What Does 2 Corinthians 12:3 Mean in the King James?
And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
“knew / cannot tell / knoweth” 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 secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.THE THREAD
But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither 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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