The Meaning of 2 Corinthians 12:4 Explained

2 Corinthians 12:4

KJV: How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

YLT: that he was caught away to the paradise, and heard unutterable sayings, that it is not possible for man to speak.

Darby: that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable things said which it is not allowed to man to utter.

ASV: how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

How that  he was caught up  into  paradise,  and  heard  unspeakable  words,  which  it is  not  lawful  for a man  to utter. 

What does 2 Corinthians 12:4 Mean?

Study Notes

paradise
See note on hades, .
hell
(Greek - ᾅδης , "the unseen world," is revealed as the place of departed human spirits between death and resurrection). The word occurs, Matthew 11:23 ; Matthew 16:18 ; Luke 10:15 ; Acts 2:27 ; Acts 2:31 ; Revelation 1:18 ; Revelation 6:8 ; Revelation 20:13 ; Revelation 20:14 and is the equivalent of the O.T. "sheol." (See Scofield " Habakkuk 2:5 ") . The Septuagint invariably renders sheol by hades.
Summary:
(1) Hades before the ascension of Christ. The passages in which the word occurs make it clear that hades was formerly in two divisions, the abodes respectively of the saved and of the lost. The former was called "paradise" and "Abraham's bosom." Both designations were Talmudic, but adopted by Christ in Luke 16:22 ; Luke 23:43 . The blessed dead were with Abraham, they were conscious and were "comforted" Luke 16:25 . The believing malefactor was to be, that day, with Christ in "paradise." The lost were separated from the saved by a "great gulf fixed" Luke 16:26 . The representative man of the lost who are now in hades is the rich man of Luke 16:19-31 . He was alive, conscious, in the full exercise of his faculties, memory, etc., and in torment.
(2) Hades since the ascension of Christ. So far as the unsaved dead are concerned, no change of their place or condition is revealed in Scripture. At the judgment of the great white throne, hades will give them up, they will be judged, and will pass into the lake of fire Revelation 20:13 ; Revelation 20:14 . But a change has taken place which affects paradise. Paul was "caught up to the third heaven.. .into paradise" 2 Corinthians 12:1-4 . Paradise, therefore, is now in the immediate presence of God. It is believed that Ephesians 4:8-10 indicates the time of the change. "When he ascended up on high he led a multitude of captives." It is immediately added that He had previously "descended first into the lower parts of the earth," i.e. the paradise division of Hades. During the present church-age the saved who died are "absent from the body, at home with the Lord." The wicked dead in hades, and the righteous dead "at home with the Lord," alike await the resurrection; Job 19:25 ; 1 Corinthians 15:52 . (See Scofield " Matthew 5:22 ") .

Context Summary

2 Corinthians 12:1-10 - The Secret Of Strength
It is a sublime phrase-a man in Christ. We reach our full stature only when we are in Him. We are but fragments of manhood until the true man is formed in us. Of course the presence of Jesus is always with us, but its manifestation is reserved for special emergencies, when it is peculiarly needed. It is thought that this supreme revelation was synchronous with Paul's stoning at Lystra, Acts 14:1-28. While the poor body was being mangled, his spirit was in the third heaven, that is, in Paradise. What a contrast between being let down in a basket and being caught up into glory! How indifferent to the derisions of men is the soul that lives in God!
We do not know what this thorn, or stake, was-whether eye trouble, or imperfect utterance, or some deformity in appearance-but it was the source of much suffering and many temptations. At first Paul prayed for its removal, but as soon as he learned that its continuance was the condition of receiving additional grace, he not only accepted it, but even gloried in its presence. May we not believe that all disabilities are permitted to drive us to realize and appropriate all that Jesus can be to the hard-pressed soul! [source]

Chapter Summary: 2 Corinthians 12

1  For commending of his apostleship, though he might glory of his wonderful revelations,
9  yet he rather chooses to glory of his infirmities;
11  blaming the Corinthians for forcing him to this vain boasting
14  He promises to come to them again; but yet altogether in the affection of a father;
20  although he fears he shall to his grief find many offenders, and public disorders there

