While reading 2 Corinthians 12:1-5, one could possibly conclude that Paul is making a conceptual distinction between himself and the anonymous man, who beheld visions, whether in or out of the body. For he writes:
ὑπὲρ τοῦ τοιούτου καυχήσομαι, ὑπὲρ δὲ ἐμαυτοῦ οὐ καυχήσομαι εἰ μὴ ἐν ταῖς ἀσθενείαις (2 Cor. 12:5).
If the man who saw the visions is to be strictly identified with Paul in a conceptual sense, then how could he boast regarding the man without boasting about himself? If Paul is identical with the man who experienced the visions, then to speak about Paul and to speak about the man are one and the same thing.
The apostle indicates that he truly is the man (in an ontological sense) mentioned at 2 Cor. 12:2-4 by what he states in v. 7. Furthermore, it would make sense that it is Paul in view of his reason for telling this experience, to wit, the "superfine apostles" were challenging his apostolic office. Being ushered to the third heaven stamped Paul as a genuine apostle of Jesus Christ. It was therefore no surprise that he produced the signs of an apostle among the Corinthians "by all endurance, and by signs and portents and powerful works" (2 Cor. 12:12).
By using the terminology "third heaven," Paul seems to be effectively saying, "You can't top that, superfine apostles!" since the third heaven is also the locus dei et gloriae: one cannot be exalted any higher than the third heaven.
Finally, it's possible that Paul was being humble as well as employing a literary device when he prima facie created a disjunct between himself and a certain man in union with Christ. Then again, the excess of revelations did not technically happen to Paul, but to a man whom God allowed to be blessed with visionary insight; in other words, Paul the apostle was evidently placed in a trance so that the anonymous "man" of whom he spoke could behold things of which it is not lawful to utter. One could thus say the apostle was potentially "ecstatic," from the Greek εκστατικός, ἔκστασις.
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