The Apostle Caught Up to the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–5)

Two subjects here: aa) the rapture itself to heaven (2 Cor. 12:1–6), and bb) the thorn in the flesh given to the Apostle, to conceal his great spiritual perfections, lest he become proud, having constantly such a reminder of the weakness of our nature (2 Cor. 12:7–10).

Aa)

2 Cor. 12:1. I must go on boasting. Though it is not beneficial, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.

He said before: if I must boast, I will boast of my weaknesses. Now he says: to boast of something brilliant, which catches the eye by itself, is not beneficial for me (Photius in Oecumenius), or is not fitting for me. For though there were great divine revelations, yet there is constantly with me a thorn, causing me pains, which humbles me more than those exalt me. To endure all that has been said by Saint Paul is truly a glorious deed. This surrounds his face with the glory of an exalted, not earthly heroism. But not everyone will understand this glory immediately; it must be explained and made clearer, as Saint Chrysostom did at the end of the preceding chapter. The glory of endurance concealed itself with humble appearance or visibility. But something brilliant catches the eye by itself and itself proclaims its glory. Therefore Saint Paul, having need to speak of revelations that came to him, anticipates with a reservation: this is not beneficial for me, or this is not fitting for me. And then, having spoken of it, he concludes: “lest I should be exalted, a thorn was given me” (2 Cor. 12:7). As if to say: do not draw excessive conclusions at my account from what is said, and do not think of me more than I am.

“It is not advantageous for me to boast. I will go on to visions.” “I will go on,”—he shows the reason, but for what? — For an implied thought: I am saying this because I am proceeding to an account of revelations that came to me. “The account of this is not advantageous for me, but beneficial for you. Therefore, caring for your benefit, I am compelled to say what I do not consider beneficial for myself” (Theodoret). Saint Chrysostom says: “What does this mean? After saying so much, he says: ‘It is not beneficial for me to boast.’ In the sense that he said nothing yet? — No. But since he intends to proceed to another kind of boasting, which, though leading not to such reward as the former, yet apparently glorifies him more in the eyes of many who cannot fully understand the matter, he says: ‘It is not beneficial for me to boast.’ For great and the aforesaid grounds for boasting, namely, trials. But he intends to present another kind of grounds—revelations and unspeakable mysteries; therefore he speaks thus. For what reason does he say: ‘not beneficial for me’? — In order not to fall into pride. What do you say? Do you not know of this yourself, even if you do not tell it? But our exaltation is not the same when we alone know the reason for it and when we communicate it to others. For usually it is not the merits themselves that puff us up, but the fact that many testify to them and know of them. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘not beneficial for me,’ and he also does not want to make his hearers think of him more highly than appropriate. False apostles told of themselves things that never happened, while Paul, even what did happen, conceals, even when necessity itself demanded that he not conceal it.” “‘Not beneficial for me,’ he says, teaching everyone in every way to avoid self-praise. For it brings not benefit, but harm, if some necessary and beneficial necessity does not compel to praise.”

“Visions and revelations” here in the Apostle contain one thought: revelation through vision. Revelation embraces all that God is pleased to reveal to us. It happens mentally, when knowledge is imparted to the mind; it happens externally, when God or an Angel appears and speaks what is necessary; but it also happens through visions. A vision either presents the spiritual in images, as, for example, the visions of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse, and requires a new revelation in the mind to understand it; or it is a vision of the spiritual world in its essence, when the spirit of a man is in an unusual way taken up and introduced to its contemplation, not in images, but as it is. Of such a vision Saint Paul now speaks.

2 Cor. 12:2. I know a person in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.

“I know a person in Christ.” As if speaking of another, though evidently he speaks of himself—this is because he was not the acting one, but the acted upon. He consciously recognized and clearly saw all that was happening to him; but as he did not himself act, but was acted upon by a higher power, he places himself only in the rank of observer, and what was accomplished in and with him, he considers as an object or person observed, as if different from himself. Scripture distinguishes in man a certain inner man, or hidden in the heart. This inner man was introduced to the vision, while the ordinary man only remembers it. Yet nothing would have prevented him from saying: I was caught up, instead of what he said: “I know a person…caught up.” If he said thus, surely he had reasonable causes. We can only conjecture that the course of his discourse led him to it, for throughout this whole section the Apostle is both forced to speak about himself something extraordinary, and wishes to conceal himself. Thus here—he both speaks and as if does not speak. Saint Chrysostom says: “Someone will say: if Paul wanted to conceal, he should have made no allusion and said nothing like it. But if he wanted to say, he should have spoken clearly. So, why did he speak neither clearly nor remain silent? — In order to show by this how reluctantly he undertakes the matter.”

The words: “in Christ” can be combined in various ways: both “a person in Christ,” and “I know in Christ,” and “caught up in Christ.” A person in Christ is a believer in Christ, clothed in Christ, become one with Christ. If the one caught up had not been such, he would not have been caught up. — “I know in Christ,” for if the Apostle speaks of himself, then “I know a person” would mean: I experienced this; experienced not by my own powers or by any mental devices, but in Christ. But evidently, in such a case “I know in Christ” would merge with: “caught up in Christ.” It would mean: as one united with Christ and become one with Him, I was caught up by His power, according to His good pleasure, to His glory, for the advancement of His work. Oecumenius and Theophylact write: “He added ‘in Christ’ so that the false apostles, from whose daring anything can be expected, would not say that he was taken by demons, like Simon the magician.”