Greek Commentary for 2 Corinthians 12:4

Into Paradise [εις παραδεισον]
See note on Luke 23:43 for this interesting word. Paul apparently uses paradise as the equivalent of the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:2. Some Jews (Book of the Secrets of Enoch, chapter viii) make Paradise in the third heaven. The rabbis had various ideas (two heavens, three, seven). We need not commit Paul to any “celestial gradation” (Vincent). [source]
Unspeakable words [arrēta rēmata)]
Old verbal adjective Copula ρεω — estin omitted. Hence Paul does not give these words. [source]
Not lawful [ρητος]
Copula ρεω — estin omitted. Hence Paul does not give these words. [source]
Paradise []
See on Luke 23:43. [source]
Unspeakable words [ἄῤῥητα ῥήματα]
An oxymoron, speaking which may not be spoken. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for 2 Corinthians 12:4

Luke 23:43 In Paradise [παραδείσῳ]
Originally an enclosed park, or pleasure-ground. Xenophon uses it of the parks of the Persian kings and nobles. “There (at Celaenae) Cyrus had a palace and a great park ( παράδεισος )full of wild animals, which he hunted on horseback … .Through the midst of the park flows the river Maeander (“Anabasis,” i., 2,7). And again' “The Greeks encamped near a great and beautiful park, thickly grown with all kinds of trees” (ii., 4,14.) In the Septuagint, Luke 16:22, Luke 16:23). It occurs three times in the New Testament: here; 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7; and always of the abode of the blessed.“Where'er thou roam'st, one happy soul, we know,Seen at thy side in woe,Waits on thy triumph - even as all the blestWith him and Thee shall rest.Each on his cross, by Thee we hang awhile,Watching thy patient smile,Till we have learn'd to say, ' 'Tis justly done, Only in glory, Lord, thy sinful servant own.'”Keble,Christian Year.sa40 [source]
Luke 23:43 Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise [Σημερον μετ εμου εσηι εν τωι παραδεισωι]
However crude may have been the robber‘s Messianic ideas Jesus clears the path for him. He promises him immediate and conscious fellowship after death with Christ in Paradise which is a Persian word and is used here not for any supposed intermediate state; but the very bliss of heaven itself. This Persian word was used for an enclosed park or pleasure ground (so Xenophon). The word occurs in two other passages in the N.T. (2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7), in both of which the reference is plainly to heaven. Some Jews did use the word for the abode of the pious dead till the resurrection, interpreting “Abraham‘s bosom” (Luke 16:22.) in this sense also. But the evidence for such an intermediate state is too weak to warrant belief in it. [source]
1 Thessalonians 4:17 Shall be caught up [ἁρπαγησόμεθα]
By a swift, resistless, divine energy. Comp. 2 Corinthians 12:2, 2 Corinthians 12:4; Acts 8:39. [source]
Revelation 1:10 In the Spirit [ἐν πνεύμην]
The phrase I was in the Spirit occurs only here and Revelation 4:2: in the Spirit, in Revelation 17:3; Revelation 21:10. The phrase denotes a state of trance or spiritual ecstasy. Compare Acts 10:10; 2 Corinthians 12:2, 2 Corinthians 12:4. “Connection with surrounding objects through the senses is suspended, and a connection with the invisible world takes place” (Ebrard). “A divine release from the ordinary ways of men” (Plato, “Phaedrus,” 265). “You ask, 'How can we know the infinite?' I answer, not by reason. It is the office of reason to distinguish and define. The infinite, therefore, cannot be ranked among its objects. You can only apprehend the infinite by a faculty superior to reason; by entering into a state in which you are your finite self no longer; in which the divine essence is communicated to you. This is ecstacy. It is the liberation of your mind from its finite consciousness … . But this sublime condition is not of permanent duration. It is only now and then that we can enjoy this elevation (mercifully made possible for us) above the limits of the body and the world … . All that tends to purify and elevate the mind will assist you in this attainment, and facilitate the approach and the recurrence of these happy intervals. There are then different roads by which this end may be reached. The love of beauty which exalts the poet; that devotion to the One, and that ascent of science which makes the ambition of the philosopher; and that love and those prayers by which some devout and ardent soul tends in its moral purity towards perfection. These are the great highways conducting to heights above the actual and the particular, where we stand in the immediate presence of the Infinite who shines out as from the deeps of the soul” (Letter of Plotinus, about A D. 260). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
Richard of St. Victor (died 1173) lays down six stages of contemplation: two in the province of the imagination, two in the province of reason, and two in the province of intelligence. The third heaven is open only to the eye of intelligence - that eye whose vision is clarified by divine grace and a holy life. In the highest degrees of contemplation penitence avails more than science; sighs obtain what is impossible to reason. Some good men have been ever unable to attain the highest stage; few are fully winged with all the six pinions of contemplation. In the ecstasy he describes, there is supposed to be a dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit as by the sword of the Spirit of God. The body sleeps, and the soul and all the visible world is shut away. The spirit is joined to the Lord, and, one with Him, transcends itself and all the limitations of human thought. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
Sufism is the mystical asceticism of Mohammedanism. The ecstasy of a Sufi saint is thus described:“My tongue clave fever-dry, my blood ran fire,My nights were sleepless with consuming lore, Till night and day sped past - as flies a lance-DIVIDER-
Grazing a buckler's rim; a hundred faiths-DIVIDER-
Seemed there as one; a hundred thousand years-DIVIDER-
No longer than a moment. In that hour-DIVIDER-
All past eternity and all to come-DIVIDER-
Was gathered up in one stupendous Now, - -DIVIDER-
Let understanding marvel as it may. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
Where men see clouds, on the ninth heaven I gaze,-DIVIDER-
And see the throne of God. All heaven and hell-DIVIDER-
Are bare to me and all men's destinies,-DIVIDER-
The heavens and earth, they vanish at my glance:-DIVIDER-
The dead rise at my look. I tear the veil-DIVIDER-
From all the world, and in the hall of heaven-DIVIDER-
I set me central, radiant as the Sun.”Vaughan, “Hours with the Mystics,” ii., 19 Beatrice says to Dante:“We from the greatest bodyHave issued to the heaven that is pure light; Light intellectual replete with love,-DIVIDER-
Love of true good replete with ecstasy,Ecstasy that transcendeth every sweetness.”Dante says:“I perceived myselfTo be uplifted over my own power, And I with vision new rekindled me,-DIVIDER-
Such that no light whatever is so pure-DIVIDER-
But that mine eyes were fortified against it.”“Paradiso,” xxx., 38-60. Again, just before the consummate beatific vision, Dante says:“And I, who to the end of all desiresWas now approaching, even as I ought The ardor of desire within me ended. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
Bernard was beckoning unto me, and smiling,-DIVIDER-
That I should upward look; but I already-DIVIDER-
Was of my own accord such as he wished;-DIVIDER-
Because my sight, becoming purified,-DIVIDER-
Was entering more and more into the ray-DIVIDER-
Of the High Light which of itself is true. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
From that time forward what I saw was greater-DIVIDER-
Than our discourse, that to such vision yields,-DIVIDER-
And yields the memory unto such excess.”“Paradiso,” xxxiii., 46-57. [source]

