The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
repose of the poor man but in reference to the punishment of the rich man.
64. As for the words of Jacob to his son, You will bring down my old age with sorrow unto hell,''° he feared, it seems, that he would be so distraught because of his profound sorrow that he would go to the hell of sinners rather than to the resting place of the blessed. For sorrow is no small evil for the soul. Even St.
Paul was quite fearful that a certain man might be overwhelmed by too much sorrow.!77 Hence, as I said, I have not found any passage in Scripture, at least in the canonical books, where the term "hell" is to be taken in a good sense. I am still looking for such a passage and can think of none, but I doubt whether anybody could tolerate an interpretation of Abraham's bosom and the resting place to which the angels carried the devoted poor man in anything but a good sense, and so I do not see how we may believe that that resting place is in hell.
CHAPTER 34
Paradise and the third heaven.
65. But while I seek an answer to this question, whether successfully or otherwise, | am compelled by the length of this book to bring it at last to an end. We began our discussion with the question of Paradise, basing it on the statement of St. Paul, where he says that he knows a man who was caught up to the third heaven, though he knows not whether it was in the body or out of the body, and that this man was caught up into Paradise and heard secret words that man may not repeat.!7§ We do not, then, rashly determine whether Paradise is in the third heaven or whether St. Paul was caught up to the third heaven and then again to Paradise. For the word "paradise" properly means any wooded place, but figuratively it can also be used for any spiritual region, as it were, where the soul is in a happy state. The third heaven, therefore, whatever it is (and it is, indeed, something wonderfully and singularly sublime), is, Paradise; and so also a certain joy springing from a good conscience