2 Corinthians 12:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

I know a man in Christ— St. Paul must undoubtedly mean himself, or the whole article had been quite foreign to his purpose. It hence appears, that the Apostle had concealed this extraordinary event fourteen years; and if this Epistle was written about the year 58, as is supposed, this vision must have fallen out in the year 44, which was so long after his conversion as to prove it quite different from the trance mentioned, Acts 9:9. Some think that this glorious representation was made to him in the temple, on the journey mentioned, Acts 9:30; Acts 22:17 and intended to encourage him against the difficulties which he was to encounter in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. Whether in the body or out of the body, must mean, "I know not whether he was then in the body, during that extraordinary extacy, or for a time taken out of the body, so that only the principle of animal life remained in him." As St. Paul must have known that his body was not actually dead during this trance, but that the animal motion of his lungs and heart continued, it tends to prove that he really considered the principle of animal life to be something distinct from the rational soul. See Bishop Brown's distinction of Spirit, Soul, and Body, in his "Procedure of the Understanding," b. 2 Chronicles 10. Castalio and Bengelius translate the beginning of this verse, I know a Christian caught up fourteen years ago, &c. Instead of I cannot tell, here and 2 Corinthians 12:3 some read, I know not.

2 Corinthians 12:2

2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.