Beyond Paul’s story and stories of legendary Old Testament figures like Enoch and Isaiah, round-trip journeys into the heavens by living humans are nearly non-existent in second temple Judaism and early Christianity."I know a man in Christ 14 years ago having been caught up into the third heaven, whether in the body I know not or out of the body I know not, God knows … he was caught up into paradise and heard unutterable words it is not permitted to man to speak." (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
The author of the NT Apocalypse of John could be on the sparse list (Revelations chapter 4). Many might reasonably see his bizarre hallucinations as merely literary constructs, as allegories.
A review of the Jewish tradition of mystical journeys into the heavens is revealing. As far as I am aware, outside of Paul's tale, the only mention of such journeys by men from the first-century CE is found in a rare look into first-century esoteric Jewish mysticism in Yohanan ben Zakkai tradition as reported by later rabbinic sources. (Jerusalem Talmud, Hagigah 2:1).
The heavenly journey was symbolized by Ezekiel's heavenly chariot (Merkavah tradition). Yohanan is credited as saying to a student,
And Yohanan is said to have reported these words from a dream,"Have I not taught you thus, nor may the work of the chariot be taught in the presence of one, unless he is a sage and understands of [by] his own knowledge?"
Neither Yohanan nor his associates are described as having reached the third heaven --- the only claim made is that certain advanced sages were "designated" for such an attempt, or designated for such after death."You and your disciples, and your disciples' disciples, are designated for the third layer (of heaven)."
The next surviving Jewish tradition of heavenly journeys comes from rabbinic sources from around the third-century CE and later. Four learned rabbis, supposedly active around the early-mid-second century CE, are said to have entered into the "garden" --- accepted by many scholars as meaning paradise, the heavens. However, some scholars see the story as only a parable, and not meant to portray actual heavenly experiences. Perhaps it was a cautionary tale to tamp down excessive mysticism, practices beyond organizational norms and control. In the story, only one of the four returned from the experience with his life, his sanity, or his faith intact.
Paul never claimed to be an advanced Jewish sage, rather his claims were quite modest. Virtually any well-educated young Jew would have been advanced in Jewish thought compared to most other Jews of his own age. (Galatians 1:14).
I don't believe Paul was desperate enough to risk claiming a heavenly journey for himself. Perhaps some in his Greek congregation may have accepted the idea, but Corinth was a large and cosmopolitan city. Paul would have known that at least some in his sophisticated congregation would have well-educated Jewish friends, neighbors or business associates. If any of his congregation had told a Jewish acquaintance of such an experience by Paul, it most likely would have been met with ridicule and extreme skepticism.
So instead, Paul only claimed that he knew a man who made a journey to the third heaven. I think Paul's dishonesty was his claim that he even knew such a man --- I don't believe he did.
Regardless, Paul's claim ---- even claiming to know such a man --- underscores his desperation and the threat to his authority from the competing Jewish evangelists at Corinth --- the so-called “super apostles”. The story allowed Paul to imply that he might have been told the heavenly secrets gained by such a journey, without the need for him to further reveal such knowledge "which it is not permitted to a man to speak."
Sure, the crafty Paul followed his passage on the third heaven with some weasel-words --- allowing that some in the congregation might assume Paul was really the one who had taken the journey. (2 Cor. 12:5-10). He certainly managed to fool many a reader over a couple millennia.
I believe Paul's story of the third heaven is best seen as a literary creation by Paul to boost his spiritual authority in competition with the "super apostles" --- a literary effort to maintain his authority with the congregation at Corinth.
Professor James Tabor, who wrote his PhD thesis on "Paul's Ascent to Paradise", provides in his "TaborBlog" an interesting review on the motif of heavenly journeys in antiquity.
http://jamestabor.com/2013/01/02/if-i-a ... -paradise/
On heavenly ascents for the purpose of receiving revelation, Tabor writes,
And Tabor concludes his essay with this,"The fair number of Jewish (and Jewish-Christian) texts which make use of ascent to heaven as a means of legitimating rival claims of revelation and authority is likely due to the polemics and party politics that characterized the Second Temple period. It became a characteristic way, in the Hellenistic period, of claiming “archaic” authority of the highest order, equal to a Enoch or Moses, for ones vision of things."
robert J."It is noteworthy that Paul's testimony in 2 Cor 12:2-4 remains our only firsthand autobiographical account of such an experience from the Second Temple period."