Revelation 10:4 Seal up [σπραγισον]
Aorist active imperative of σπραγιζω — sphragizō tense of urgency, “seal up at once.”And write them not (και μη αυτα γραπσηις — kai mē auta grapsēis). Prohibition with μη — mē and the ingressive aorist active subjunctive of γραπω — graphō “Do not begin to write.” It is idle to conjecture what was in the utterances. Compare Paul‘s silence in 2 Corinthians 12:4. [source]
Revelation 10:4 And write them not [και μη αυτα γραπσηις]
Prohibition with μη — mē and the ingressive aorist active subjunctive of γραπω — graphō “Do not begin to write.” It is idle to conjecture what was in the utterances. Compare Paul‘s silence in 2 Corinthians 12:4. [source]
Revelation 2:7 Which [ο]
The χυλον — xulon (tree).In the Paradise of God (εν τωι παραδεισωι του τεου — en tōi paradeisōi tou theou). Persian word, for which see Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4. The abode of God and the home of the redeemed with Christ, not a mere intermediate state. It was originally a garden of delight and finally heaven itself (Trench), as here. [source]
Revelation 2:7 In the Paradise of God [εν τωι παραδεισωι του τεου]
Persian word, for which see Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4. The abode of God and the home of the redeemed with Christ, not a mere intermediate state. It was originally a garden of delight and finally heaven itself (Trench), as here. [source]
Revelation 2:7 The spirit [το πνευμα]
The Holy Spirit as in Revelation 14:13; Revelation 22:17. Both Christ and the Holy Spirit deliver this message. “The Spirit of Christ in the prophet is the interpreter of Christ‘s voice” (Swete).To him that overcometh (τωι νικωντι — tōi nikōnti). Dative of the present (continuous victory) active articular participle of νικαω — nikaō a common Johannine verb (John 16:33; 1 John 2:13; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:4.; Revelation 2:7, Revelation 2:11, Revelation 2:17, Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:5, Revelation 3:12, Revelation 3:21; Revelation 5:5; Revelation 12:11; Revelation 15:2; Revelation 17:14; Revelation 21:7). Faith is dominant in Paul, victory in John, faith is victory (1 John 5:4). So in each promise to these churches.I will give Future active of διδωμι — didōmi as in Revelation 2:10, Revelation 2:17, Revelation 2:23, Revelation 2:26, Revelation 2:28; Revelation 3:8, Revelation 3:21; Revelation 6:4; Revelation 11:3; Revelation 21:6.To eat (παγειν — phagein). Second aorist active infinitive of εστιω — esthiō the tree of life (εκ του χυλου της ζωης — ek tou xulou tēs zōēs). Note εκ — ek with the ablative with παγειν — phagein like our “eat of” (from or part of). From Genesis 2:9; Genesis 3:22. Again in Revelation 22:2, Revelation 22:14 as here for immortality. This tree is now in the Garden of God. For the water of life see Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:17 (Cf. John 4:10, John 4:13.).Which The χυλον — xulon (tree).In the Paradise of God (εν τωι παραδεισωι του τεου — en tōi paradeisōi tou theou). Persian word, for which see Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4. The abode of God and the home of the redeemed with Christ, not a mere intermediate state. It was originally a garden of delight and finally heaven itself (Trench), as here. [source]
Revelation 2:7 I will give [δωσω]
Future active of διδωμι — didōmi as in Revelation 2:10, Revelation 2:17, Revelation 2:23, Revelation 2:26, Revelation 2:28; Revelation 3:8, Revelation 3:21; Revelation 6:4; Revelation 11:3; Revelation 21:6.To eat (παγειν — phagein). Second aorist active infinitive of εστιω — esthiō the tree of life (εκ του χυλου της ζωης — ek tou xulou tēs zōēs). Note εκ — ek with the ablative with παγειν — phagein like our “eat of” (from or part of). From Genesis 2:9; Genesis 3:22. Again in Revelation 22:2, Revelation 22:14 as here for immortality. This tree is now in the Garden of God. For the water of life see Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:17 (Cf. John 4:10, John 4:13.).Which The χυλον — xulon (tree).In the Paradise of God (εν τωι παραδεισωι του τεου — en tōi paradeisōi tou theou). Persian word, for which see Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4. The abode of God and the home of the redeemed with Christ, not a mere intermediate state. It was originally a garden of delight and finally heaven itself (Trench), as here. [source]

