Third Heaven

Q. Who is the man caught up to the third heaven in 2 Co 12:2-5? What is the third heaven anyway?

A. A. Let me answer your second question first. In Jewish thought, heaven consisted of three levels:
1. first heaven, which is our atmosphere,
2. second heaven, which is our outer space, where the sun, moon and stars are, and
3. third heaven, which is God’s dwelling place.

Third heaven in 2 Co 12:2 is interchanged with paradise in v 4. We know from Rev 2:7 that the tree of life is in paradise:
• Rev 2:7b To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

But Rev 22:2 tells us that the tree of life is in the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, where the throne of God and of the Lamb will be. So the third heaven is where God dwells:
• Rev 22:2a down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.

Next, most scholars believe the man in Christ caught up to the third heaven is none other than Paul himself, based on consideration of the broader and immediate context. The broader context of 2 Co 12:2-5 consists of chapters 10-12, which is outlined as follows:
• 2 Co 10 Paul’s Defense of His Ministry
• 2 Co 11:1-15 Paul and the False Apostles
• 2 Co 11:16-33 Paul Boasts About His Sufferings
• 2 Co 12:1-10 Paul’s Vision and His Thorn

As you can see, throughout the three chapters Paul was defending his ministry against the accusations of the false apostles, but instead of boasting about his strengths, he boasted about his sufferings, his weaknesses. All along he was talking about himself. It would be very strange if all of a sudden at the beginning of chapter 12 he changed subject and boasted about a man not referred to again anywhere else in the NT, and would in fact weaken his preceding defense arguments. Most commentators therefore conclude that the man is Paul himself.

Against this interpretation is the statement in v 5 “I will not boast about myself”, which seems to point to a third person. However, we must examine the immediate context carefully.
• 2 Co 12:2-5 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows——was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.

First of all, the passage referred to not knowing whether this experience was “in the body” i.e. bodily, physically, or “out of/apart from the body” i.e. his soul leaving his body; only God knows. The man heard inexpressible things, which he was not permitted to tell. It seems this intimate knowledge would be privy only to the person who experienced it first hand. Yet Paul knew this, which points to him as the man.

Secondly, v 7 indicates that Paul was given a thorn in the flesh to keep him from becoming conceited. But why would he become proud? Because of the surpassingly great revelations! But why give him the thorn if he only heard it from someone else? The conclusion is that Paul was the recipient of the revelations, the one caught up to the third heaven.
• 2 Co 12:7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

Paul was actually humble in referring to himself in the third person. Unlike many present day authors who wrote books to describe their supposed trips to heaven, with many extra-biblical revelations. Paul kept silent for 14 years, and only said heaven was inexpressible. God did not permit him to tell it, and he didn’t. Wonder why God would permit others to tell it, if indeed He did, and they actually went to heaven!