30 Apostolic Credentials
(2 Corinthians 11:22–12:4)
Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern? If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands. Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable; but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. (11:22–12:4)
Paul at last, albeit still reluctantly, presents his apostolic credentials to the Corinthians, defending himself against the lies of those who denied his authenticity. Apart from the biographical insights it provides into the life of Paul, this section might seem to have little practical relevance for today. Such is not the case, however. Satan’s tactics for assaulting the leaders of God’s people have not changed. And the issue of Paul’s apostolic authenticity is still vital today; he is an authoritative source of divine truth through all his writings, whatever may be the theme. And all Scripture is profitable (2 Tim. 3:16). This section also gives insight into how the noblest of Christians handled the extreme adversity he faced.
Though the Corinthians’ naïve acceptance of the false teachers’ lies forced Paul to defend himself, his humility made him reluctant to argue his case. Because of that, he gave the long series of often sarcastic disclaimers (10:12–11:21), making clear his distaste for the boasting he had been forced into. Paul regarded it as foolish and fleshly and not in keeping with the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, the apostle knew that it was necessary, both to protect the Corinthians, who otherwise would be deceived—cut off from the divine truth he proclaimed —and to honor the truth.
Beginning in verse 23 Paul presented four apostolic credentials that set him apart from the false apostles: his experience of suffering, his experience of sympathy, his experience of submission, and his experience of the supernatural. They demonstrate powerfully that Paul was a genuine apostle of Christ, and that his opponents were not. But before demonstrating his superiority to them, Paul replied first to yet another one of their slanderous lies in verse 22. He showed that he was in no way inferior to the false apostles in regard to his Jewishness.
To each of the three questions he posed, Paul replied simply and powerfully, So am I. The term Hebrews defines the Jewish people ethnically and linguistically. Some scholars believe the name derives from a Hebrew verb meaning “to cross over” and refers to their origins beyond the Euphrates River (cf. Josh. 24:2). More likely, it derives from Eber (Gen. 11:15–17) and refers to his descendants. The title was first given to Abraham (Gen. 14:13) and was later used to describe the Jewish people, both by foreigners (e.g., Gen. 39:14, 17; 41:12; Ex. 1:16; 2:6; 1 Sam. 4:6, 9; 13:19; 14:11; 29:3) and by themselves (e.g., Gen. 40:15; Ex. 1:19; 2:7; 5:3; 1 Sam. 13:3; Jer. 34:14; Jon. 1:9).
In Paul’s day the term Hebrews also distinguished the Palestinian Jews, whose native language was Hebrew or Aramaic, from the Hellenistic, Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora (cf. Acts 6:1). The false apostles may have questioned Paul’s authenticity by arguing that he was not a Palestinian Jew like themselves and the Twelve, but a Hellenized Jew. But though Paul was born in Tarsus, a city in Asia Minor, he was nonetheless a “Hebrew of Hebrews” (Phil. 3:5); that is, he preserved his family’s traditional Jewish heritage. Like most educated men of his day Paul spoke Greek (Acts 21:37). But that does not mean that he was a Hellenized Jew; in fact, the Bible implies that Hebrew or Aramaic, not Greek, was his native language (cf. Acts 21:40; 26:14). Further, although he was born in Tarsus, Paul evidently came to Jerusalem as a young child, was raised there, and studied there under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3; 26:4).
The term Israelites (Ex. 35:29; 1 Sam. 2:14; 14:21; 29:1; 2 Kings 3:24; Neh. 11:3; Rom. 9:4) views the Jewish people in terms of their descent from Jacob (Israel); in fact, the Old Testament refers to them as the “sons of Israel” more than six hundred times. It also expresses their theocratic identity as God’s chosen people (Amos 3:2; cf. Ex. 19:5–6; Rom. 9:4–5).
Like the false apostles, Paul was also one of the descendants of Abraham. He was heir to all the covenant privileges and blessings that God promised to Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3).
This was not the only time Paul had to defend his Jewish heritage. To the Galatian churches he wrote, “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions” (Gal. 1:13–14). In Philippians 3:4–6 the apostle also delineated his impressive qualifications:
If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
Having established that in every way—socially, religiously, culturally, linguistically, and covenantally—he was not at all inferior to the false apostles, Paul presented credentials that actually proved he was superior to them.
