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

by James D. Tabor

one. I don’t think that the idea of heavenly preexistence, or even a “fall” into the mortal world, is an absolute prerequisite to the general pattern he is describing.

Paul may not have viewed Jesus as a preexistent divine being—given his “second Adam” Christology.

In such case we could call him an “ascending” savior figure, a mortal become immortal, as a model or proleptic example for humanity.

Paul’s cosmos is thickly populated with hostile powers, indeed Satan, as “god of this age” exercises rule over the lower earthly spheres, as the “prince of the power o...

In order to b...

“bondage to decay” Christ has had to battle the hostile powers of the heavenly spheres, so his a...

It was achieved by extraordin...

Paul also believes Jesus, as “Lord” of the cosmos, will return from heaven, presumably passing successfully through those same spheres. So in such a case one might say that...

And after collecting together the immortalized believers, there is apparently to be some type of ascent again, because Paul thinks that Jesus and his followers will ...

taking into account Paul’s entire cosmic view of salvation, Jesus is an ascending-descending...

Paul expects a special apotheosis in his own case, before the return of Jesus from heaven, then presumably he too...

Plutarch, in his work “On the Delays of Divine Vengeance” (Moralia 590-92), tells of one Aridaius, who falls from a height and is “dead” for three days. He miraculously revives at the time of his own funeral. He experiences a total change in his way of life and relates to his friends how his soul was carried into the heavenly regions. Led by a guide, he is shown the various fates of the souls of the dead and told that he is no longer to be known as Aridaius but as Thespesius—meaning “wondrous one.”

At this point there is a break in the text; it appears in verses 14-17 that Enoch is declared to be the “Son of Man” (or a “son of man”), which might imply some kind of exalted or divine status.

As he finally approaches the seventh heaven there is sense of danger; a voice cries out, “How far shall he ascend who dwells among aliens?” Here we have a perfect example of the archaic idea of ascent as an invasion.

In other words, he is not truly an alien, but does belong in heaven. So, for him the ascent is not an invasion.

In the seventh heaven he sees Abel and Enoch and all the righteous from the time of Adam, clothed in garments of glory like the angels, but not having yet received their crowns

These are reserved until the sending of Christ to the earth and hi...

A mortal is taken by stages to enter the highest heaven Such an ascent is an extraordinary privilege The way is fraught with dangers only overcome by divine will and power There is increasing splendor as one moves from level to level The one ascending is utterly transformed and glorified before God’s throne Secrets and mysteries of the cosmos and the future are revealed What is seen and heard can only be passed on to those worthy One returns to the earthly plane fundamentally transformed Often such a one faces extraordinary trials as a test of faithfulness

There are seven palaces (temples of heaven), each of which is guarded by eight angelic gatekeepers (27:1-8). The mystic must master all their names, calling upon Surya, the Angel of the Presence 112 times to protect him from each of them as he ascends and descends (16:4- 5). At each gate “seals” are shown to the guardians, and the initiate, if allowed to go on, is “sent forth with glory” to the next level (19:1-5). Passage through the sixth palace is especially dangerous; the guards will destroy any who seek to go up higher without permission (19:6). After satisfying certain requirements at this level, the mystic is taken past the gate of the seventh palace to appear before God’s throne:

Then they take him before the throne of glory. They go before him with all kinds of music and song until they lift him up and seat him near the cherubim, by the Wheels, near to the holy living creatures. He beholds marvels, powers, splendor, greatness, holiness, purity, terror, meekness and righteousness, all at the same time (22:2).

think Scholem’s point stands. Generally speaking, the extended merkabah tradition develops in a context which includes ideas about “the world to come,” punishments of the wicked, eternal life for the righteous, and different levels of blessedness in the heavenly world (Paradise). The archaic notion of death as the end, or shadowy life in Sheol, does not predominate in Jewish circles into the first centuries CE. It would seem that a text like Hekhalot Rabbati should be read with that more general context in mind.

Through her grace he is released from hostile Fate and transformed from an ass (which he had become through evil magic) back to a human (11.13-15). Lucius devotes himself totally to service of the goddess, continually receiving from her “visions and counsel,” and longing for the day when he will be allowed to undergo the secret initiation of the cult. Finally, his great moment arrives, and Apuleius offers the reader of the novel an altogether tantalizing account of what was involved in the initiation (11.23). The priest escorts Lucius to the baths for the customary ablution, then takes him to a room in a temple, placing him before the image of the goddess and giving him “certain secret instructions too holy to be uttered.” After a ten day fast, he is taken alone into another room, clothed in a new garment of linen and there the initiation experience transpires. What took place, we are told, is unlawful to tell (recall Paul’s statement about his ascent, 2 Corinthians 12:2-4), but as curious readers we are offered the following cryptic description:

The idea has strong parallels in Paul. Jesus is the “firstborn” of many divinized “sons of God” who are to follow, as we have seen in Paul’s core message (Romans 8:29). When converts are baptized they undergo an initiation of immersion in water that is likened to one’s death, burial, and resurrection viewed as a rebirth (Romans 6:5-11; John 3:5). As “firstborn from the dead” Christ has the “keys of Death and Hades [i.e., the lower world].”

