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.
ὅτι | that |
Parse: Conjunction Root: ὅτι Sense: that, because, since. |
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ἡρπάγη | he was caught up |
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Passive, 3rd Person Singular Root: ἁρπάζω Sense: to seize, carry off by force. |
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εἰς | into |
Parse: Preposition Root: εἰς Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among. |
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τὸν | - |
Parse: Article, Accusative Masculine Singular Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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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. |
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ἤκουσεν | he heard |
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: ἀκουστός Sense: to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf. |
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ἄρρητα | inexpressible |
Parse: Adjective, Accusative Neuter Plural Root: ἄρρητος Sense: unsaid, unspoken. |
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ῥήματα | words |
Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Plural Root: ῥῆμα Sense: that which is or has been uttered by the living voice, thing spoken, word. |
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ἃ | - |
Parse: Personal / Relative Pronoun, Accusative Neuter Plural Root: ὅς Sense: who, which, what, that. |
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ἐξὸν | being permitted |
Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Nominative Neuter Singular Root: ἔξεστι Sense: it is lawful. |
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ἀνθρώπῳ | to man |
Parse: Noun, Dative Masculine Singular Root: ἄνθρωπος Sense: a human being, whether male or female. |
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λαλῆσαι | to speak |
Parse: Verb, Aorist Infinitive Active Root: ἀπολαλέω Sense: to utter a voice or emit a sound. |
Greek Commentary for 2 Corinthians 12:4
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]
Old verbal adjective Copula ρεω estin omitted. Hence Paul does not give these words. [source]
Copula ρεω estin omitted. Hence Paul does not give these words. [source]
See on Luke 23:43. [source]
An oxymoron, speaking which may not be spoken. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for 2 Corinthians 12:4
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]
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]
By a swift, resistless, divine energy. Comp. 2 Corinthians 12:2, 2 Corinthians 12:4; Acts 8:39. [source]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]