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2. οἷδα ἄνθρωπον ἐν Χριστῷ πρὸ ἐτῶν δεκατεσσάρων … ἁρπαγέντα κ.τ.λ. I know a man in Christ fourteen years ago, … such a one caught up &c. The A.V. is misleading. The Apostle does not say that fourteen years ago he knew a man caught up &c.; but that he knows a man who fourteen years ago was caught up &c. The ‘man in Christ’ is himself (2Co 12:7); and ἐν Χριστῷ probably means more than whose life was in Christ, who was a Christian. At this extraordinary crisis he was swallowed up in Christ, so as almost to lose his own personality. Conybeare and Howson take ἐν Χριστῷ with ἁρπαγέντα, “which would have come immediately after δεκατεσσάρων, had it not been intercepted by the parenthetic clause”; caught up in the power of Christ.
The rhythmical balance and swing of the Greek are like the strophe and antistrophe of a chorus. We may conjecture that the Apostle had often meditated on this marvellous experience, and that his meditations had at last acquired a sort of cadence. See Appendix D.
πρὸ ἐτῶν δεκατεσσάρων. ante annos quatuordecim. This mode of expression is somewhat late Greek, and possibly was influenced by the Latin idiom. Comp. πρὸ ἒξ ἡμερῶν τοῦ πάσχα (Joh 12:1): πρὸ δύο ἐτῶν τοῦ σεισμοῦ (Amo 1:1): πρὸ τριῶν μηνῶν τοῦ τρυγητοῦ (Amo 4:7). Theodoret suggests that S. Paul gives the date to let the Corinthians know that they have compelled him, after so many years of silence, to speak of this matter. But there is nothing to show that he had never mentioned it before. Still less likely is it that the date is given to connect this with the flight from Damascus. As the date of the flight is not given, to give the date of this occurrence shows no connexion between the two. The date of an extraordinary personal experience remains impressed on the memory, and it is quite natural, when one mentions the experience, to begin with the date. Moreover, the Hebrew prophets constantly do so with regard to their special inspirations (Isa 6:1; Isa 14:28; Isa 20:1-2; Jer 42:7; Eze 1:1, &c.).
εἴτε ἐν σώματι οὐκ οἶδα … οὐκ οἶδα … οἶδεν. Whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not; God knoweth; such a one caught up even to the third heaven. His meaning is that he was conscious of being caught up: that much he knows: his being transferred to heaven was a fact. But where his body was at the time, whether in heaven or on earth, that he does not know: his consciousness with regard to that is a blank. Traditions respecting Enoch and Elijah bad made the idea of bodily translation to heaven familiar to the Jews, and S. Paul seems to think that his experience may have been a temporary translation of this kind. What he says in 1Co 15:50 would not exclude such a supposition; he is there speaking of the permanent abiding of bodies in heaven. In the Latin Visio Pauli (see Appendix B) it is stated that he was translated bodily; dum in corpore essem in quo raptus sum usque ad tercium coelum. He is not here doubting whether the whole thing was a delusion. He is quite sure that he himself was for a time in heaven: what he is not sure of is, the relation between his body and his spirit at the time of the revelation. Philo (de somn. I. p. 626. 4) says that there was a tradition that Moses became ἀσώματος when he fasted 40 days and nights. The frequent repetition of οἷδα in 2Co 12:2-3 must be preserved in translation. The Apostle is very clear about what he knows and what he does not know. For ἁρπάζειν in this sense comp. Act 8:39; 1Th 4:17; Rev 12:5 : it is not used either of Enoch (Gen 4:24), or of Elijah (2Ki 2:11). The omission of the article before τρίτον is not irregular (Act 2:15; Act 23:23, &c.); before ordinals it is not necessary. For εἴτε … εἴτε … see on 2Co 1:6.