2 Coríntios 12
Marvin Vincent · Citado em PreceptAustin
2 Coríntios 12
Vincent writes that "The conception of seven heavens was familiar to the Jews; but according to some of the Rabbins there were two heavens — the visible clouds and the sky; in which case the third heaven would be the invisible region beyond the sky." (Vincent, M. R. Word studies in the New Testament. Vol. 3, Page 1-354) 1) FIRST HEAVEN = the earth’s atmosphere, the realm in which we live that contains the oxygen we breathe. This is the heaven that contains the clouds. John MacArthur (Heaven. Chicago: Moody Press) explains the first heaven refers to ""the troposphere—the atmosphere around the earth, the air we breathe. For example, Isaiah 55:9 says, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven…” Here the word heaven refers to the atmosphere, which is where the hydrological cycle occurs. In Psalm 147:8 (Spurgeon's note) says that God “covers the heavens with clouds.” That is the first heaven."See also (Ge 8:2; Dt 11:11; 1Ki 8:35) 2) SECOND HEAVEN = interplanetary and interstellar space. The second heaven contains the stars, moons, and planets. For example in Genesis 1 “God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens…God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth” (Ge 1:14, 16,17) See also Ge 15:5; Ps 8:3; Is 13:10). 3) THIRD HEAVEN = the abode or dwelling place of God Paul writes 2Cor 12:2 know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago-- whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows-- such a man was caught up to the third heaven. (What a contrast between being “let down” in a basket and being “caught up” to the third heaven in Acts 9:25, 2Co 11:33!) And I know how such a man-- whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows-- 4 was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. Psalm 102:19 (Note) says, "He looked down from His holy height; from heaven the Lord gazed upon the earth." (See also 1Ki 8:30; 2Ch 30:27; Ps 123:1 (
2 Coríntios 12:9
Vincent explains that "The force of the perfect tense is to be insisted on. It shows that the affliction was still clinging to Paul, and that there was lying in his mind when he wrote, not only the memory of the incident, but the sense of the still abiding power and value of Christ's grace; so that because the Lord hath said "my grace," etc., Paul can now say, under the continued affliction, wherefore I take pleasure, etc., for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong. A more beautiful use of the perfect it would be difficult to find in the New Testament. Murray Harris - The answer to Paul's prayer did not take the form he had expected. The thorn remained, but so too did his recollection of the divine reply ). This grace of Christ (2Co 13:14) was adequate for Paul, weak as he was, precisely because (gar, "for") divine power finds its full scope and strength only in human weakness—the greater the Christian's acknowledged weakness, the more evident Christ's enabling strength (cf. Eph 3:16-note; Philippians 4:13-note). But it is not simply that weakness is a prerequisite for power. Both weakness and power existed simultaneously in Paul's life (note vv. 9b, 10b), as they did in Christ's ministry and death. Indeed, the cross of Christ forms the supreme example of "power-in-weakness." (Expositor's Bible Commentary) How did Christ speak to Paul? Direct conversation? Vision? etc?
2 Coríntios 12:9
Vincent writes that autarkes (autos = himself + arkeo = to suffice or be sufficient) was... A stoic word, expressing the favorite doctrine of the sect, that man should be sufficient to himself for all things; able by the power of his own will, to resist the shock of circumstance. Paul (referring to Php 4:11-note) is self-sufficient through the power of the new self: not he, but Christ in him (3:460-61). (Ed: And I would add His endless supply of necessary grace which empowered him to "resist the shock of circumstance" to parallel Vincent's description of the counterfeit "sufficiency" of the Stoics.) Here in 2Cor 12:9, arkeo is not in the past or future tense but is in the present tense indicating that the divine gift of grace is continually sufficient - His grace is a very present help in time of trouble (Ps 46:1-note), like the battery in the commercial, a veritable "Ever Ready", All Sufficient, Supernatural Source of Strength. Though he had suffered fourteen years of a thorn in his side, he had received fourteen years of grace as his supply. Indeed, God gives us a lifetime supply of His grace for our weaknesses. As
2 Coríntios 12:10
Vincent comments that the “dominant idea is constraint." Stenochoria pictures finding oneself in a "tight corner", hemmed in with no way out, in a narrow strait without the possibility of escape. Stenochoria might be used of an army caught in a narrow, rocky defile with space neither to maneuver nor to escape. It might be used of a ship caught in a storm with no room either to ride it or to run before it. There are moments when a man seems to be in a situation in which the walls of life are closing round him -- that is the picture inherent in stenochoria. The opposite state, of being in a large place, was metaphorically used to describe a state of joy as in Ps 118:5 (Spurgeon's note) where the psalmist writes From my distress I called upon the LORD. The LORD answered me and set me in a large place. Albert