HIS EXPERIENCE OF SUFFERING
Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. (11:23–27)
Paul might have defended himself by appealing to his impressive accomplishments and privileges. He could have pointed to his training under the famous rabbi Gamaliel, his association with the Jerusalem elite (cf. Acts 22:5), or his obvious zeal for Judaism that manifested itself in his persecution of the church (Acts 8:1–3; 1 Cor. 15:9; Gal. 1:13; Phil. 3:6). Paul might also have pointed to all God had done through him after his conversion, to the cities he had preached in, the converts he had made, and the churches he had planted. Instead, he gave very different credentials that, though unimpressive by the world’s standards, marked him as a true man of God.
To call the false apostles servants of Christ even for the sake of argument was repulsive to Paul, so he hastened to add the disclaimer, I speak as if insane. Insane translates a form of the verb paraphrone?, which literally means, “to be beside oneself,” or “to be out of one’s mind.” It is a stronger word than aphrosun?, which the apostle used earlier to describe his foolishness in boasting (11:1, 17, 21). If boasting was to Paul the act of a fool, suggesting that the false apostles were servants of Christ was the raving of a madman. The phrase also expresses Paul’s view of his boasting. The whole discussion was insanity, but the Corinthians’ lack of discernment made it necessary.
The phrase I more so marks the beginning of Paul’s demonstration of his superiority over the false apostles. The first credential he presented, his suffering, seems a little unusual. Paul’s detailed list of the things he had endured makes him sound more like someone who needed help from the Lord rather than an empowered and commissioned apostle of Jesus Christ. How could the fact that he antagonized so many people and put himself into so many difficulties possibly be evidence of his apostleship?
But suffering was exactly what Jesus predicted that His apostles would experience. Before sending the Twelve out on a preaching tour, Jesus warned them,
Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household! (Matt. 10:16–25; cf. 21:33–39; 22:2–6; John 15:18–21; 16:1–4, 33)
In what was in effect their ordination sermon, Jesus warned the apostles that they would face a hostile environment, like “sheep in the midst of wolves.” Therefore, they could expect the suffering that He delineated: arrests, beatings, betrayals, hatred, persecution, and slander. Shining the light of the gospel into the kingdom of darkness inevitably generates a hostile reaction.
To that general promise to the apostles of suffering, the Lord added a specific one to Paul. Speaking to Ananias, the Lord said of Paul, “He is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:15–16). Paul’s life exemplified the truth of 2 Timothy 3:12: “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” The false apostles had their letters of commendation (2 Cor. 3:1), but Paul had “on [his] body the brand-marks of Jesus” (Gal. 6:17). The first credential he listed was suffering, because that is what Jesus said would characterize His apostles. False teachers, on the other hand, frequently seek a life of ease and comfort. And since they are part of his kingdom, Satan does not attack them.
This is the fourth and most detailed description in this epistle of Paul’s suffering (cf. 2 Cor. 1:4–10; 4:7–12; 6:4–10). Though it gives more details of Paul’s trials than Luke lists in Acts, it is by no means exhaustive; the apostle’s humility caused him to say only what was necessary to make his point.
Kopos (labors) describes working to the point of sweat and exhaustion. It is translated “toil” in 1 Corinthians 15:58, and Paul also used it in an earlier list of his sufferings (6:5). The related verb describes the hard work put in by Peter and his fellow fishermen (Luke 5:5), Jesus’ exhaustion after a long journey (John 4:6), those who worked hard in the Roman church (Rom. 16:6, 12), Paul’s efforts in the ministry that surpassed all others (1 Cor. 15:10), the hardworking leaders of the Thessalonian church (1 Thess. 5:12), and the elders who “work hard at preaching and teaching” (1 Tim. 5:17). In addition to his intense effort in the ministry, Paul labored at his trade to support himself (cf. Acts 20:34– 35; 1 Cor. 4:12; 1 Thess. 2:9).