What do the individual words in 2 Corinthians 12:4 mean?

that he was caught up into - Paradise and he heard inexpressible words - not being permitted to man to speak
ὅτι ἡρπάγη εἰς τὸν Παράδεισον καὶ ἤκουσεν ἄρρητα ῥήματα οὐκ ἐξὸν ἀνθρώπῳ λαλῆσαι

ὅτι  that 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: ὅτι  
Sense: that, because, since.
ἡρπάγη  he  was  caught  up 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Passive, 3rd Person Singular
Root: ἁρπάζω  
Sense: to seize, carry off by force.
εἰς  into 
Parse: Preposition
Root: εἰς  
Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among.
τὸν  - 
Parse: Article, Accusative Masculine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
Παράδεισον  Paradise 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Masculine Singular
Root: παράδεισος  
Sense: among the Persians a grand enclosure or preserve, hunting ground, park, shady and well watered, in which wild animals, were kept for the hunt; it was enclosed by walls and furnished with towers for the hunters.
ἤκουσεν  he  heard 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: ἀκουστός 
Sense: to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf.
ἄρρητα  inexpressible 
Parse: Adjective, Accusative Neuter Plural
Root: ἄρρητος  
Sense: unsaid, unspoken.
ῥήματα  words 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Plural
Root: ῥῆμα  
Sense: that which is or has been uttered by the living voice, thing spoken, word.
  - 
Parse: Personal / Relative Pronoun, Accusative Neuter Plural
Root: ὅς 
Sense: who, which, what, that.
ἐξὸν  being  permitted 
Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root: ἔξεστι 
Sense: it is lawful.
ἀνθρώπῳ  to  man 
Parse: Noun, Dative Masculine Singular
Root: ἄνθρωπος  
Sense: a human being, whether male or female.
λαλῆσαι  to  speak 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Infinitive Active
Root: ἀπολαλέω 
Sense: to utter a voice or emit a sound.

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