B. Physically treated. — I. Definitions and Distinctions, — The ancient Hebrews, for want of a single term like the KO(T//oc and the mundus of the Greeks and the Lat- ins, used the phrase heaven and earth (as in Gen. i, 1 ; Jer. xxiii, 24 ; and Acts xvii, 24, where "//. and E."= " the world and all things therein") to indicate the uni- verse, or (as Harrow, Sermons on the Creed, ]\'orl's [Ox- ford ed.], iv, 556, expresses it) " those two regions, supe- rior and inferior, into which the whole system of things is divided, together with all the beings that do reside in them, or do belong mito them, or are comprehended by them" (compare Pearson, On the Creed, who, on art. i [ ■' Maker of H. and E."], adduces the Eabbiiiical names I of a triple division of the universe, making the sea, D"^. distinct from the i*ld^, 7) oiKovi.dvi]. Compare also the Nicene Creed, where another division occurs of the uni- verse into " things risible and invisible"). Deducting from this aggregate the idea expressed by "earth" [see Earth ; Geography], we get a residue of signification Avhich exactly embraces " heaven." Barrow (L c.) well defines it as " aU the superior region encompassing the globe of the earth, and from it on all sides extended to a distance inconceivably vast and spacious, with all its parts, and furniture, and inhabitants — not only such things in it as are visible and material, but also those which are immaterial and invisible (Col. i, 16)."
1. Wctstein (in a learned note on 2 Cor. xii, 2) and Eisenmenger {Entdecktes JuJenthum, i, 460) state the Rabbinical opinion as asserting seven heavens. For the substance of AVetstein's note, see Stanley, Corinthians, 1. c. This number arises confessedly from the mystic value of the nvmieral seven; "omnis septenarius dilectus est in sEeculum^in superis." According to Eabbi Abia, there were six antechambers, as it were, or steps to the seventh hea-\'en, which was the " rafitlov in quo Eex habitat" — the very presence-chamber of the divine King himself. Compare Origen, Contra Celsum, vi, 289, and Clemens Alex. Stromata, iv, 636 ; v, 692. In the last of these passages the propliet Zejilianiah is mentioned, af- ter some apocryphal tradition, to have been caught up into ^- the fifth heaven, the dwelling-place of the angels, in a glory sevenfold greater tha;i the brightness of the sun." In the I;abl)lniial point of view, the superb throne of king Solomon, wiili the six steps leading np to it, was a symbol of the highest heaven with the throne of the Eternal, above the six inferior heavens (1 Kings x, 18- 20). These gradations of the celestial regions are prob- ably meant in Amos ix, 6, where, however, the entire creation is beautifully described by "/Ae stories [or steps] of the heaven," for the empjTeal heaven ; " the troop [or globular aggregate, the terra firma ; see A. Lapide, ad loc] of the earth," and " the waters of the sea" [includ- ing the atmosphere, whence the waters are "poured out upon the face of the earth"]. As for the threefold Cli- vision of the celestial regions mentioned in the text, INIeyer thinks it to be a fiction of the learned Grotius, on the gromid of the Eabbinical seven heavens. But
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this censure is premature; for (1) it is very doubtful whether this hebdomadal division is as old as Paul's time ; (2) it is certain tliat the Kabbinical doctors are not unanimous about the number seven. Kabbi Judali (Charjiija, fol. xii, '2, and Ahoth Nathan, 37) says there arc " two heavens," after Deut. x, 14. This agrees with Grotius's statement, if we combine his nuhiferum (3'"^p"i) and astriferum (D'^53U3) into one region oi physical heav- ens (as indeed Moses does liimself in Gen. i, 14, 15, 17, 20), and reserve his anr/eliferum for the D'^'QlIjn '^50^^ " the heaven of heavens," the supernal region of spirit- ual beings, IMilton's " Empyrean" (P. L. vii, sub Jin.), See bishop Pearson's note. On the Creed (ed. Chevallier), p. 91. The learned note of De Wette on 2 Cor. xii, 2 is also worth considting. (3) The Targum on 2 Chron. vi, 18 (as quoted by Dr. Gill, Comment. 2 Corinth. 1. c), expressly mentions the triple distinction oi supreme, mid- dle, and lower heavens. Indeed, there is an accumida- tion of the threefold classification. Thus, in Tseror I/ammor, fol. i, 4, and iii, 2, 3, and Ixxxii, 2, three worlds are mentioned. The doctors of the Cabbala also hold the opinion of three worlds, Zohar, Numb. fol. Ixvi, 3. And of the highest world there is further a tripartite division, of anr/cls, D'^zsb^n tib'vj ■ of souls, n'liyS?; and of^7«'nVs, Q^rnin dVi:>. See Buxtorfs Zex, i?rtJ- bin. col. 1C20, who refers to D. Kimchi on Psa. xix, 9. Paid, besides the well-known 2 Cor. xii, 2, refers again, only less pointedlj', to a plui-ali/_i/ of heavens, as in Eph. iv, 10. See Olshausen (ed. Clark) on the former passage.
2. Accordingly, Barrow (p. 558, with whom compare (initius and Drusius on 2 Cor. xii, 2) ascribes to the Jews the notion that there are three heavens: Caelum nuhife- rum, or the firmament; Coslum astriferum, the starry hea\'ens ; Calum angelifenim, or " the heaven of heav- ens," where the angels reside, " the third lieaven" of Paul. This same notion prevails in the fathers. Thus St. Gregory of Nyssa {Ilexaem. i, 42) describes the first of these heavens as the limited space of the denser air (jhv opov Tov Traxvi-iipiarspov cUpoQ), within tohich ram/e the clouds, the tcimls, and the birds; the second is tlie region in which wander the planets and the stars (iv ij) Si TrXai'iirai tCov aar'epbjv 5ianopivovTai), hence apt- ly called by Hesychius KaTi]<jTpiajiii'ov t6ttoi>, locum stelUferum ; while the third is the very summit of the vis- ible creation (to ovv dicpoTciTov tov alc^rjTou Koajxov), Paul's third heaven, higher than the aerial and stellar world, cognizable [not by tlie eye, but] by the mind alone (tv dTacsifK}) Kal vorjrij (pvffti ycvo/ifvof), which Dam- ascene calls the heaven of heavens, the prime heaven be- yond (dl others (oupavoi; tov ovpavoii, o vrpCoToc ovpa- viiQ, Orthod. Fid. lib. ii, c. vi, p. 83) ; or, according to St. Basil (III Jesuiam, visione ii, tom. i, 813), the throne of God (S-pouoQ Qtou), and to Justin IMartyr (QucBSt. et liesp. ad Gra'cos, ad ult. Qucvst. p. 23G), the house and throne of God (oIkoq Kai ^povog TOii Otoii).