The Literal Meaning of Genesis
BOOK TWELVE 219 living this mortal life in the senses of the body. This vision is granted only to him who in some way dies to this life,!37 whether he quits the body entirely or is turned away and carried out of the bodily senses, so that he really knows not (to use the words of St. Paul) whether he is in the body or out of the body when he is carried off to this vision.!38
CHAPTER 28
The third heaven and Paradise may be understood as the third kind of vision.
56. If, then, the Apostle has given the name "third heaven" to this third type of vision, which is superior to every corporeal vision by which bodies are perceived through the senses of the body, and superior also to all spiritual vision by which the likenesses of bodies are beheld not by the mind but by the spirit, in this vision the brightness of God is seen by those whose hearts are purified for the vision.!3? Hence it is said, Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God,'*° not through any symbol fashioned in a coporeal or spiritual manner, as if through a mirror in a riddle,!*! but face to face or mouth to mouth, as it is said of Moses, through a vision, that is, of God's own essence, according to the limited measure that it can be comprehended by a mind distinct from God Himself, even after it has been cleansed!4? from all earthly stain and carried away from all body and likeness of body. From Him we are exiled, laden with a mortal and corruptible burden, as long as we walk by faith and not by vision,!43 even when we live justly in this world.!44
But why should we not believe that, when the great Apostle and teacher of the Gentiles was carried up to such an extraordinary vision, God wished to show him the life that is to be ours forever after this life on earth? And why should not the name "paradise" be given to this also, as well as to that place where Adam lived in the body among the shade trees and the fruit trees? For the Church also, who gathers us into the bosom of her charity, is called a paradise with the fruit of the orchard.'4° But this