Of Paul’s imprisonments recorded in Acts (at Philippi [16:23– 24], Jerusalem [22:24–29; 23:10, 18], Caesarea [23:35; 24:27], and Rome [28:16–31]) and his second Roman imprisonment (2 Tim. 1:8), only the one at Philippi had taken place as Paul penned this passage. How many other times he was imprisoned is unknown; the church father Clement of Rome, writing at the close of the first century, said Paul was imprisoned seven times.
Along with being imprisoned, Paul had been beaten times without number. So numerous were those official and unofficial beatings that the apostle could not even count them all. As will be seen when he delineates some of them in verses 23–24, they came at the hands of both his own countrymen and the Gentiles.
Paul lived constantly in danger of death, knowing that every day could be his last. As he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” Almost from the moment of his conversion, Paul’s enemies plotted to kill him (Acts 9:23, 29; 14:3–5; 17:4–5; 21:30–32; 23:12–21). Riots erupted when he preached (Acts 19:23–41); mobs formed to hunt him down (Acts 17:5–9); rulers sought his life (he describes one such incident in 2 Cor. 11:32–33). Yet he never wavered in his commitment or compromised the message he preached.
Paul next delineated two examples of the beatings he mentioned in verse 23. Five times he received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. This particular punishment was prescribed by the Mosaic Law:
If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt. He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not degraded in your eyes. (Deut. 25:1–3)
The Jews of Paul’s day, in their legalistic zeal for the external observance of the Law, limited the number of blows to thirty-nine lest they inadvertently miscount and give more than forty. Just as Jesus had warned (Matt. 10:17; 23:34), the unbelieving Jews beat the messengers He sent to them (cf. Acts 5:40).
Paul also experienced corporal punishment from the Romans, at whose hands he was three times … beaten with rods. That punishment was the equivalent of the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes. The only such incident Luke recorded in Acts took place in Philippi (Acts 16:22–23, 37; cf. 1 Thess. 2:2). Paul proudly bore the scars from his beatings at the hands of the Jews and the Romans as the “brand-marks of Jesus” (Gal. 6:17).
The apostle was stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for dead at Lystra (Acts 14:19). That incident was an act of mob violence, not a formal, judicial stoning (Lev. 24:14–16, 23; Num. 15:35–36; Josh. 7:24–25), because the Romans did not grant the Jews the right of capital punishment (John 18:31).
Three times Paul’s numerous sea voyages (Acts records nine before the writing of 2 Corinthians: 9:30; 11:25–26; 13:4, 13; 14:25–26; 16:11; 17:14–15; 18:18, 21–22; there were probably at least that many more after Paul wrote this epistle) ended with him being shipwrecked. That does not include the apostle’s shipwreck on his voyage to Rome (Acts 27), which had not yet occurred. After one of those shipwrecks, Paul spent a night and a day … in the deep clinging to a piece of wreckage until he was rescued.
Paul next described some of the dangers he encountered on his frequent journeys—both the countless shorter trips that made up his three main missionary journeys and the many other trips he took. Fording the many rivers that crossed his path put Paul in constant danger of drowning, since bridges were few and floods were frequent. Another threat to travelers were the robbers that haunted the roads. The road from Perga to Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:14), for example, crossed dangerous rivers and wound through the Taurus Mountains, which were infamous for the bandits who holed up in them. Paul may well have had that journey in mind when he penned this section.
Paul faced constant hostility from his countrymen almost from the moment of his conversion. While some of the Jews believed the gospel he preached and were saved, most rejected it and reacted violently against Paul (cf. Acts 9:23, 29; 13:6–8, 45; 14:2, 19; 17:5, 13; 18:6, 12– 16; 19:9; 20:3, 19; 21:27–32; 23:12–22; 25:2–3; 28:23–28). Having rejected Jesus as the Messiah, they hated the gospel and sought to silence Paul’s powerful proclamation of it.
Paul also faced hostility from the Gentiles, most notably at Philippi (Acts 16:16–40) and Ephesus (Acts 19:23–41; 1 Cor. 15:32).
