What Does 2 Corinthians 12:3 Mean?
And I knew such a man. Whether in the body or outside it, I do not know; God knows.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)THE KEY
One Greek verb appears three times: the man is known, the mode remains unknown, and God knows.
THE MEANING
You can recognize that something has happened while remaining unable to name how it happened. Uncertainty about whether an experience is within or beyond the body does not erase what you know. What remains unclear to you is still within God’s knowing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that an experience is unreal unless you can explain its mechanics.
THE ROOT
οἶδα
oida
GROWS FROM
εἰδ-
eid-
See or perceive; in this verb, know.
“I knew” in this verse is oida. The Greek repeats the same verb for what the speaker knows, what he cannot tell, and what God knows. Its seeing-and-knowing word family makes the boundary clear: the speaker cannot perceive the experience’s mode, while God’s knowing holds what remains hidden.
ALSO GROWS
eidos: Form or appearance
εἶδος
This branch brings form into view: the experience is known even though its bodily mode remains uncertain.
eidōlon: Image or likeness
εἴδωλον
This related word names an image or representation, echoing the passage’s distinction between knowing an experience and being able to perceive exactly how it took place.
THE PATTERN
Human perception has limits, while what remains hidden is still known to God.
The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the uncovered things belong to us and to our children for the ages, that we may do all the words of this instruction.But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.For now we see through a mirror, in a riddle; but then face to face. Now I know in pieces; but then I shall know wholly, even as I was known.THE THREAD
But of that day and that hour no one knows, not even the messengers in the heavens, nor the Son, but the Father.Mark uses the same Greek verb οἶδα (oida, “know”) that repeats here. Both passages name a limit to what can be known from one perspective and place what remains beyond it in God’s knowing.
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