Following the initiation Lucius is brought out of the room and he stands on a platform adorned like the statue of Isis while the crowd of worshippers gathers around to behold him (11. 24). Notice his symbolic “re-clothing” is reflective of his newly reborn status—clothed now, symbolically, like the goddess.

Homer and Hesiod place Elysium or the “Isles of the Blessed” at the ends of the earth.

The revelation that is given is an oracle, and the recipient is told he will remember it later, even if it is thousands of verses long (lines 724-731). It could well have to do with the deification.

Similarly, to what one finds in the gospel of John, the reality of “eternal life” is already present for those joined to Christ, even though they continue to live out their mortal lives. They are not just promised immortality in the future but on some level already experience it: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24; cf. 3:36; 6:47).

The “Mithras Liturgy” text provides a valuable witness to an actual practice of ascent.

often includes the reception of revelation, but is more than that; the journey itself functions as proleptic “crossing the bounds,” a move from mortal to heavenly realms. As such, it can be an experience of transformation. It is something granted graciously to the initiate, allowing one to overcome all cosmic dangers and experience a face to face encounter with the highest Power.

Paul does indeed claim a certain level of “authority” from his personal experience of being taken to Paradise—but

Paul stands out as our only autobiographical witness to ascent to heaven in the entire period, and as such his account can serve to take us beyond literary function to real anticipatory experience and expectation.

In the case of the vast number of Jewish and Christian texts from Second Temple times, the evidence that various reports of visions and revelations are grounded in the experiences of the authors or the mystical circles they represent seems indisputable. The many references to dreams, to preparations such as fasting, special diet or drink, to calendrical and other temporal matters, and to body posture, indicate familiarity with mystical techniques.111 This seems also the case with the scattered references to the visionary experiences of the Rabbis in the literature of the Tannaim and Amoraim;

there is a rich tradition of Greek shamanistic materials obviously rooted in the practice and experience of various groups.113 So even literary accounts do not develop from a vacuum.

“Gnosis of the Tannaitic Merkabah mystics.”

the passage in the Dead Sea text known as the War Scroll (I QM X:10-17), about seeing and hearing “profound things” might well be a reference to visionary experience. There seems to be a line, however thin, within “theosophic” tradition and practice running from the oldest Enoch material through later hekhalot literature.118

Scholem would place Paul right in the chronological center of this enterprise, precisely on the basis of his claim to have ascended to Paradise.

this kind of material runs through early Christian and “gnostic” texts.

In his important article on Hekhalot Rabbati, Morton Smith points out the parallels between the Greek magical papyri (especially the “Mithras Liturgy”), the strands of similar esoteric tradition in Tannaitic texts, and the hekhalot materials.

is impossible to deny the relationship of this material [i.e., Greek magical papyri] to the hekhalot tradition. The contrast between mortal and immortal beings, the ascent from the realm of mortality to that of the immortals, the jealous guards to be mastered by the use of magic names, the entrance of the heavenly realm, when the hostile gods all stare at the intruder . . . all these characteristics are common to the Jewish and the magical materials.121

Paul’s testimony of his own journey to Paradise is perhaps our best evidence that we are dealing with something that was practiced—reinforcing these conclusions of Morton Smith and Gershom Scholem.

Paul’s Ascent Text

But I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord

I know a man 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. And I know that this man—whether in the body or separate from the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up into Paradise and he heard unutterable words that are unlawful to speak. Some obvious and basic questions immediately come to mind: Why does Paul use the third person here? Is there any special significance to the dating of the revelation “fourteen years ago?” Is Paul reporting two separate experiences, or one experience in two stages? Is Paradise equivalent to or located in “the third heaven” or is it something different? What is at stake as to whether the ascent was “in the body or out of the body,” Why the emphasis on secrecy?

there is no question, despite the use of the third person, that Paul is reporting his own experience.

Paul is following an apologetic literary tradition which makes use of ironic boasting.

He ironically boasts of “weakness” (v. 5), but the weakness he has in mind came as a result of this highly privileged heavenly encounter—the harassment of a messenger of Satan to keep him from being “too elated” at the extraordinary revelation he experienced (vv. 7-10).

this section of the letter was written in the early 50’s CE, then the ascent took place around the year 40 CE, during the formative years of his ministry, perhaps in the area of Syria-Cilicia.

Attempts to correlate this experience with his conversion or any other event we know in his life don’t seem to work out, even though Paul notes a similar “fourteen year” chronological marker in Galatians 2:1. The two simply don’t appear to correlate, as there he is laying out the precise date of his second visit to Jerusalem, and wants to be very precise. 4

It is precisely dated and the elements which are repeated are parallel to the point of redundancy.

the only significant difference in the two parts is the reference to destination—to the third heaven or into Paradise.