2 Corinthians 12:1-4·~1 min

Paul’s Revelation

Paul says that although boasting gains nothing, he will speak of visions and revelations from the Lord, describing a man in Christ who was caught up fourteen years earlier to the third heaven and to Paradise. He does not know whether this was in the body or out of it, only that God knows, and he says the things heard there were inexpressible and not permitted for human telling.

I¹ must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to gain, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. ²I 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 it I do not know, but God knows. ³And I know that this man— whether in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows— ⁴was caught up to Paradise. The things he heard were inexpressible, things that man is not permitted to tell.

Section summaryPaul says he must go on boasting, though there is nothing to gain by it, and speaks of visions and revelations from the Lord through the story of a man in Christ caught up to the third heaven and to Paradise. Yet even here he keeps the experience at a distance, stressing only that God knows its manner and that what was heard there cannot be spoken.

Role in the chapterThis opening section grants the kind of exalted experience rivals might prize, but without letting revelation become the center of Paul's self-presentation. It prepares the turn from extraordinary vision to ordinary weakness.