Fourteen Years: The Symbolism of Spiritual Gestation in Paul's Vision

Interpreting 2 Corinthians 12 through Neville Goddard’s Framework

"I have knowledge of a man in Christ, fourteen years ago... whether in the body, I do not know; or out of the body, I do not know; God knows."
(2 Corinthians 12:2, BBE)

In Neville Goddard’s teachings, the Bible is not a historical record but a psychological drama—a symbolic map of the soul's awakening. When Paul refers to an experience from "fourteen years ago," it is not about linear time, but a mystical period of inner transformation.

The Law of Assumption and Inner Development

Neville taught that consciousness is the only reality. The law of assumption—imagining oneself to be what one desires to be, and then living in that state—is the process through which all things are made.

"Fourteen years" in this context represents the gestation period of a spiritual assumption, the time it takes for a deep inner conviction to ripen into full awareness. The "man in Christ" is not someone else—it is the part of Paul (and of all of us) that has awakened to the divine I AM within.

The Hebrew Symbolism of Fourteen

In Hebrew numerology (gematria), 14 is made up of:

• Yod (י) = 10, meaning hand, seed, or the point of creation—symbolising awareness.

• Dalet (ד) = 4, meaning door—the entry into a new state.

Together, Yod + Dalet = 14, the journey of awareness (seed) through the door of belief into manifestation. Neville would interpret this as the movement from imaginal act to embodied experience.

This mirrors his teaching: that consciousness (Yod), when persisted in, enters a new state (Dalet) and produces reality.

Biblical Pattern of 14

This number also appears elsewhere in the Bible as a marker of completion and transition:

• The Passover, symbolising liberation and identity shift, occurs on the 14th day.

• In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ lineage is structured into three sets of 14 generations, representing the divine unfolding of the I AM through human states.

So when Paul references "fourteen years ago," Neville would have us read it as:

A completed inner journey—from assumption to revelation, from imagining to knowing, from identity to union.

God Knows: The Witness Within

Paul repeats “God knows” twice—signalling the inner witness, the God-self, who alone knows the truth of one’s assumptions. It’s not about whether the experience was “in the body or out”—what matters is that it was real in consciousness, and what is real in imagination is causative.

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Summary:
"Fourteen years" is not about time—it is about transformation. It marks the sacred span in which a person’s assumption of their divine nature becomes fixed, fulfilled, and revealed. It is the journey from seed to sight, from I AM to “caught up to the third heaven.”