2nd Corinthians Chapter 12 verse 4 Holy Bible
how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
read chapter 12 in ASV
How he was taken up into Paradise, and words came to his ears which may not be said, and which man is not able to say.
read chapter 12 in BBE
that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable things said which it is not allowed to man to utter.
read chapter 12 in DARBY
How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
read chapter 12 in KJV
read chapter 12 in WBT
how he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
read chapter 12 in WEB
that he was caught away to the paradise, and heard unutterable sayings, that it is not possible for man to speak.
read chapter 12 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - Into Paradise. Here, again, we encounter long speculations as to whether Paradise is the same as the third heaven; whether St.,Paul is referring to two visions or two parts of one vision. Such questions are clearly insoluble, and I leave them where I find them. We shall never understand this passage otherwise than in the dim and vague outline in which St. Paul has purposely left it. All that we can know from the New Testament about Paradise must be learnt from this verse and Luke 23:43 and Revelation 2:7, and it is extremely little. Unspeakable words. A figure of speech called an oxymoron. Utterances (or "things") incapable of utterance. Not lawful for a man to utter. How futile, then, must be the attempt to guess what they were, or on what subject!
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4)That he was caught up into paradise.--The stress laid on this second vision hinders us from thinking of it as identical with the former, either in time or in object-matter. Paradise (see Note on Luke 23:43) was emphatically the dwelling-place of the souls of the righteous, the reproduction in the unseen world of the lost beauty of the Garden of Eden--the "paradise of joy," as the LXX. in Genesis 2:15 translates the name. There, flowing about the throne of God, was the fountain of the water of life, and the tree of life growing on its banks (Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:1-2). Speculations on the question whether St. Paul thought of it as nearer or farther from earth than the third heaven are obviously idle and profitless. The nearest approach which we can make to an adequate distinction between the two visions is that the first revealed to his gaze the glory of the Throne of God, with angels and archangels round it, and seraphim and cherubim,--a vision like that of Moses (Exodus 24:10), and Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-3), and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:4-28), and St. John (Revelation 4:2-11)--thoughts like those of Hooker's death-bed (Walton's Life)--while the latter brought before his spirit the peace and rest ineffable, even in their intermediate and therefore imperfect state, of the souls who had fallen asleep in Christ and were waiting for their resurrection. . . .
