at the call of God; stood up the Head and Husband of his
people before all worlds; so; in the time-state of the Church, every man in Christ is
proved to belong to Christ by regeneration, adoption, justification, and grace. Hence, as
Paul elsewhere saith, his life is hid with Christ in God; Col_3:3, a life of secresy, security,
and interest in all that belongs to Christ. He is, therefore, properly called one in Christ,
beheld in Christ, accepted in Christ, justified in Christ, sanctified in Christ, and must be ,
finally, glorified in Christ. And thus the Holy Ghost testifieth: For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that He
might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified,
them he also glorified, Rom_8:29-30. Reader! are you a man in Christ?
In relation to the time of this vision, with which Paul was favored, the Apostle dates it
about fourteen years before the time that he wrote this Epistle. And it appears, at the
close of the next chapter that he wrote it from Philippi; consequently, it must have been

about the year 60 when written, and fourteen years before would place the vision in the
eleventh year after his conversion. Some have conceived that this vision is the same,
which is spoken of when Paul arrived at Jerusalem, Act_22:17. But it should, seem to
have been a perfectly distinct revelation, and to a very different purport from that. It
appears to me, I confess, to have been a very glorious manifestation of the Person of
Christ, similar, or perhaps in greater degree, to those with which the saints of God in the
Old Testament were favored, for the special comfort of those holy servants of the Lord,
as well as for the general confirmation of the faith. But, certain it is, that the revelation
was so abundant and overwhelming, that during the continuance of it, the Apostle was
altogether unconscious of any bodily sensations. See Eze_8:3; Dan_8:15; Dan_8:18;
Dan_8:27; Rev_1:10.
The paradise, or third heaven, the Apostle speaks of (for he calls it by both names,)
evidently mean one and the same; and seems to be in conformity to the Jewish notions;
who, when speaking at any time of heaven, were accustomed to call it paradise. There
doth not, however, appear any reason assigned wherefore it is called the third heaven.
The generally received opinion is, that it is the blessed habitation of the spirits of just
men made perfect, Luk_23:43. Several scriptures seem to favor the opinion, but none
decide. And, as the Holy Ghost is silent on the subject, it becomes us to be also, and not
presume to be wise above what is written, Rev_6:9-10. Indeed there is nothing so weak
as men’s conjectures on subjects of this sublime nature. Paul’s own account of this is
that had heard unspeakable words or such as a man cannot utter. How then can another
explain, or even form an idea of them? Reader! it is enough, for the exercise of faith, to
receive from God the Holy Ghost the record of the fact. Here then we ought to rest. It is a
sad misuse of the word of God, when upon any exercise of mystery we become reasoners
instead of believers.
I pray the Reader to notice the Apostle’s words, when passing by all glorying on account
of the wonderful condescension of his Lord, he declares his wish, rather to glory in his
infirmities. By which we are to suppose Paul meant, not the desperately wicked state of
his heart in the days of his unregeneracy, for there could be nothing to glory in them; but
rather the circumstances, which, arising out of a fallen state, made Christ dear, and kept
the soul humble. And, indeed, the word infirmities means as much. Some have thought
the infirmities Paul alluded to, were only such as he mentions in the tenth verse, where
be speaks of taking pleasure in them, in being reproached and persecuted for Christ’s
sake. And, no doubt, these exercises afforded much satisfaction when ever, in suffering
shame for the name of Jesus, Act_5:41. But had these been all, and Paul had had no
other infirmities in himself to be humbled for; it is to be apprehended by what we see
and know of human nature, that instead of glorying in infirmities which kept the soul
humble and made Christ dear, Paul, as well as other saints of God, would have become
proud of what some men talk of, but none in themselves know, a fancied holiness,
inherent in themselves, and which must render in their view, Christ less and less
necessary. Reader! I pray you to pause over the subject, and may God the Holy Ghost be
your teacher. Paul felt, if I mistake not, what all the children taught of God feel, daily
infirmities from a body of sin and death, which makes the Lord Jesus dear, yea,
increasingly dear and precious. And those infirmities compelled him to seek strength
from Christ, in like manner as the hunger of an healthy man compels him to seek food.
Paul’s daily wants, daily cravings, daily emptiness, taught him that he could not live
upon past attainments, but Jesus was needful every day, and all the day, and without
those supplies from the Lord, he should go lean and barren. It was not the having been
caught up to the third heaven would satisfy his soul, when he found his soul afterwards
encompassed by a body of flesh and blood, and returned to the earth. He, therefore,