“Fourteen years ago.” If the epistle was written in 58 AD, then the vision falls on 44 AD, the year of famine, when Saint Paul with Barnabas carried alms to Jerusalem, and after returning thence were set apart by the Spirit of God for preaching. Thus this vision was either in Jerusalem, when Saint Paul was there with the alms, or in Antioch, before departing for the first time to preach to the Gentiles. The rapture of which Saint Paul speaks in his speech to the people when they seized him in Jerusalem and wanted to kill him (Acts 22:17), does not agree with this in content and was earlier by two or three years—namely after Saint Paul’s return from Damascus to Jerusalem. — Why did the Apostle mention the time? Saint Chrysostom and all our interpreters explain thus: “He determined also the time—fourteen years ago—for not without cause did he mention this, but wishing to show that, having kept silent for so long, now too he would not have spoken if there had not been a great necessity. On the contrary, he would have remained silent if he had not seen perishing brethren. — And if Paul was such that in the very beginning, when he had not yet such merits, was deemed worthy of a great revelation, then consider what he became after fourteen years?” — Such an impression was and desirable for the Apostle to raise in the minds of the Corinthians, as Oecumenius surmises: “Since false apostles appeared to be something great and thereby drew all to themselves, the Apostle was forced to show that he far exceeded them, so that they would heed his words and not theirs. For this reason he suggests: one deemed worthy fourteen years ago of such revelations, what is he now after so many labors undertaken for Christ?”

“Whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.” — I cannot say, he says, whether my soul alone was taken to heaven while the body remained on earth, or the body too was taken there. Attention was occupied not with this; it was all absorbed in what was seen and did not turn to itself. After the vision a question could arise and probably did; but fourteen years passed, and it remained unanswered. And if even for Saint Paul himself it remained unanswered, then surely this is such a matter that it cannot be decided, or should not be decided. Saint Chrysostom says: “See how modest he is in everything: he speaks of one thing, but confesses about another that he does not know. He said he was caught up; but whether in the body or out of the body, that, he says, he does not know. It would have been enough to speak of the rapture, keeping silent about the rest, but out of modesty he adds that too. So what then? Was only the mind and soul caught up while the body remained dead? Or was the body too caught up? — This cannot be determined. For if Paul himself, who was caught up and deemed worthy of so many unutterable revelations, does not know this, much more we cannot know. That he was in paradise, this he knows; that he was in the third heaven, that too is not unknown to him; but how he was caught up, of this he does not know clearly.”

“Caught up to the third heaven.” To say this, one must have seen distinctly how the heavens pass—one after another—the second after the first and the third after the second. Since all the vision was a vision of what the bodily eye does not see, these heavens cannot be determined by correspondence to anything visible on high for the bodily eye, whether simple or aided. These heavens are hidden, though for one able to see they are distinct from one another, contain different objects and have different meanings. Within, or in the depths of, the visible world to us, is hidden another world, equally actual as this—spiritual, or subtly material, God knows; but it is certain that Angels and saints dwell in it. According to the degrees of the latter are the degrees of heavens. Since there are many such degrees, there are probably many heavens. The Apostle was caught up to the third heaven; but he does not say it was the last. Moreover, the meaning of his words is such that he passed by two heavens and stopped at the third; but it is possible to pass by not only two but tens and stop at the twentieth.

2 Cor. 12:3. And I know that this person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows—

He confirms that he was truly caught up, and was clearly conscious of it, and knows that it was reality, not some illusory dream. He can only not say whether he was caught up in the body or out of the body. This, he says, only God knows. It is evident that for us knowledge of this is not necessary; surely it does not pertain to the essence of the matter. There is nothing to seek. He speaks as if: this vision is wondrous not only in its subject but also in the very manner of the vision. “Speaking of a wondrous and supernatural matter, he insists that he does not know the manner in which it was accomplished” (Oecumenius).

2 Cor. 12:4. Was caught up into paradise and heard things that are not permitted to tell to mortals.

This third heaven is paradise—or was he first caught up to the third heaven and from the third heaven to paradise? If one accepts the latter, then the heavens passed through will not be the blessed abodes of the saints and Angels but some heavenly arrangements. Theodoret writes: “To the third heaven,” the Apostle spoke about the third part of the distance between heaven and earth, to which he was caught up and heard unspeakable words. Oecumenius and Theophylact distinguish paradise from the third heaven. Theophylact finds something corresponding to the three heavens in the visible world. He says: “‘The third heaven’ understand it this way! Scripture calls air heaven when it says—heavenly birds: here is one heaven! And the firmament it names heaven: ‘God called the firmament heaven’ (Gen. 1:8): here is the second heaven. It knows also another heaven, created with the earth (Gen. 1:1): here is the third heaven. From this third heaven, that man was caught up to paradise.‘So also Oecumenius:’He was caught up to the third heaven and again from there to paradise.” Oecumenius explains the twofold repetition: “whether in the body or out of the body I do not know” by this same twofold action of catching up. “Do not think the Apostle unnecessarily repeated these words twice; but the first time he spoke of being caught up to heaven and the second of being caught up from there to paradise.” Greater definiteness is neither needed nor can be expected when the holy Paul himself is silent.

