2 Corinthians 12:4

Caught up into Paradise— By the third heaven, 2 Corinthians 12:2 some understand the seat of the divine glory, the place where Christ dwelleth at the Father's right-hand; and by Paradise, that garden of God, which is the seat of the happy in the intermediatestate,andduringtheirseparationfromthebody.BishopBull,discoursing on this subject, observes, "St. Paul,—who had been caught up into the third heaven, and also into Paradise, (which the scriptures tell us is the receptacle of the spirits of good men, separated from their bodies) and therefore was best able to give us an account of the state of souls dwelling there,—assures us, that those souls live and operate, and have a perception of excellent things; nay, in the very same passage, where he speaks ofthat rapture of his, he plainly enough confirms this hypothesis: for first when he declares himself uncertain whether he received those admirable visions in or out of the body, he manifestly supposes it possible for the soul, when out of the body, not only to subsist, but also to perceive and know—and even things above the natural apprehension of mortal men; and then when he tells us that he received in Paradise visions and revelations, and heard there αρρητα ρηματα, unspeakable words, not lawful, or rather, not possible for a man to utter, he directly teaches that Paradise is so far from being a place of darkness and obscurity, silence and oblivion, where the good spirits, its proper inhabitants, are all in a profound sleep, as some have vainly imagined,—that, on the contrary, it is a most glorious place, full of light and ravishing vision; a place where mysteries may be heard and learned, far surpassing the reach of frail mortals. In short, the glories of the third heaven, and of Paradise, seem to have been, by an extraordinary revelation, opened and discovered to St. Paul, not only for his own support under the heavy pressure of his afflictions, but also that he might be able to speak of them with greater assurance to others. And the order is observable: first, he had represented to him the most perfect joys of the third or highest heaven, of which we hope to be partakers after the resurrection; and then, lest so long an expectation should discourage us, he saw also the intermediate joys of Paradise, wherewith the souls of the faithful are refreshed until the resurrection: and for our comfort he tells us that even these also are inexpressible."