at the time of Paul's conversion. That was a vision of Christ to the apostle here on earth, this was a translation of the apostle into heaven ; that occurred twenty years before the probable date of this epistle. So that the two agree neither in nature, nor in the time of their occurrence. Whether in the body or out of the hody^ I cannot tell. The point as to which Paul was in doubt, was not the nature of the event, not as to whether it was a mere exaltation of his conscious- ness and perceptions or a real translation, but simply Avhether that translation was of the soul separated from the body, or of the body and soul together. Though heaven is a state, it is also a place. According to the scriptural representation, more is necessary to our introduction into heaven than mere- ly opening the eyes to what is now about us and around us. The gloritied body of our Lord is somewhere, and not every- where. Such an one caught up j apirayivTa^ carried aicay, the proper term to express a removal from one place to an- other without the agency of the subject. Paul was entirely passive in the translation of which he here speaks. Comp. Acts 8, 39. 1 Thess. 4, 17, " Caught up to meet the Lord in the air." To the third heaven. This means either the highest heavens ; or, on the assumption that Paul used the language and intended to conform to the ideas of the Rabbins who taught that there were seven heavens, it means the air, the region of the clouds. He was caught up mto the air, and then still further raised to Paradise. The former explanation is to be preferred, 1. Because there is no evidence that the opinions of the Jewish writers, whose works are still extant, were prevalent at the time of the apostle. 2. Because there is no evidence m the New Testament that the sacred writers adopted those opinions. 3. Because if Paul believed and taught that there were seven heavens, that is, if he sanctioned the Rabbinical doctrine on that subject, it would be a part of Christian doctrine, which it is not. It is no part of the faith of the Christian church. 4. Because it is plain that the " third heaven " and "paradise" are synonymous terms ; and paradise, as is admitted, at least by those who suppose that Paul heie speaks as a Jew, means heaven.
3. 4. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell : God knoweth ;) how that he was caught up into paradise, and heai'd