Verse 7 makes clear that Paul is talking about himself in these verses, but use of the third person contributes to the ironical style in which one pretends to be less than one really is. The uncertainty regarding details is part of the satirical nature of verses 2-4. In verses 1-6 Paul is using paradoxical language. Ecstatic heavenly visions, which his opponents valued, are treated in satirical fashion as having no value in authenticating one’s apostleship. Using a well-known form of rhetoric, Paul speaks here in a way that his readers would have recognized as “tongue in cheek.”
I know a man: since Paul later reveals that he was the man he is speaking about, some translators have thought that this is just another way of saying “There was a man….” This may be a better rendering for some languages.
A man in Christ refers to “a Christian man” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible), but note that Contemporary English Version renders this as “one of Christ’s followers.” On the meaning and translation of in Christ, see comments in 1.21, and its use in 2.14.
Was caught up: the passive form used here is found also in Acts 8.39 and Rev 12.5 to describe the experience of someone transported into the supernatural realm. If it has to be made active in the receptor language, the most likely agent is God himself. One may consider saying something like “God received him for a time” or “God transferred him.”
The third heaven: the concept of various strata or layers of heaven was common in the first century (see Eph 4.10; Heb 4.14). In Jewish writings the number of heavens was most commonly considered to be seven, but other numbers, including three, were also mentioned. Paul probably was thinking of three heavens only rather than seven, since he later equates the third heaven with Paradise (12.3). It does not seem likely that Paul would boast about being caught up only to the third heaven if he thought that more levels existed. Good News Translation is therefore probably correct in saying “the highest heaven” (so also Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), that is, where God lived.
In the body or out of the body: Paul states that he actually ascended into the highest heaven but that he does not know whether he went in his physical body or whether the experience was in his spirit only. Jewish traditions indicate that Enoch, Abraham, Seth and his mother, and Baruch ascended bodily into the heavens. On the other hand first-century Judaism also knew of ascensions in a bodiless form. The Good News Translation translation—“I do not know whether this actually happened or whether he had a vision” (also Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje)—does not adequately express Paul’s thought. Indeed, it did happen; he was caught up to the highest heaven. The question for Paul was whether it was a bodily ascension or “in spirit only” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The Contemporary English Version translation correctly communicates the meaning: “I don’t know if the man was still in his body when it happened, but God surely knows.”
God knows: Good News Translation understands these words to mean that “only God” knows. It may well be, though, that the force of these words is to underline Paul’s own indifference to a matter that had such importance for his opponents (see comments on satirical language above on this verse). In that case the sense is “I suppose God knows, but I don’t.”
A possible model for restructuring this difficult verse may be the following: “Fourteen years ago God lifted up a certain Christian that I know about, and took him to the highest heaven. (I do not really know if his body actually went to heaven or if it was only his spirit; but surely God knows.)”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .