Are there 7 Heavens?

INTRODUCTION
The English Idiom '7th heaven' conveys the idea of extreme happiness. But what are the origins of the idiom and, more importantly, are there actually 7 different layers of heaven? I certainly am not a qualified historian, but here is my best interpretation of the evidence I have found on the subject.

HEAVENS PLURAL
In the opening verse of Scripture, God is said to have created the 'heavens and the earth'. The Hebrew term for 'heavens' is the plural 'Shamayim'. From the standpoint of Genesis 1, the 'heavens' consists of the expanse between the waters above and the waters below. The sun, moon, stars, and birds were placed in this expanse. Later in Genesis, the builders of the Tower of Babel were trying to reach those 'heavens'. All cultures come from Babel. And it appears from history that many from that since scattered society took the concept of a plurality of heavens with them as they went.

MYSTICAL RELIGIONS
In the spirit of Babel, the later Assyrians continued to develop a map of the heavens. Though the number of heavens ranged from thinker to thinker, Ziggurats were usually built with 7 layers which represented the 7 planes of existence and corresponded to the 7 planets known at that time.

JEWISH USAGE
When the Jews were exiled to Babylon, they doubtless were made aware of Babylonian thoughts on the plurality of the heavens. These ideas fit well with their own word 'Shamayim' and so Judaism began to develop its own mapping of the heavens. 7, being the number of perfection, was the obvious choice for Jewish Rabbis. The Jews thoroughly devised purposes for each of these 7 layers. One layer closed off the light at night-time. Another stored rainwater. A third housed the planets. Higher heavens were more religious in nature, storing the souls of the righteous and unborn, angels, the heavenly city and eventually the throne of God itself.

NEW TESTAMENT USAGE
In New Testament times, Paul appears to have utilized some version of these ideas in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians. Chapter 12 verse 2 refers to a man (probably Paul himself) who 'was caught up to the third heaven'. Christian commentators are somewhat uniform in their interpretation of this. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown confidently declare, "The first heaven is that of the clouds, the air; the second, that of the stars, the sky; the third is spiritual." Matthew Henry tends to agree: "in some sense he was caught up into the third heaven, the heaven of the blessed, above the aerial heaven, in which the fowls fly, above the starry heaven, which is adorned with those glorious orbs: it was into the third heaven, where God most eminently manifests his glory."

ISLAMIC USAGE
The Jewish concept of 7 heavens found its way into Islam in the 7th century. Sura 41:12 states that God "completed seven heavens in two Days and He made in each heaven its affair." In the 1800's, the Muslim influence over British culture produced the idiom 'seventh heaven' as we know it today.

CONCLUSION
Thus, the term 'heaven' can refer to the sky (inhabited by birds), the universe (inhabited by the sun, moon & stars), and the dwelling place of God. Whether there are 7 unique 'layers' of what we call 'heaven' cannot be discerned from Scripture. Paul, in referring to the 'third heaven' was referring to 'paradise' (2 Corinthians 12:4). In my opinion, the concept of 3 heavens seems most reasonable (the 1st being the atmosphere, the 2nd being the universe, and the 3rd being God's dwelling place). But it would not surprise me if this 'third' heaven has various 'courts' like that of the former temple in earthly Jerusalem.