The October 2025 Website Update

This October 2025 Website Update will be a recent Bible Study that I have developed for 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. Of course, you will recognize these verses because of Paul’s discussion of his ‘thorn’ that Jesus gave him to prevent him from becoming proud (or conceited, or exalting himself, or becoming too elated.) because of his trip to the 3rd Heaven. This Bible Study also includes narrative comments from N. T. Wright from his book: Paul A Biography.

Bible Study 2 Corinthians 12:1-10:

Chronology[i] leading to Paul’s writing of 2 Corinthians:

Birth of Jesus of Nazareth                                             ?4BC

This date of the birth of Jesus is based on when Herod the

Great died which is believed to be 1 BC. See Matthew 2:13 & 19-23. Scholars disagree on Herod’s death being in 4BC or 1BC. It seems to turn on the historian Josephus saying that Herod died shortly after a lunar eclipse. Astronomer John A. Cramer argues that the lunar eclipse of 4BC was too minor to be the one Josephus described. Instead, he proposes that a more significant eclipse on December 29, 1BC, is more likely the one Josephus was referring to.

Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus                          30AD

Revelation of Jesus to Saul on the road to Damascus ?33AD

Paul’s time in Arabia.                                                 33–36AD

Paul in Tarsus; brought to Antioch by Barnabas     36-46AD

Paul & Barnabas 1st Missionary Journey            47 & 48AD

Paul’s 3rd Missionary Journey                                  52/53AD

Paul’s Letter 1 Corinthians                                           ?53AD

Imprisonment in Ephesus                                          ?55-56AD

Paul’s Letter 2 Corinthians                                          56-57AD

While in Corinth Paul writes his letter to the Romans    57AD

Travel from Corinth to Jerusalem                                    57AD

N. T. Wright’s Paul A Biography:[ii]

Pages 238-240;

At the beginning of 2 Corinthians Paul was “dictating from a heart that…has been heavier than it knew possible. He sounds exhausted.”

There are signs that the letter [2 Corinthians] is actually being written while Paul was on the road around Northern Greece, on his way from Ephesus to Corinth by the land route. He went from Ephesus to Colossae to Troas across the Aegean to Macedonia to Philippi and to Thessalonica and then by land through Macedonia and Greece to Corinth.

The best guess…is that Paul was imprisoned in Ephesus and put on trial for his life. And that made a “perfect storm,” because it followed hard on the heels of a nasty shock from Corinth. The church there had turned against him.

In the letter to Philemon [from prison], Paul asks Philemon to “get a guest room ready” for him. Philemon lived in Colossae, about 125 miles inland from Ephesus. Paul also wrote Philippians, Colossians and Ephesians from prison.

Pages 303-307;

Paul was released from prison (in middle or late 56AD). Imprisonment leaves a lasting scar…in Ephesus he had experienced torture at a deeper level. His emotions, his imagination, his innermost heart had been unbearably crushed. On being released from prison he took his prison scars, and we can be sure, he went to Colossae. Philemon’s guest room was ready for him. Perhaps he spent some weeks there, slowly allowing the nightmares to subside.

Paul wanted to know, well in advance, what sort of reception he might get in Corinth. Would they, after all, be loyal to him? This involved meeting up with Titus. After the debacle of the “sorrowful visit,” Paul had written the “painful letter,” no doubt rebuking the church members for the way had treated him and urging them toward reconciliation.

…the letter we call 2 Corinthians seems itself to be dragged out of Paul in bits and pieces…It isn’t just that Paul is writing it in bits, on the move around northern Greece in late 56 or early 57…It is also that he is genuinely anxious; he still doesn’t know if the “painful letter” has simply caused more trouble, or if the Corinthians have abandoned their hostility toward him and now want to be reconciled. Titus had taken the letter, but where was he?

So once more…he moves on from Troas to Macedonia…he still cannot relax or rest. And always the nagging question: Has it, after all, been all in vain? Then, suddenly, the clouds roll away and the sun comes out, and Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:6 & 7:

“The God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the arrival of Titus, and not only by his arrival but in the comfort he had received from you, as he told us about your longing for us, your lamenting, and your enthusiasm for me personally.”

Pages 315-316.

Paul then continues in chapter 12 with his spiritual experiences, but he seems strangely reticent: “Someone…fourteen years ago…was snatched up to the third heaven…and heard words…humans are not allowed to repeat.” It’s the same point. Yes, obviously Paul has had extraordinary experiences, but that isn’t the basis on which he stands before them as an apostle of the crucified Messiah. The main thing is that Paul, at the end of it all, received “a thorn in the flesh,” but Paul doesn’t say what “the thorn” is. What he does say, and it’s worth more than all the actual information we could have, is what he had learned through that experience and particularly, we may suppose, through the entire horrible process of the confrontation in Corinth and the breakdown in Ephesus. “My grace is enough for you,” said the Lord. “My power comes to perfection in weakness.” Exactly what Paul needed to hear; exactly what the Corinthians did not want to hear. But hear it they must, because at the end of the most powerful and personal letter Paul has written to date, 2 Corinthians 9b & 10:

“So I will be all the more pleased to boast of my weaknesses, so that the Messiah’s power may rest upon me. So I’m delighted when I’m weak, insulted, in difficulties, persecuted, and facing disasters, for the Messiah’s sake. When I’m weak, you see, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:1-10 ESV

“I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows – and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses – though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

The Greek word that was translated to English as ‘conceited’ in the ESV is: hyperairomai and is translated differently in other translations:

NRSV ‘too elated’

ASV    ‘exalted too much’

NLT    ‘proud’

NASB 1995 ‘exalting’

Why the third heaven? What are the 1st and 2nd Heavens?

Our ancient Christian brothers seemed to talk about the three heavens where the 1st heaven was the earth’s atmosphere and the 2nd heaven was the stellar heaven – the sun, moon and stars. God was present in the 3rd heaven.

Questions to ponder:

How many years back from the writing of 2 Corinthians has Paul had the “thorn’?

What was Paul doing at the time he was taken to the third heaven?

Why do you think Jesus took Paul to the third heaven when he wasn’t going to allow him to talk about it?

Might it have been seen by Jesus as part of Paul’s education as the Apostle to the Gentiles, before Paul started writing such a large and significant part of the New Testament?

Wright mentions Paul’s apparent reticence when he starts writing about his journey to the 3rdheaven. Could that reticence stem from Paul being told he couldn’t talk about some of what he learned during that trip to God’s home in heaven?

What year will be the 2000th anniversary of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus based on N. T. Wright’s Chronology?

Do you think that possibly Paul’s two negative experiences with his church in Corinth and his time in the Ephesus Prison further made his “thorn” weakness experience more real to him?

What other two prisons did Paul spend time in besides Ephesus?

Like almost any attempt to dig into Scripture there will be underlying controversies. In this presentation I see at least two such controversies. The first was the year that Herod died, either 1BC or 4BC. And the second is did Paul spend time in prison in Ephesus or not. This comes up because Luke did not mention Paul being in prison in Ephesus in Acts. Also, Philippians was thought to be written in prison in Rome because of two Roman references in the epistle. But Philemon does not fit Rome but does fit Ephesus. One way to look at it is to assume Philemon was written in prison in Ephesus and Philippians was written during Paul’s house arrest in Rome. As to the other two prison letters: Colossians and Ephesians, Ephesus sure makes sense, but it may have been Rome. This is another mystery we will find out the answer to someday.

[i] N. T. Wright, Paul A Biography, 2018, Page 433 & 434

[ii] N.  T. Wright, Paul A Biography, 2018, Pages 238-240; 303-307; 315-316