Not only did Paul face danger from different people but also in different locations. He faced dangers in virtually every city he visited, including Damascus (Acts 9:20, 23), Jerusalem (Acts 9:29; 21:27–32; 23:12–22), Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:14, 45), Iconium (Acts 14:1–2), Lystra (Acts 14:19), Philippi (Acts 16:16–40), Thessalonica (Acts 17:5–8), Berea (17:13), Corinth (18:1, 6, 12–16), and Ephesus (Acts 19:1, 9, 23–41; 1 Cor. 15:32). Nor was he safe outside the cities, for he also faced dangers in the wilderness. Paul did not always take the well-traveled roads; sometimes need drove him to journey through the backcountry. When he did so, he faced exposure to the elements, to extremes of cold and heat, to the torrential rain, dangerous lightning, and flash floods associated with thunderstorms, and to the blizzards that threatened travelers through the mountains in winter. He also faced the menace of wild animals, including bears (cf. 2 Kings 2:24), lions (cf. Judg. 14:5; 1 Kings 13:24; 20:36; 2 Kings 17:25), and venomous snakes (cf. Acts 28:3–5). Finally, as noted above, travel on the sea posed the ever-present danger of ship wreck.
But the most insidious danger of all were the false brethren, who posed as believers and then tried to destroy Paul’s ministry. The false apostles at Corinth were prime examples of such treacherous pseudo-brethren, as were the Judaizers (Gal. 2:4). Because of the danger posed by false believers, Paul warned the elders of the Ephesian church, “From among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30).
In 2 Corinthians 11:27 Paul turned from the dangers that constantly threatened him to the labor and hardship that was also the normal routine of his life (Acts 20:34–35; 1 Cor. 4:12; 1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8). Earning a living to support himself and sometimes his fellow missionaries (Acts 20:34) often meant working through many sleepless nights. After spending his days preaching the gospel and teaching and discipling new believers, Paul would often work all night (cf. 1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8) at his trade (Acts 18:3) to provide life’s necessities.
In spite of Paul’s diligent, hard work, the demands of his ministry (cf. Acts 20:7, 11, 31; 1 Thess. 3:10; 2 Tim. 1:3) sometimes made it difficult for him to earn enough to sustain himself. As a result, he experienced hunger and thirst (cf. 1 Cor. 4:11), was often without food (cf. 2 Cor. 11:9), and faced cold and exposure (cf. 2 Tim. 4:13).
Paul’s suffering set him apart from the money- and comfort-seeking false apostles and marked him as a true apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. It also validated the security of his salvation, as he testifies in Romans 8:38–39: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to sepa rate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
HIS EXPERIENCE OF SYMPATHY
Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern? (11:28–29)
Like all false apostles, these manipulated and abused the Corinthians for their own selfish ends. Paul, on the other hand, was deeply concerned for their well-being, as he was for all the churches. The phrase apart from such external things could be better rendered “apart from the things not mentioned.” In other words, Paul could have listed far more external hardships had his humility permitted him to do so. All of them, however, paled into insignificance in comparison to the internal, daily pressure he felt of concern for all the churches.
Paul felt deeply the pain of the church’s weakness and suffering. To the Galatians he wrote, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). He expressed his love and concern for the Thessalonians using the metaphor of a mother’s tender care for her children: “But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children” (1 Thess. 2:7). Later in that chapter he added,
But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while— in person, not in spirit—were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, more than once— and yet Satan hindered us. For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy. (vv. 17–20)
Paul devoted his life to the saints. He agonized over them, prayed for them, and exhorted them. He was greatly burdened by their moral, spiritual, and doctrinal needs. The constant pressure that burden exerted on him assaulted his peace, joy, and satisfaction.
Paul further expressed his passionate concern for the churches by asking two rhetorical questions. The first, Who is weak without my being weak? expressed his empathy (cf. 1 Cor. 12:26) with the pain and suffering of weak, immature believers (1 Thess. 5:14; cf. Rom. 14:1; 15:1; 1 Cor. 9:22). Selfish, prideful false teachers do not care about people’s struggles. Far from helping the weak, they are oppressive and ruthlessly take advantage of them (Jer. 23:2; Ezek. 34:2–6; Zech. 11:16; Matt. 23:2–4; Luke 20:47).
