2. In the treatment of these words it is customary to ask first
BOOK TWELVE THE PARADISE OR THIRD HEAVEN
SEEN BY ST. PAUL
CHAPTER 1
St. Paul's account of Paradise must be examined.
1. In writing the preceding eleven books of commentary on Genesis, I began with the opening lines of the sacred book and continued to the point where the first man was driven from Paradise. Whatever appeared to me as certain, I maintained and defended; whatever uncertain, I investigated according to my ability, sometimes venturing opinions, at other times expressing doubts. Still it was not my purpose to determine the judgment each one should form in regard to obscure questions, but rather to show the need we have of instruction in doubtful matters and to caution the reader against rash statements where we have been unable to arrive at certain knowledge.
But now, unhindered by the burden of presenting a detailed commentary on the sacred text, in this twelfth book I shall deal with the question of Paradise with greater liberty and at greater length. Otherwise I might seem to have dodged the difficulty in the passage where St. Paul apparently hints that Paradise is in the third heaven, when he says, / know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body
I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—that he was caught up into Paradise and heard secret words that man may not repeat.' .
2. In the treatment of these words it is customary to ask first