We do not consider it unnecessary, however, to bring here the following thoughts of blessed Theophylact: “According to the letter, it appears that the third heaven is one place and paradise another; but by analogy (in the spiritual sense, in the application to phenomena of moral and religious life) it appears sometimes that they are the same, sometimes that they are not the same. Analogically much could be said about this, but we will say little,—what is more readily understood. The first heaven is the moral realm, when one orders his moral character. The second heaven is the realm of knowledge of creatures, when one acquires knowledge of every created nature, as much as is accessible to us. The third heaven is the realm of theological knowledge, when one, to the measure possible for him, attains knowledge of divine things and things transcending understanding through contemplation. Therefore Saint Paul was certainly caught up to places, so to speak, near or about the Holy Trinity, that is, having passed and risen above all things created, not knowing whether in body or out of body. To feel and be conscious of this was impossible for him, for there ceases self-activity and self-determination. When a man is introduced into the realm of divine things, his self-activity and understanding of the manner of accomplishment of what he sees ceases. God catches up and takes the man, he is borne by Him and acted upon by Him. And since in these realms too there are their own degrees and ascents to them, it happens that sometimes someone is suddenly caught up to paradise, that is, introduced to the contemplation of the most hidden mysteries of the Godhead, which, as incomprehensible and unutterable, no one can grasp unless first they have come out of human corruption.”

“And he heard inexpressible words, which it is not permitted for a man to speak.” Whose words? – Those of the Lord Saviour or of God invisible, or of Angels, or of saints brought by the Lord into paradise?! And the vision of all this is inexpressible, and much more incomprehensible for an earthly ear is the speech of that place, whoever’s it might be. The saints glorify God, the Angels sing to Him, the Saviour gives commands to the executors of His will. All there is in blessed movement, but all in the order and harmony of the supercelestial, for the description of which there are no words in our tongue. Should we regret that he did not say what he heard? Since the Apostles were sent to tell men all God’s will, all that is necessary for their salvation, – and these words could not be told; one must assume that they do not pertain to matters necessary for salvation. If so, then there is nothing to regret that they could not be communicated to us. They surely concerned the Apostle Paul personally and were needed only for him, whether he understood them fully or not. For visions are needed not to enrich knowledge, but to tear the spirit from bondage to the fleshly and material. This was especially needed by the holy Paul upon entering the struggle of Gospel preaching. This he was given to experience and taste. The blessed Theodoret writes thus about these words: “The Apostle heard inexpressible words, which ‘it is not permitted’ for a man – he did not say: to hear, but ‘to speak.’ For if it were impossible for man to hear, how would he have heard? But the Apostle heard and did not dare to recount them. Others say that the words are the very things themselves; because the Apostle saw the beauty of paradise, the ranks of the saints in it, and the all-encompassing voice of the psalmody. All this the one who saw it knows precisely.”

2 Cor. 12:5. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses.

Saint Chrysostom says: “He does not mean that the one caught up was someone else, but gives such a turn of speech that he both says what is fitting and what can be said, and at the same time avoids the necessity of speaking openly of himself. Otherwise, what congruity would there be, speaking of himself, to introduce another person? — Why did he express himself thus? Because it is not the same thing to say: I was caught up, and: I know a person who was caught up; or: I will boast of myself, and: I will boast of such a one. And if someone asks, how can one be caught up without the body? then I will ask: how can one be caught up with the body? For the latter is harder to believe than the former, if we reason by understanding rather than submit to faith. And for what reason was Paul caught up? — Probably so that he would not be considered lesser than the other Apostles. Those were with Christ, but he was not; therefore the Lord, to show his glory, caught him up to paradise. For the word: paradise, is full of meaning and known to all. Thus it is evident that the words: ‘on behalf of such a one I will boast,’ the Apostle spoke of himself. But if he added: ‘on my own behalf I will not boast,’ this means only that he would not have said anything like this without necessity, in vain and frivolously,—or that he wished, as much as possible, to conceal what was said.” The same also our other interpreters say. Thus Oecumenius writes: “See what modesty! As if speaking of someone else. ‘On behalf of such a one,’ he says, ‘I will boast.’ He does this wishing to leave himself in the shade. ‘On my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses,’ that is, in sorrows, deprivations, and persecutions.”

Perhaps it is also for this reason he spoke thus, to attribute all in this vision to God. To God be the glory! In this matter I was not the acting one. All that was accomplished was accomplished by God. To Him be the glory! This concerns me only because it happened in me; but as it happened without my knowledge and without exertion of my powers, I speak of it as of something not my own. I boast as of something glorious, not however claiming anything for myself. My only are my weaknesses, humiliations, insults, contempt, beatings. And God helps to endure all this, but there is a part that is mine; in that vision there is nothing of mine. All belongs to God.