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SeanTom
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How many Heavens are there?
When reading 2 Cor. 12:2 one may become confused as to how many heavens there are.
In 2 Corinthians 12:2 Paul is quoted as saying: “I know someone in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows), was caught up to the third heaven.”
The idea of “the third heaven” is a strange concept to us today which raises all sorts of questions. Are there different levels of heaven? Do different levels of heaven correspond to how well one has lived; more good works the higher the level, with “death bed” conversions being at the bottom? What exactly is “the third heaven”? Ancient cosmologies depicted a multitiered universe. Jewish intertestamental literature contains much speculation about the number of heavens. Seven is the number usually mentioned, but the Testament of Levi speaks of three, with God himself dwelling in the third of these. Paul indicates a mental journey to a nonearthly space (third heaven), set apart by God, in which secrets (Revelation) were revealed to him.
Jews of that time did not have the scientific knowledge that we take for granted, so they did not think of the world in scientific terms or descriptions. Instead they attempted to conceptualize the world in terms of what they knew, and usually described it visually. So, when they conceived of the universe, they constructed a multi-layered world, sort of like a large onion composed of various layers with the physical world in which human beings lived at the center. These layers were called “firmament” or “shamayim” (heavens or sky) in the Old Testament or “heavens” in the New Testament era. Most often this model contained seven heavens but in a few writings there were only three layers. The lowest heaven, the core, is the visible physical world that all people can see. The second heaven is composed of water, a great sea, a firmament dividing the earth from the heavenly beings. The third heaven was beyond the sight of human beings. It was the dwelling place of God and his attendant heavenly beings. So when Paul claims to have seen the risen Christ he is describing his experience in terms that he, and others, would readily understand. In that cultural context, he would have assumed that God had taken him to the region where it was possible to see spiritual beings, and the risen Christ (third heaven).
Understand this takes nothing away from Paul’s own testimony of an encounter with God. It simply acknowledges that Paul was a child of his day, which he lived in a pre-scientific world that had its own views of expressing and depicting the makeup of the physical world. His point was not to tell us how many levels of heaven there might really be. His point was to tell us that he had powerfully encountered the presence of God, in fact that he had physically seen the risen Christ.
Finally, to answer the question, Modern theologians tell us that there is only one heaven and one hell. The idea of several heavens is a good example of how 2,000 years ago and a different culture can come between the text and our understanding of it. If we were living 2,000 years ago and part of the Jewish culture, these several heavens would have made more sense than it does to us today.
References for the above were: “Biblical and Theological Resources for Growing Christians”; “The New American Bible”; and other periodicals and personal notes from my files.
When reading 2 Cor. 12:2 one may become confused as to how many heavens there are.
In 2 Corinthians 12:2 Paul is quoted as saying: “I know someone in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows), was caught up to the third heaven.”
The idea of “the third heaven” is a strange concept to us today which raises all sorts of questions. Are there different levels of heaven? Do different levels of heaven correspond to how well one has lived; more good works the higher the level, with “death bed” conversions being at the bottom? What exactly is “the third heaven”? Ancient cosmologies depicted a multitiered universe. Jewish intertestamental literature contains much speculation about the number of heavens. Seven is the number usually mentioned, but the Testament of Levi speaks of three, with God himself dwelling in the third of these. Paul indicates a mental journey to a nonearthly space (third heaven), set apart by God, in which secrets (Revelation) were revealed to him.
Jews of that time did not have the scientific knowledge that we take for granted, so they did not think of the world in scientific terms or descriptions. Instead they attempted to conceptualize the world in terms of what they knew, and usually described it visually. So, when they conceived of the universe, they constructed a multi-layered world, sort of like a large onion composed of various layers with the physical world in which human beings lived at the center. These layers were called “firmament” or “shamayim” (heavens or sky) in the Old Testament or “heavens” in the New Testament era. Most often this model contained seven heavens but in a few writings there were only three layers. The lowest heaven, the core, is the visible physical world that all people can see. The second heaven is composed of water, a great sea, a firmament dividing the earth from the heavenly beings. The third heaven was beyond the sight of human beings. It was the dwelling place of God and his attendant heavenly beings. So when Paul claims to have seen the risen Christ he is describing his experience in terms that he, and others, would readily understand. In that cultural context, he would have assumed that God had taken him to the region where it was possible to see spiritual beings, and the risen Christ (third heaven).
Understand this takes nothing away from Paul’s own testimony of an encounter with God. It simply acknowledges that Paul was a child of his day, which he lived in a pre-scientific world that had its own views of expressing and depicting the makeup of the physical world. His point was not to tell us how many levels of heaven there might really be. His point was to tell us that he had powerfully encountered the presence of God, in fact that he had physically seen the risen Christ.
Finally, to answer the question, Modern theologians tell us that there is only one heaven and one hell. The idea of several heavens is a good example of how 2,000 years ago and a different culture can come between the text and our understanding of it. If we were living 2,000 years ago and part of the Jewish culture, these several heavens would have made more sense than it does to us today.
References for the above were: “Biblical and Theological Resources for Growing Christians”; “The New American Bible”; and other periodicals and personal notes from my files.