{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1824","native_reference":{"book_number":540,"chapter_from":12,"chapter_to":12,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":4,"verse_to":4},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: But, even if the angels, whose nature is simple and spiritual, are said to have tongues with which they sing praises to their Lord and Creator and give him unceasing thanks, much more must the spiritualized bodies of men do so after the resurrection. For all the members of their glorified flesh will have tongues in their mouths, and they will give voice to their speaking tongues, and thus they will utter divine praises, the outpouring in words of their love and of the joys that fill even their senses. Doubtless the Lord will add this to the grace and glory of his saints in the time of his kingdom, that the more perfectly they attain to this blessed condition of body by a happy transformation, the more fully will they sing with tongue and voice. Being established in their spiritual bodies, they may speak, perchance, not with the tongues of men but with those of angels, such as the apostle heard in paradise.</p><p><b>Cyril of Jerusalem</b>: Elijah was taken up to heaven only, but Paul into heaven and paradise (for it was but fitting that the disciples of Jesus should receive more manifold grace) and \"heard secret words that man may not repeat.\" But Paul came down again from heaven, not because he was unworthy to abide in the third heaven but after enjoying gifts beyond man's lot.<br/><i>— Catechetical Lecture 14:16</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: Now this (mystery) was not made known to previous generations, as he says, it has been written, \"By revelation was made known unto me the mystery; \" and, \"I have heard inexpressible words which it is not possible for man to declare.\" The light, (therefore,) which came down from the Ogdoad above to the Son of the Hebdomad, descended from the Hebdomad upon Jesus the son of Mary, and he had radiance imparted to him by being illuminated with the light that shone upon him. This, he says, is that which has been declared: \"The Holy Spirit will come upon thee,\" (meaning) that which proceeded from the Sonship through the conterminous spirit upon the Ogdoad and Hebdomad, as far as Mary; \"and the power of the Highest will overshadow thee,\" (meaning) the power of the anointing, (which streamed) from the (celestial) height above (through) the Demiurge, as far as the creation, which is (as far as) the Son. And as far as that (Son) he says the world consisted thus. And as far as this, the entire Sonship, which is left behind for benefiting the souls in Formlessness, and for being the recipient in turn of benefits,-(this Sonship, I say,) when it is transformed, followed Jesus, and hastened upwards, and came forth purified. And it becomes most refined, so that it could, as the first (Sonship), hasten upwards through its own instrumentality. For it possesses all the power that, according to nature, is firmly connected with the light which from above shone down (upon earth).<br/><i>— The Refutation of All Heresies - Book 7</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: Wherefore also the elders who were disciples of the apostles tell us that those who were translated were transferred to that place (for paradise has been prepared for righteous men, such as have the Spirit; in which place also Paul the apostle, when he was caught up, heard words which are unspeakable as regards us in our present condition), and that there shall they who have been translated remain until the consummation [of all things], as a prelude to immortality.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book V</i></p><p><b>Isaac of Nineveh</b>: All that is heard by the ears can be spoken. He did not hear audible sounds, nor did he see a vision composed of the corporeal images of sense perception, but it was by the intuitions of the understanding, being in rapture, while his will had no fellowship with the body.<br/><i>— ASCETICAL HOMILIES 4</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: But wherefore was he also caught up? As I think, that he might not seem to be inferior to the rest of the Apostles. For since they had companied with Christ, but Paul had not: He therefore caught up unto glory him also. \"Into Paradise.\" For great was the name of this place, and it was everywhere celebrated. Wherefore also Christ said, \"To-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.\"<br/><i>— Homily 26 on 2 Corinthians</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: So much for those who write false revelations!<br/><i>— PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: This means that they cannot be expressed in a human language.<br/><i>— ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.7.4</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Never mind those who pass sentence on apostles! It is a happy fact that Peter is on the same level with Paul in the very glory of martyrdom. Now, although Paul was carried away even to the third heaven, and was caught up to paradise, and heard certain revelations there, yet these cannot possibly seem to have qualified him for (teaching) another doctrine, seeing that their very nature was such as to render them communicable to no human being.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Why should I add more touching these two planks (as it were) of human salvation, caring more for the business of the pen than the duty of my conscience? For, sinner as I am of every dye, and born for nothing save repentance, I cannot easily be silent about that concerning which also the very head and fount of the human race, and of human offence, Adam, restored by exomologesis to his own paradise, is not silent.<br/><i>— On Repentance</i></p><p><b>Theodore of Mopsuestia</b>: He saw the beautiful appearance of paradise, the dances of the saints in it and the harmonious sound of its hymnody.<br/><i>— PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: Some argue that here Paul is referring to things which he actually saw, like the beauty of paradise and the choirs of the saints which are to be found there.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 348</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"f6528350e952a87753adda3068bd83a4a1e7feb347cc768669d2ce826f812c7d","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1824,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"b5267788e62165300847c12fa90cfe7c22b1be91b7482ead3ac20e992d36c537","translator":null,"work":null}