Since Paul is actually repeating in verse 3 what he has already said, Good News Translation introduces this restatement by saying “I repeat….” Contemporary English Version accomplishes the same thing by beginning “As I said…,” and Anchor Bible starts with “Indeed….”

Note that Good News Translation combines verse numbers 3 and 4, because the verb phrase translated was caught up into Paradise is actually a part of verse 4 in the Greek. Revised Standard Version, however, moves the verbal expression up into verse 3 without any indication that the transposition has occurred.

Was caught up: see comments on 2 Cor. 12.2 above.

Paradise: in the Septuagint Paradise is used for the Garden of Eden. In the New Testament period Paradise was regarded as the place where righteous people went after death. Translators will face the same term in Luke 23.42 and Rev 2.7. Here Paul uses Paradise as a synonym for “the third heaven” (verse 2).

In the body or out of the body: see comments on 2 Cor. 12.2 above.

Things that cannot be told: this expression is a play on words, literally “sayings unsayable.” Revised English Bible says “words so secret that human lips may not repeat them.” The Greek expression appears to have been a semi-technical term used of divine mysteries which the worshiper was not allowed to reveal to the public. This means that these words are not completely synonymous with the expression which man may not utter, which follows, even though the second expression seems to reinforce the first. But where the passive cannot be told must be avoided, a single expression may have to be used. Two models are “things that are too wonderful to tell” (Contemporary English Version) and “so secret that no man dare try to put them into words” (Translator’s New Testament).

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 .