What is the context?
Paul continues his defense by turning to visions and revelations from the Lord. He describes a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years earlier. He speaks of the experience in the third person while the surrounding discussion connects it with his own revelations and weakness.
He twice says he does not know whether it happened in the body or out of the body. God knows. Paul leaves the manner of the experience unexplained, even as he describes being caught up to Paradise and hearing things that cannot be told.
Paradise translates παράδεισος, paradeisos (pah-RAH-day-sos). Thayer’s lexicon includes the word’s use for a garden and for a heavenly place in this passage. The word helps connect the account with Scripture’s wider picture of life with God.
Paul could tell the truth about this experience, but he chooses restraint. He wants people’s judgment of him to rest on what they see in him and hear from him. When he speaks about himself, weakness remains the direction of his boasting.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Christians commonly understand the man as Paul speaking indirectly about his own experience. Wesley’s note on verse 2 and the USCCB note on verses 5–7 both make that connection. His restraint keeps the revelation from becoming a claim to personal greatness.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
Revelation 2:7 explicitly joins Paradise with Christ’s promise of access to the tree of life. That image reaches back to Genesis 3:22–24, where human sin leads to exclusion from that tree.
This gives Paradise a larger biblical setting of life with God and the hope Christ holds before His people. Paul’s brief account belongs within that hope while preserving the limits he places on what he can describe.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.