2 Corinthians 12:2

2 Corinthians 12:2. I know a man in Christ not “knew” (as in the Authorised Version), which the word never signifies. In fact, the whole point of the statement lies in its being present: ‘I know such a man, and I could name him too;' meaning himself, as will presently appear, fourteen yean ago (Gr. ‘ before fourteen years,' i.e., ‘fourteen years before now:' the Latin and German idioms are the same here as the Greek). The date here given is not the date of the apostle's knowledge of the man (as the Authorised Version implies), but of the rapture into the third heaven about to be related. Reckoning back from the date of this Epistle (A.D. 57), fourteen years would bring us to the year 43, “which coincides (as Plumptre says) with the period of his unrecorded activity,” when he was hurried away from Jerusalem to Tarsus (Acts 9:29-30) until Barnabas came for him, and brought him to Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). Hence the reference cannot be to his conversion, for that took place more than twenty years before; nor can it be to the vision which he had in the temple (Acts 22:17), for that occurred at a period nearer the time of this letter not to say that the circumstances are quite different. Beyond doubt what is here recorded occurred during that quiet sojourn in the region of Tarsus, already referred to, when, though we know he was not idle in his Master's service, the events of his activity are a blank in the history, (whether in the body, I know not; or whether out of the body, I know not; God knoweth), such a one caught up even to the third heaven. Why, it may be asked, does the apostle speak so enigmatically, and in the third person why “he” and not “I”? The obvious answer is, that he could not bear extolling himself so nakedly as the use of the first person would express. For the same reason he wishes it to be known that since the thing happened so long ago, and he had never told it to any one, they might thus see how far he was from obtruding it as a ground of boasting. At the same time, as the event was probably the most marvellous that ever occurred to him since his conversion, he is careful to specify the precise time of its occurrence. As to the event itself, the first question is, What is meant by “caught up” or “rapt”? The idea conveyed by this strong word certainly goes beyond that of mere ‘trance' or ‘ecstasy,' in which all ordinary consciousness is in abeyance. Such was the state he was in while in the temple (Acts 22:17-18), and the state that Balaam and other prophets were thrown into (Numbers 24:4; Revelation 1:10 with 2 Corinthians 4:1). Had this been all that the apostle experienced, it is scarcely credible that he should have spoken of it as he does here, or (so to speak) made so much of it. We incline, therefore, to those who see more in it than this, namely, a possible local rapture in his entire person, such as beyond doubt is presupposed (in 1 Kings 18:12; 2 Kings 2:16) as a thing not unfamiliar in the time of Elijah and Elisha, and which in the case of the Apostle Philip was an actual occurrence: see Acts 8:39-40 where the same word, rendered “caught away,” is used as by our apostle here. But we only say a “possible” rapture of this nature. Because, if the apostle himself declines to decide the question, it is not for us to do it for him. The next question is, What are we to understand by “the third heaven”? Were a plurality of heavens unfamiliar to the Bible, we might suppose nothing more to be meant here than the “heaven of heavens,” or more simply, into inconceivable nearness to God. But beyond doubt, something numerical in the conception of “the heavens” was familiar to the Jews and is recognised in the New Testament. Why not, then, recognise it here? though to refine upon it, as some ingenious critics do, serves no good purpose. Enough to understand it of a height of translation towards “the secret place of the Most High,” to which he was through life an utter stranger save at this time.