Paul was also concerned about the “unruly” (1 Thess. 5:14), as his second rhetorical question, Who is led into sin without my intense concern? reveals. Intense concern translates a form of the verb puro?, which literally means, “to set on fire,” or “to inflame.” Paul burned with righteous indignation when God’s people were led into sin, as did Jesus, who solemnly warned, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6). Love is not the enemy of moral indignation but its partner. Holy indignation toward those who lead believers into sin is an expression of the purest kind of love.
HIS EXPERIENCE OF SUBMISSION
If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the ethnarch under Are-tas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands. (11:30–33)
To the Greeks and Romans, a leader was someone with an attractive, overpowering presence, one who could dominate a situation through the sheer force of his personality. Thus, the Corinthians might have expected Paul to defend his apostleship by showing his ability to take charge of any situation. Surprisingly, Paul gave an embarrassing illustration of his weakness instead. He told the story of how he fled from Damascus in the dead of night (Acts 9:25) to avoid those who sought his life. As always, if he had to boast, Paul would boast only of what pertains to his weakness (cf. 2 Cor. 1:8; 3:5; 4:7–12; 5:1; 6:4–10; 7:5; 12:7–10; 13:4).
That Paul would introduce the seemingly mundane story of his escape with the forceful declaration, The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying seems strange. One would have expected such a vehement declaration of Paul’s veracity to lead directly into the dramatic story of his trip to heaven (12:2ff.). That he used the declaration here emphasizes the significance of this event to him.
The Old Testament identifies God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 3:6, 15, 16; 4:5; Matt. 22:32; Acts 3:13). The New Testament, however, identifies Him as the Father of the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 1:3; Rom. 15:6; Eph. 1:3; 1 Peter 1:3; cf. John 20:17; Eph. 1:17). No one can truly worship God who does not believe that He shares His very essence and nature with His Son Jesus Christ, and that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. God, who is blessed forever (cf. Dan. 2:20; Mark 14:61; Rom. 1:25; 9:5; 1 Tim. 1:11), would affirm that Paul was committed to the honor and reverence of God, in whose presence and under whose blessing he lived. The apostle was not about to lie in his testimony of God’s deliverance in his life.
The escape Paul recounted took place after his Damascus Road conversion, when he returned to Damascus after spending three years in Nabatean Arabia (Gal. 1:17–18). Enraged by Paul’s bold, fearless preaching of Jesus as the Messiah, the unbelieving Jews in Damascus plotted to take his life (Acts 9:23–24). As would happen throughout Paul’s ministry, they enlisted the aid of the Gentiles (cf. Acts 13:50; 14:2; 17:13; 18:12–16). It is not known for certain whether Damascus was under Nabatean rule or Roman rule at this time. If the former, the ethnarch was the governor of the city under Aretas the king; if the latter, he was the leader of Damascus’s Nabatean community, who had been appointed by Aretas. In either case, he cooperated with the Jews in their attempt to kill Paul, guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize him. The ethnarch’s willingness to help the Jews suggests Paul’s ministry during his three years in Arabia had aroused the Nabateans’ hostility.
With the aid of fellow Christians (Acts 9:25), who let him down in a basket through a window in the city’s wall (cf. Josh. 2:15), Paul escaped from Damascus and fled to Jerusalem (Acts 9:26). That many years later he used this event to illustrate his humility reveals how embarrassing this undignified experience was for him. D. A. Carson writes, “This toast of high rabbinic circles, this educated and sincere Pharisee, this man who had access to the highest officials in Jerusalem, slunk out of Damascus like a criminal, lowered like a catch of dead fish in a basket whose smelly cargo he had displaced” (From Triumphalism to Maturity [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984], 127–28).
Lest anyone (including himself) should think too highly of Paul, this incident graphically illustrates the truth of his weakness apart from God’s power. This story puts into perspective the amazing vision Paul was about to relate. The man who ascended into the third heaven was the same one who ignominiously descended from the Damascus city wall in a basket.
