XII. 1. Καυχᾶσθαι! δὴ 5 εἰς
Ῥ Χριστῷ πρὸ ἐτῶν δεκατεσσάρων, (εἴτε "ἐν "σώματι,ῖ οὐκ οἶδα "
4 ἐκτὸς ὅ τοῦ ὃ σώματος, οὐκ οἶδα "
aA , a τὸν τοιοῦτον ἕως τρίτου οὐρανοῦ.
οὐ συμφέρει ὃ 5 ὀπτασίας ὅ καὶ ἀποκαλύψεις Κυρίου."
6 "Θεὸς
109
por ἐλεύσομαι yap *? ch ney
2. οἶδα ἄνθρωπον ἢ ἐν Acts xxvi. biel vt.
er. V. I
eve? Ren. é
ὃ otdev .) * ἁρπαγέντα d : Bor. vi.
3. καὶ οἶδα τὸν τοιοῦτον ἄνθρωπον, ε Chap. xi. Il.
(εἴτε ἐν σώματι, εἴτε ἐκτὸς ὃ τοῦ σωματοῦς, οὐκ 10 sie 6 Θεὸς οἶδεν" | ets viii.
4. ὅτι ἡρπάγη εἰς τὸν © παράδεισον, καὶ ἤκουσεν ἢ ἄρρητα ῥήματα, ἅ Thess. iv.
xii. 5.
17; Rev.
g Luke xxiii. 43; Rev. ii. 7 only. h Here only,
lnc, f, vg. prefix ει before καυχ. (from xi. 30).
2 KM support δη; ${D* and the Bohairic give δε;
and Syriac vss. have δει.
BDcEGLP 17, 37, the Latin
5 DcEKL and the Harclean support cupdeper por; D* and the Peshitto give συμφερει without por; better συμφερον μεν with BGP 17, 6733, f, g, vg. and the
Bohairic.
4 yap is read by DEKL and the Syriac vss.; better δε with δ Β (which adds και)
GP 17, 73, f, g, vg. and the Bohairic. 5 GP have εις τα(ς) οπτ. 7 D*E* have ev τῳ cop.
8 G, 6 give Χριστου for Κυριου. 8 B om. του before σωµατος.
9 $gDbcE**GKLMP support εκτος (from νετ. 2); BD*E* have χωρις, which is
perhaps preferable.
10 B om. ουκ οιδα, and accordingly W.H. bracket the words.
Selb (Actsix: 95 δ΄. τ ου. 1x.) τὶ Acts 1x, 12, xxii. 17) and revelations of the Lord, sc., revelations granted by Christ (Rev. i. 1). St. Paul repeatedly insists that he received his message δι’ ἀποκαλύψεως "In. Χρ. (Gal. i. 12, Eph. iii. 3; cf. 1 Cor. xi. 23, xv. 3) ; On one occasion he went up to Jerusalem κατὰ ἀποκάλυψιν (Gal. ii. 1); and he claims to have the power of speaking ἐν ἀποκαλύψει (τ Cor. xiv. 6), as had also some of his Corinthian converts (1 Cor. xiv. 26). He now men- tions one signal instance of such a ‘vision and revelation’? which was vouchsafed to him.
Ver. 2. οἶδα ἄνθρ. ἐν Χρ. κ.τ.λ.: I know (not “1 knew” as the A.V. has it) a man in Christ, i.c., a Christian (see reff.) ), fourteen years ago (for the constr. πρὸ ἐτ. Sex. cf. John xii. 1)—whether in the body, I know not ; or whether out of the body, I know not (the words dis- tinctly indicate St. Paul’s belief that perception is possible for a disembodied spirit) ; God knoweth—such an one caught up to the third heaven. Cf. Ezek. viii.
“The Spirit lifted me between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem.” The date of this trance must have been about 41 or 42 A.D., years of which we have no details so far as St. Paul’s life is concerned; probably he was then at
Tarsus (Acts ix. 30, xi. 25; cf. the refer- ence to St. Paul in the dialogue Philo- patris, ὃ 12: ἐς τρίτον οὐρανὸν ἀερο- βατήσας). The mention of ‘the third heaven” raises interesting questions as to Jewish beliefs. There is no doubt that a plurality of “heavens” is recog- nised all through the Ο.Τ. (see, e.g., Deut. x. 14, 1 Kings viii. 27, Neh. ix. 6, Ps. Ixviii. 33 and cxlviii. 4); but it has been matter of dispute whether the Rabbinical schools recognised seven heavens or only three. However it is now fairly well established that, in common with other ancient peoples (e.g., the Par- sees, and probably the Babylonians), the Jews recognised seven heavens. This view not only appears in the pseud- epigraphical literature, but in some of the Fathers, e.g., Clement of Alexandria. Its most detailed exposition is found in the Book of the Secrets of Enoch, a Jewish apocalypse written in Greek in the first century of our era (now only extant ina Sclavonic version). In chap. viii. of this work we find that Paradise is ex- plicitly located in the ‘‘third heaven,” which is the view recognised here by St. Paul (see Charles’ Sclavonic Enoch, pp- xxxi. ff.).