Paul's Ascent to Paradise: The Apostolic Message and Mission of Paul in the Light of His Mystical Experiences

by James D. Tabor

Here we have a precious bit of autobiographical evidence of one claiming to have ascended to heaven from the early Roman imperial period.

the only firsthand claim of such a journey to heaven surviving from this period.

the account comes up as a matter of dispute with various Gnostic groups who claimed that the authority for their doctrines was based on secrets revealed to Paul in heaven, which he subsequently passed on to a select few.

Paul writes that he is not permitted to “utter” what he heard—so

The passage was often pointed to as evidence for Paul’s very fundamental similarity to various forms of ancient Mediterranean Hellenistic spirituality and mysticism.

For Reitzenstein, the key to Pauline theology is his understanding of gnosis, which involves the non-mediated vision of God— what he calls the ‘‘Hellenistic mystery.”16 Such gnosis is given by heavenly revelation, bringing both enlightenment and authority:17

When man is united with God in mystery, he must thereby attain a direct, non-mediated knowledge that is independent of all earlier knowledge, and from this time on, God speaks through the servant who is consecrated to him; thus for the believer this new message stands alongside the earlier one with equal validity or even above it.

we face a common case of the “peril of modernizing Paul,” as his world was “thick” with unseen forces, demonic and divine, and he shared the common view of a cosmos fraught with spiritual dangers as one ascended up through the heavenly spheres. Those who want to separate Paul from this world of magic and mysticism, either chronologically or theologically, operate with what Robert Wilken called, in another context, a “Eusebian” view of the past—that is reading our own values and ideals into ancient texts from another time and place.

reports of heavenly journeys were frequent and important, should be carefully compared.

Only seven letters are indisputably from his hand, all written within the late 40s and 50s CE.

is difficult to read these texts without hearing 1900 years of theological argument and commentary in the background.

we know too much.

Paul’s converts wanted salvation, and yet this is something that Paul rarely stops to define.

The old adage “saved from what, by what, and for what” is one worth applying to Paul.

Paul’s view of “salvation” involved far more than a particular understanding of God’s grace and forgiveness of sins.

Salvation for Paul was “cosmic.”

“Jesus Christ is Lord, that in him God has provided for the salvation of all those who believe . . . and that he will soon return to bring all things to an end,”

many Christian theologians have misunderstood forms of ancient Judaism as “legalistic,” in contrast to Paul’s ideas about grace and freedom,

God’s grace and unmerited favor, freely pardoning sinners who repent, is part of His divine nature. The response to that grace is then loyalty, faith, and “keeping the commandments.”

Paul’s understanding of salvation involved a rather astounding scheme of “mass apotheosis” and imminent cosmic takeover—central categories that seem to have no place in traditional Pauline theology with its Augustinian/Lutheran focus on grace vs. human merit.

what I believe is central to his whole salvation message: his belief that a new cosmic family—immortal “Sons of God” he calls them—is soon to be dramatically revealed as agents for carrying forth the final stages of God’s plan for his creation.

For those whom he foreknew (προγινώσκω) he also predestined (προορίζω) to share the image (συμμόρφος εἰκών) of his Son, that he might be the firstborn of many brothers, and the ones he predestined he also called (καλέω), and the ones he called he also justified, and the ones he justified he also glorified (δοξάζω).7

1. The Predetermined Secret Plan

But we impart a secret (μυστήριον)and hidden wisdom of God, which God determined (προορίζω) before the ages for our glorification.

“to predestine” or “to determine” is directly connected to the idea of glorification

The point is not only that God has known and determined something beforehand, but that salvation for the select group is a strategy on God’s part in a hostile cosmological environment, populated by spiritual forces and entities in high places.

the chthonic lower Hadean world). 2.

Cosmic Family

“to share the image of his Son” and (2) “that he might be the firstborn of many brothers,”

Paul thought sharing the image of Christ, the “firstborn” son of a new cosmic family, involved sharing his death

the final stage, the glorification or transformation of those “in Christ” when Jesus returns from heaven.

we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed (μεταμορφόω) into his image (εἰκών) from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Paul lays out his idea here quite clearly in pinpointing Satan as the primary entity who is opposing this grand cosmic plan of God:

the god of this age has blinded the eyes of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory (δόξα) of Christ, who is in the image (εἰκών) of God.”

that God’s illumination of the hearts of these believers brings about the “light of the knowledge or “gnosis” (γνῶσις) of the glory (δόξα) of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6b).

We are dealing here with the heart of Paul’s system of thought, the belief that Christ bears the image and glory of God, and that believers in Christ have already begun to share the glory of Christ, being transformed into his image, and will share it completely in the End.

The equation of Jesus the Son of God, with the many glorified sons of God to follow is God’s means of bringing into existence a family (i.e., “many brothers”) of cosmic beings, the Sons of God, who share his heavenly glory. Or, to put things more directly: Jesus already stands at the head of a new genus of cosmic “offspring” who await their full transformation at his arrival from heaven.

To be a “son of God” (or “child of God,” which is his other phrase in this chapter, v. 16) through receiving the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14-17), is to be an heir, even a co-heir (συγκληρονόμος) with Jesus.

Paul is absolutely clear on consistent on this concept of “salvation.” One inherits the “kingdom of God” at the return of Jesus but this inheritance is dependent upon a transformation to glorified immortal heavenly life.

For Paul this concept of Abrahamic “inheritance” moves far beyond the idea of inheriting the land of Israel, or hopes of national restoration associated with the Hebrew prophets (Isaiah 2:2-4; 11:10-16; Jeremiah 30:3-9). It is rulership over the entire cosmos.

For I think that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is about to be revealed in us! (Romans 8:18)

The use of the word “sonship” (ὑιοθεσία v. 23) in association with this glorification is significant. Several manuscripts (chiefly Western) omit the word, probably because it appears to contradict Romans 8:15:18

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship (ὑιοθεσία) in which we cry out “Abba! Father!”

Further confusing matters is that the King James Version, followed by others, translated this Greek word for “sonship” as “adoption as sons,” which implies a kind of provisional status in this emerging cosmic Family of God.

But when the fullness of time arrived, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive sonship (ὑιοθεσία). And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, “Abba! Father!” So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir (κληρονόμος).

Believers now receive the spirit of sonship and are sons of God and heirs with Christ

Paul links the release of the creation itself to the realization of the destiny of the Sons of God, a complicated notion with which he also deals in 1 Corinthians

3. The Implementation of the Secret Plan

implemented through God’s “calling,” “justifying” and “glorifying” the special group of believers (Romans 8:30).

“live a life worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”