gloried that those infirmities made him sensible where he was, and how increasingly
needful Christ was to keep him humble, and exalt the Savior. And very sure I am, that
every child of God, truly taught of God, knows the same by daily experience. My sense of
sin makes Christ’s blood precious. My poverty in spirituals gives A blessed occasion to
seek and make use of his riches. And my conscious weakness, unless supported and
upheld by the Lord my righteousness, makes me continually cry out: Hold thou me up,
and shall be safe: and then shall I have respect unto thy statutes continually, Psa_
119:117. Reader! what knowledge have you of these things? When a child, of God makes
use of his experiences in this way, that by feeling and knowing in himself his own
nothingness, and his wants of Jesus increasing, and his desires after Jesus more
pressing; this is to make our experiences profitable, because they lead to Christ instead
of leading from Christ. But when men live, as, the major part of those who profess the
truths of God do live, upon a work, as they suppose, wrought in them, rather than what
Christ hath wrought for them, and instead of drawing comfort wholly from Christ, they
take it from themselves, magnifying the effect before the cause; this is inverting things,
and living upon Christ, if it can be called living, at second hand. Better to be humbled
with an infirmity, than made proud with some supposed merit. Reader! do not dismiss
the subject without due consideration!
9. EBC, He begins abruptly. I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in
the body, I know not; or whether out of the body I know not; God knoweth), such a one
caught up even to the third heaven. A man in Christ means a Christian man, a man in
his character as a Christian. To St. Paul’s consciousness the wonderful experience he is
about to describe was not natural, still less pathological, but unequivocally religious. It
did not befall him as a man simply, still less as an epileptic patient; it was an
unmistakably Christian experience. He only existed for himself, during it, as a man in
Christ. I know such a man, he says, fourteen years ago caught up even to the third
heaven. The date of this rapture (the same word is used in Act_8:39 1Th_4:17 Rev_
12:5 : all significant examples) would be about A.D. 44. This forbids us to connect it in
any way with Paul’s conversion, which must have been twenty years earlier than this
letter; and indeed there is no reason for identifying it with anything else we know of-the
Apostle. At the date in question, as far as can be made out from the Book of Acts, he
must have been in Tarsus or in Antioch. The rapture itself is described as perfectly
incomprehensible. He may have been carried up bodily to the heavenly places; his spirit
may have been carried up, while his body remained unconscious upon earth: he can
express no opinion about this; the truth is only known to God. It is idle to exploit a
passage like this in the interest of apostolic psychology; Paul is only taking elaborate
pains to tell us that of the mode of his rapture he was absolutely ignorant. It is fairer to
infer that the event was unique in his experience, and that when it happened he was
alone; had such things recurred, or had there been spectators, he could not have been in
doubt as to whether he was caught up in the body or out of the body. The mere fact
that the date is given individualizes the event in his life; and it is going beyond the facts
altogether to generalize it, and take it as the type of such an experience as accompanied
his conversion, or of the visions in Act_16:9; Act_22:17 f., Act_18:9. It was one, solitary,
incomparable experience, including in it a complex of visions and revelations granted by
Christ: it was this, at all events, to the Apostle; and if we do not believe what he tells us
about it, we can have no knowledge of it at all.
Caught up even to the third heaven. The Jews usually counted seven heavens;
sometimes, perhaps because of the dual form of the Hebrew word for heaven, two; but

2 corinthians 12 commentary

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (11)

Similar to 2 corinthians 12 commentary

Similar to 2 corinthians 12 commentary (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

2 corinthians 12 commentary