Third Heaven: Near Death Experience of Paul?

St. Paul’s journey to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) has sometimes been understood as a near death experience (NDE). What is the ‘third heaven’ he mentions, and why wasn’t he able to speak of it? Is his journey to the third heaven a near death case, or is it a general out-of-body (OBE) experience that happened to him? These questions we shall endeavour to answer here.

What was the Third Heaven?

Paul understands the third heaven to be Paradise:

I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4 (LEB)

This is attested to by other contemporary literature of the first century AD¹:

And he [Adam – yes, that Adam] stayed there three hours, lying down, and thereafter the Father of all, sitting on his holy throne stretched out his hand, and took Adam and handed him over to the archangel Michael saying: ‘Lift him up into Paradise unto the third Heaven, and leave him there until that fearful day of my reckoning, which I will make in the world.’ Then Michael took Adam and left him where God told him.

Apocalypse of Moses 37:4-6

And those men took me from there, and brought me up to the third heaven, and set me down ¦there¦. Then I looked downward, and I saw Paradise. And that place is inconceivably pleasant.

2 Enoch 8:1

Here we see the link between the third heaven and Paradise itself, the place of rest for the physically deceased who are received into it. This is the same place that the ‘Penitent Thief’ entered on the day he died alongside Jesus (Luke 23:43).

During Paul’s visit to the third heaven, he entered into Paradise, the realm of the blessed dead. The experience was so vivid to him that he couldn’t work out whether it was in the body or out of the body.

The Experience

What did Paul see and hear? Unfortunately for us, he says he cannot relay what he heard whilst there.

Some claim that because Paul couldn’t relate his experience, any who have an NDE or OBE which involves a visit to “heaven” shouldn’t be able to relate their experience; if they are able to describe it, then the experience must have been made up. Looking at the text alone, Paul wasn’t able to relate only what was discussed in Paradise there. As we shall see later, other people who experienced visiting the heavens “in the spirit” were able to discuss their journeys.

Third Heaven: A Near-death Experience?

Some have postulated that Paul’s visit to the third heaven was a near death experience, triggered by his stoning at Lystra in his second missionary journey:

But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

Acts 14:19-20

This seems a likely candidate until you look back at 2 Corinthians and do some mathematics.

Paul says that his experience happened 14 years earlier than his writing of 2 Corinthians (2 Corinthians 12:2). Now, 2 Corinthians is generally believed to have been written about 55 CE², whereas Paul’s second missionary journey is believed to have taken place in 48 CE² a mere 7 years previous. Even leaving some room for a little leeway in timing, this is half the suggested time lapse between the experience and Paul writing of it.

If we take a look back 14 years from 55 CE, then we’re looking for something around 41 CE. Unfortunately we don’t have any info for Paul at that time, apart from him being in Tarsus after being made very unwelcome in Jerusalem due to his recent conversion. It would therefore seem that it was during this formational time in Paul’s life before heading out on his missional journeys.

Paul’s “third heaven” experience seems more likely to have been a mystical out-of-body experience than a near-death experience. Note that Paul says he couldn’t tell whether he was in or out of the body, but regardless, he accepted this as a positive experience. He knew of Enoch and Elijah, who he believed had been taken up into the heavens in bodily form, so would be interpreting his experience with this knowledge.

Paul’s Out-of-body Experience

Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are understood to be where the spirit of a person leaves their body. It can happen for a number of reasons, including non-traumatic and traumatic experiences of the body³, e.g.:

During prayer / meditation

• 2 Kings 5:26 – Elisha travelled with his servant, Gehazi, “in the spirit” and knew what he’d done to Naaman
• Ezekiel 8:1-4 – Ezekiel is “lifted by a hair” (floating) – but this isn’t noticed by those in the room with him. Ezekiel 11:24-25; 43:5 also talk about Ezekiel being “taken up” by the spirit.
• John 1:43-51 – Jesus “sees” Nathaniel under the fig tree. By the response of Nathaniel to him, calling him “Son of God” and “King of Israel”, this seems a massive over-reaction if Jesus had merely walked by and seen him at work, or in prayer. I posit that Nathaniel must have had some sort of divine revelation whilst “in the spirit”, seeing Jesus as he truly was.
• Revelation 1:10 – John had his entire revelation whilst “in the spirit”

In extremes of bodily needs

• Matthew 40:1-11 – The temptations of Jesus. After finishing his 40 day fast, Jesus wouldn’t have had the energy to travel into Jerusalem, climb to the top of the temple and climbed a mountain before he was finally fed by the angels.

Conclusion

Paul’s visit to the “third heaven” would be classed as a visit to Paradise, the realm of the blessed dead, by those who would have read his words at that time.

Some have connected this “third heaven” experience to a near-death experience from his stoning at Lystra and being left for dead. However, the timeline of Paul’s life and the dates for writing 2 Corinthians disallow this interpretation.

Instead, it is more likely that Paul was “in the spirit” whilst at Tarsus, and experienced similar things to those who have such instances recorded elsewhere in the Bible.

Mystical experiences like this have formed part of the Christian tradition (and many other traditions) over the millennia. Rather than be seen as something to be avoided or demonised, we should listen to them and test what the fruit of them are in order to discern them further.

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Bibliography

Charlesworth, J. H. (Ed.) (1983), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Vol. 1, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co. Inc.

Charlesworth, J. H. (Ed.) (1985), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Vol. 2, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co. Inc.

Footnotes

1. Both 2 Enoch and the Apocalypse of Moses are accepted by scholars to have their origins in the first century. For Apocalypse of Moses dating, see Charlesworth, 1985:252. For 2 Enoch dating see Charlesworth, 1983:91.

2. https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/paul/timeline.cfm

3. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/rhythms-recovery/202007/dissociation-out-body-or-derealization