HIS EXPERIENCE OF THE SUPERNATURAL
Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable; but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. (12:1–4)
At first glance, the story of Paul’s vision seems out of place in a section dealing with his suffering and weakness. But the Greeks believed that those who truly represented the gods would experience mystical visions, which some tried to induce through drunken orgies. Undoubtedly, then, the false apostles claimed visions and revelations of their own. The Corinthians, swept away by their phony claims, groveled before those lying braggarts. Thus, it was necessary for Paul (reluctantly) to relate his own genuine vision.
Before describing his supernatural vision, Paul added yet another disclaimer to the many he had already written (especially in 10:13–11:21), indicating once again how extremely distasteful he found even this boasting he had been forced into. He recognized that such boasting was necessary, but stressed that it was not profitable. Even visions and revelations, including the astounding one he was about to relate, were not helpful to talk about. They did not benefit the church (or else Paul surely would have told of this vision many times before), because they are not verifiable nor can they be repeated, and they could lead to pride (cf. 12:7). What is profitable is Scripture, which “is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). Thus, Paul commended the Ephesian elders not to visions and extrabiblical revelations, but “to the word of His grace, which [was] able to build [them] up and to give [them] the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). The Bible is complete and does not need to be supplemented by any further revelations, except that of the Lord Jesus Christ at His second coming (1 Cor. 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 13; 4:13).
Paul had received many visions in his life, six of which are recorded in Acts (9:3–12; 16:9–10; 18:9–10; 22:17–21; 23:11; 27:23–24). He had also received the gospel he preached by revelation (Gal. 1:11–12). But the vision he was about to describe was the most amazing and remarkable of them all. With characteristic humility, he related it in the third person, writing, I know a man in Christ. Obviously, Paul was that man, as verse 7 indicates.
The vision took place fourteen years before the writing of 2 Co rinthians, which was in late A.D. 55 or early A.D. 56, putting it sometime between Paul’s return to Tarsus from Jerusalem (Acts 9:30) and his commissioning by the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:1–3). Little is known about that period of Paul’s life except that during it he ministered in Syria and Cilicia (Gal. 1:21). God may have granted him this personal experience to steel him against the suffering he would experience on his missionary journeys. Having been given a glimpse of the heaven that awaited him, he could face the most relentless and severe suffering that dogged every day of his life. Now, after fourteen years of silence, Paul was apparently relating the vision for the first time.
Exactly what was the reality of the experience was unclear even to Paul, as the twice-repeated phrase whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know emphasizes. He did not know whether his body and soul were caught up to the third heaven or whether his soul temporarily went out of his body. Caught up translates harpaz?, the same verb used of the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Paul was suddenly snatched up into the third heaven which, transcending the first (earth’s atmosphere; Deut. 11:11; 1 Kings 8:35; Isa. 55:10) and second (interplanetary and interstellar space; Gen. 15:5; Ps. 8:3; Isa. 13:10) heavens, is the abode of God (1 Kings 8:30; Ps. 33:13–14; Matt. 6:9). The parallelism of the two phrases demands that Paradise be equated with heaven (see Luke 23:43; cf. Rev. 2:7, which says the Tree of Life is in Paradise with Rev. 22:2, 14, 19, which place it in heaven). The Persian word from which the Greek word translated Paradise derives means “walled garden.” The greatest honor a Persian king could bestow on one of his subjects was to grant him the right to walk with the king in the royal garden in intimate companionship.
Unlike modern charlatans, who claim trips to heaven and visions of God, Paul gave no sensational, detailed description of what he saw or experienced in heaven but mentioned only what he heard. And even that consisted of inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. What he heard was in a language unlike anything on earth. Though the apostle understood what was said, there were no words in human language to convey what he heard, nor would he have been permitted to speak about it even if that were possible. The veil between earth and heaven remains in place. What God wants known about heaven is revealed in the Bible; as for the rest, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God” (Deut. 29:29).
The true measure of a man of God does not lie in his claims of visions and experiences with God, or the force of his personality, the size of his ministry, his educational degrees, or any other human criteria. A true man of God is marked by how much he has suffered in the war against the kingdom of darkness, how concerned he is for people, how humble he is, and how accurately he handles the supernatural revelation found in God’s Word (2 Tim. 2:15). Like Paul, such men patiently endure the suffering and humiliation of this life, knowing that such “momentary, light affliction is producing … an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17).