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sometimes styled the heaven of heavens. This they considered as the place 
of the throne of God, and the habitation of the holy angels. Now it is 
evident, that if, in the second and fourth verses, he speak of one vision or 
revelation only, paradise and heaven are the same; not so, if in these he 
speak of two different revelations. My opinion is, that they are two, and I 
shall assign my reasons. First, he speaks of them as more than one, and 
that not only in introducing them, I will come to visions and revelations; 
for sometimes, it must be owned, the plural is used in expressing a subject 
indefinitely; but afterwards, in referring to what he had related, he says/ 
lest 1 should be exalted above measure , through the abundance of the revelations , 
tcjov Secondly, they are related precisely as two distinct events, 
and connected together by the connective particle. Thirdly, there is a 
repetition of his doubts,f in regard to the reality of his translation, which, 
if the whole relate to a single event, was not only superfluous, but improper. 
This repetition, however, was necessary, if what is related in the third and 
fourth verses be a different fact from what is told in the second, and if he 
was equally uncertain, whether it passed in vision or in reality. Fourthly, 
if all the three verses regard only one revelation, there is a tautology in the 
manner of relating it unexampled in the Apostle’s writings. I might urge, 
as a fifth reason, the opinion of all Christian antiquity, Origen alone excepted. 
And this, in a question of philology, is not without its weight. 
I shall only add, that though, in both verses, the words in the English 
Bible are caught up, there is nothing in the original answering to the particle 
up. The Apostle has very properly employed here the word snatched 
away , expressive more of the suddenness of the event, and rapidity, than of 
the direction of the motion/ The only other place in which occurs 
is in the Apocalypse/ To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree 
of life , which is in the midst TOV OTOtguSeHTCV of the paradise of God. Here our 
Lord, no doubt, speaks of heaven; but, as he plainly alludes to the state of 
* 2 Cor. xii. 7. f verse 2, 3 . 
+ The learned reader may peruse the following passage from Epiphanius on this subject, in 
opposition to Origen. O v$e 0 onrogoXoq 117 TOT&eTui tov irotguSeKrov eivoa ev t^itu ovgavu, Toig Xe tttuv cacgoctrScti 
Xoyuv e'7ri£ci[xevoig‘ o^oc yu^ a'^7 TotyevTcs lug tqitov Xeyuv ovgotvov. xou oiSoc tov toustov txv^^u7rov, eiTe ev crufxctTi, e/re 
%uf>ig (rupuTog, 0 9 sog ottiev, oti ^7 rayy eig tov Troi^othitrov. < 5 uo ot7roxaXv^eig [xeyuXug lu^axevoti pj wet, Sig otvotXri^eig 
evotgyug, tziraL% [xev lug t^ith v/totvis, ui St eig tov TruguSeicrov' to yo&() oiSoi u^TrocyevTa. tov toustov lug TgiTis k^ocvh, 
iStug cnroxaXv^iv uvtu koltci tov t^itov uvocXyiQ^evTi 7 re(py]vevca (Twig-yin’ to Se, xoti oiScx, 7 tccXiv 67 Ti(pe^o[xevgv tov toustov 
av^guvrov, sits ev trufxczTt, eiTe exTog tov tru/xotTog, eig tov 7roi^oiSei(rov y eTegctv ccvSig oivtu 7re(paveguo‘d'0£i kcctoi tov 
7Toi(>oilei<rcv a7roxotXvi\nv Seixvvcri. Epiph. Lib. ii. Eher. 44 . 
§ Rev. ii. 7. 
