2 Corinthians 12:2

2. A man Commentators are agreed that the man was the apostle himself. This view is confirmed by 2 Corinthians 12:7.

Fourteen years ago As in the narrative just given, (2 Corinthians 11:32-33,) St. Paul recalls an instance of distant date, but not for the same reason. The reason here is his desire to separate the distant self, in whom he could glory, (see note, 2 Corinthians 12:5,) from his present self. Fourteen years would bring us back to A.D. 44, about the time of St. Paul’s first residence at Antioch. It was, at this present writing, about twenty years since his conversion.

In… out of the body St. Paul’s doubt clearly shows that he held the soul to be fully capable of existing and acting separately from the body. He was no materialist. He believed in the twofold nature of man, bodily and spiritual. If he was in the body, then his body was translated for the time, like those of Enoch, Elijah, and Christ, to the abodes of the saints after their resurrection in the body. If out of the body then his soul alone was translated to that region, leaving the body still under the power of organic life. Paul does not decide whether he was in the body or out; nor, of course, can we. But we should imagine that he was in the body when he visited the resurrection state, and out of the body when he visited the abode of disembodied spirits.

Caught The usual word for a miraculous snatching up of the person by a divine power. Acts 8:39; Rev 12:5 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

To the third heaven Greek, even to the third heaven, implying a greater height than simply into paradise, without the even. Grotius says, that the Jews “reckoned three heavens.” 1. The aerial, including the atmosphere occupied with the clouds; 2. The sidereal, or starry firmament; and, 3. The habitation of God and his angels. “But he quotes no authority, and the accuracy of his statement is questioned. Meyer. On the other hand, the Jewish number was the sacred seven; “God makes six heavens and dwells in the seventh.” Meyer thinks that St. Paul here recognises the seven, and so admits four heavens above the level of his ascent. Bengel ingeniously says, that the Hebrew dual shamaim supposes two heavens, and it was reserved to the gospel to reveal the third.

But, as is shown in M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopaedia, (on the word Heaven,) a classification of biblical texts shows well the three heavens in both the Old and New Testaments: “(1.) Under the first head, coelum nubiferum, ( the AERIAL HEAVEN,) the following phrases naturally fall ( a) ‘Fowl,’ or ‘fowls of the heaven, of the air,’ see Genesis 2:19; Genesis 7:3; Genesis 7:23; Genesis 9:2; Deuteronomy 4:17; Deuteronomy 28:26; 1 Kings 21:24; Job 12:7; Job 28:21; Job 35:11; Psalms 8:8; Psalms 79:2; Psalms 104:12; Jeremiah 7:33 et passim; Ezekiel 29:5 et passim; Daniel 2:38; Hosea 2:18; Hosea 4:3; Hosea 7:12; Zephaniah 1:3; Mark 4:3, ( τα πετεινα του ουρανου ;) Luke 8:5; Luke 9:58; Luke 13:19; Acts 10:12; Acts 11:6 in all which passages the same original words in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek Scriptures ( שׁמין שׁמים , ουρανοι ) are with equal propriety rendered indifferently ‘air’ and ‘ heaven ’ similarly we read of ‘the path of the eagle in the air,’

(Proverbs 30:19;) of ‘the eagles of heaven,’ (Lamentations 4:19;) of ‘the stork of the heaven,’ (Jeremiah 8:7;) and of ‘birds of heaven’ in general. Ecclesiastes 10:20; Jeremiah 4:25. In addition to these zoological terms, we have meteorological facts included under the same original words: for example, ( b) ‘ The dew of heaven,’ (Genesis 27:28; Genesis 27:39;) Deuteronomy 33:28; Daniel 4:15 et passim; Haggai 1:10; Zechariah 8:12:) ( c) ‘ The clouds of heaven,’ (1 Kings 18:45; Psalms 147:8; Daniel 7:13; Matthew 24:30; Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62:) ( d) ‘ The frost of heaven,’ (Job 38:29:) ( e) ‘ The winds of heaven,’ (1 Kings 18:55; Psalms 78:26; Daniel 8:8; Daniel 11:4; Zechariah 2:6; Zechariah 6:5, [see margin;] Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27:) ( f) ‘ The rain of heaven,’ (Genesis 8:2; Deuteronomy 11:11; Deuteronomy 28:12; Jeremiah 14:22; Acts 14:17, [ ουρανοθεν υετους ;] James 5:18; Revelation 18:6:) ( g) ‘ Lightning, with thunder,’ (Job 37:3-4; Luke 17:24.) (II.) Coelum astriferum, (ASTRAL HEAVEN) The vast spaces of which astronomy takes cognizance are frequently referred to: for example, ( a) in the phrase ‘ host of heaven,’ in Deuteronomy 17:3; Jeremiah 8:2; Matthew 24:29, [ δυναμεις των ουρανων ;] a sense which is obviously not to be confounded with another signification of the same phrase, as in Luke 2:13, [see ANGELS:] ( b) ‘Lights of heaven,’ (Genesis 1:14-16; Ezekiel 32:8:) ( c) ‘ Stars of heaven,’ (Genesis 22:17; Genesis 26:4; Exodus 32:13; Deuteronomy 1:10; Deuteronomy 10:22; Deuteronomy 28:62; Judges 5:20; Nehemiah 9:23; Isaiah 13:10; Nahum 3:16; Hebrews 11:12.) (III.) Coelum angeliferum, (ANGELIC HEAVEN.) It would exceed our limits if we were to collect the descriptive phrases which revelation has given us of heaven in its sublimest sense; we content ourselves with indicating one or two of the most obvious: ( a) ‘ The heaven of heavens,’ (Deuteronomy 10:14; 1Ki 8:27 , 2 Chronicles 2:6; 2 Chronicles 2:18; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalms 115:16; Psalms 148:4:) ( b) ‘ The third heavens,’ (2 Corinthians 12:2:) ( c) ‘ The high and lofty’ [ place, ] (Isaiah 47:15:) ( d) ‘ The highest,’ (Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:10; Luke 2:14, compared with Psalms 148:1.) This heavenly sublimity was graciously brought down to Jewish apprehension in the sacred symbol of their tabernacle and temple, which they reverenced (especially in the adytum, of ‘the Holy of Holies’) as ‘the place where God’s honour dwelt,’ (Psalms 26:8,) and amid the sculptured types of his celestial retinue, in the cherubim of the mercy-seat, (2 Kings 19:15; Psalms 80:1; Isaiah 37:16.)” This classification, in our view, furnishes the correct sense of St. Paul’s terms.

Yet it is to be noted that the first two of these heavens are perceptible to our senses, and known to science; while the third is but imagined in thought, without assignable locality. This is alike true of heaven, paradise, and hell. See note on Mark 16:19.