Chapter Three

The Apostle Paul’s closeness to the Corinthians (1–5). The greatness of the New Testament, Apostolic ministry in comparison with the Old Testament, Mosaic ministry — in terms of its results compared with the results of the Old Testament ministry (6–18).

2 Cor 3:1-5. The Apostle Paul’s opponents reproached him for drawing attention to his own person, for recommending himself. In response to this the Apostle speaks ironically, saying that it seems he has no need of any recommendation: the Corinthian church, founded by him, is the best recommendation for him. — He does not, however, wish to boast of his successes, knowing well that these successes are the result of God’s help to him, Paul.

2 Corinthians 3:1. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? “Us,” that is, me and Timothy. — “As some do.” Here the Apostle probably has in mind his opponents — the Judaizers, who could find letters of recommendation from the representatives of the Jerusalem church and receive such letters from the Corinthians as well.

2 Corinthians 3:2. You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all people; “You are our letter.” Your conversion to Christ and your Christian life are sufficient recommendation for us (cf. 1 Cor 9:2). — “Written on our hearts,” that is, we have the inner confidence that you and other Christians know us well. — “Known and read by all people.” Here is indicated another property of the letter about which the Apostle speaks. This is namely its accessibility to all. All churches can see what the Corinthians owe to Paul and Timothy — their good life testifies to this.

2 Corinthians 3:3. you show that you are a letter of Christ, delivered through our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. “A letter of Christ,” that is, a letter composed by Christ. Here the Corinthian Church is called a letter in general, and not a letter of recommendation as above, that is, a creation of Christ. The Apostle Paul and Timothy are only instruments in the hands of Christ, like scribes writing at dictation. The ink — the instrument of writing — is replaced by the Holy Spirit. The material on which the letter is written — the living hearts of the Corinthians. The Apostle mentions “tablets of stone” instead of parchment because the memory of the tablets of the law was present to his mind. — “Fleshly” is the word used for the “tablets of the heart” in order to indicate the living receptiveness of the readers of the epistle to the preaching of the Gospel.

2 Corinthians 3:4. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God, 2 Corinthians 3:5. not that we are adequate in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. “Such confidence,” that is, such conviction as the Apostle expressed in verses 2 and 3. — “We have toward God” — more accurately: with regard to God. The Apostle has such confidence because he stands in close communion with God, in whom he places all his support. — “Through Christ.” The Apostle received all his merits through Christ. Likewise he bases his confidence in the benefit of his work on the fact that this confidence arose in him under the influence of Christ. — “To claim anything.” The Apostle received even the ability to form a judgment about himself and his efforts from God. — “Adequacy,” that is, the ability to reflect on himself and his work, the ability to reason rightly about it. 2 Cor 3:6-18. The Apostle first states the main thought of his reasoning: the Old Covenant is the ministry of the deadly letter, the new — the ministry of the life-giving spirit. Developing this thought, he says: there was greatness in the ministry of the Old Covenant as well, but what does this greatness signify in comparison with the greatness of the New Testament ministry? After all, the New Testament ministry is not passing away and leads not to condemnation, as the Old Testament does, but to glorification. In view of this the Apostle rejoices and, in contrast to the people of the Old Covenant who could not look directly at the majesty of God, gazes with unveiled face upon the glory of the Lord and is ever more enlightened by this glory. And this the Apostle says not only of himself but of all true Christians.

2 Corinthians 3:6. He has made us adequate to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. “Of the new covenant.” In the new covenant the condition for receiving salvation is not the fulfillment of the Mosaic law but faith in the Redeemer (1 Cor 11:25; Rom 10:5 and following). — “Not of the letter but of the Spirit.” The Old Covenant is called the letter (γράμμα) because it is represented as existing in written records and moreover does not have in itself a life-giving principle. The New Covenant is called the Spirit (πνεύμα) because in it the active principle is the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. The preachers of the Gospel are guided not by the letter but by the Spirit. Although the law in its essence is also spiritual (Rom 7:14) and its words are “living” (Acts 7:38), the power of sin has paralyzed this power of the law. — “The letter kills.” Here the Apostle points to the reason why God did not make him a minister of the letter. The killing produced by the letter of the law should be understood in the sense in which the Apostle speaks of the law in chapter VII of the Epistle to the Romans (Rom 7:5-7 and following; cf. 1 Cor 15:56). Through the commandment of the law the power of sin, hitherto dormant in a person, was awakened to life and produced in the person every kind of desire, which brought the person to spiritual death, that is, to separation from God.

2 Corinthians 3:7. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’s face because of its glory — a glory that was being set aside — 2 Corinthians 3:8. will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? “The ministry of death, carved in letters on stone” — more accurately: “the ministry of death (the ministry that promotes the expansion of death’s dominion), carved in letters on stones.” The Apostle has in mind here the Decalogue, which owed its origin to the ministry of Moses (Exod 34:28). The Apostle adds that the Decalogue was inscribed in letters, thereby underscoring even more sharply its non-spiritual character. — “Could not gaze.” In the book of Exodus (Exod 34:30) it is said only that the Israelites “were afraid to come near” Moses. The Apostle evidently develops his interpretation on the basis of Jewish tradition. — “That was being set aside.” The Apostle adds this expression in order to draw attention to the superiority of the glory of the New Testament ministry, as he does directly below (see verse 11). — “The ministry of the Spirit,” that is, the ministry of the preachers of the Gospel, dedicated to the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:9. For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness far exceeds it in glory. “The ministry of condemnation,” that is, leading to condemnation (cf. Rom 7:9 and following; Gal 3:10). — “The ministry of righteousness,” that is, leading to justification (cf. Rom 1:17 and following).

2 Corinthians 3:10. Indeed, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all in this respect, because of the glory that surpasses it. “What once had glory,” that is, “for in this respect — namely, in regard to the greatness of Moses’s ministry in comparison with the one mentioned (cf. verse 9) — one can say that what was glorified has not been glorified.”

2 Corinthians 3:11. For if what was being set aside came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. “What was being set aside” — namely, the ministry of Moses. Moses ceased to be the lawgiver (Rom 10:4). — “What is permanent,” that is — the ministry of the preachers of the Gospel, which ministry will continue until the end of the world (Matt 24:14).

2 Corinthians 3:12. Since we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, 2 Corinthians 3:13. and not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the end of what was being set aside. “Having such a hope.” The Apostle expresses here his confidence that the greatness of his ministry will not be destroyed. — “We act” — of course, in relation to those with whom the Christian teacher is dealing. — “And not like Moses.” We conceal nothing and do not resemble Moses, who concealed from the Israelites the radiance of his face (see Exod 34:33-35). The Apostle, however, does not belittle Moses by this comparison, but only points here to his pedagogical wisdom, which prompted him to take measures to conceal from the Jews the radiance of his face. — “At the end of what was being set aside,” that is, so that they would not come to the conviction that the law and its ministry must have an end. This would naturally cause them to treat the demands of the law with contempt. And they could have surmised that the law was destined in time to lose its binding force had they noticed the fading of the radiance on Moses’s face. — Thus the Apostle here supplements — certainly on the basis of the tradition of the Jewish Church — the explanation of the motives that guided Moses when he covered his face. Similar interpretations are found in the Apostle in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 10:1 and following) and in the Epistle to the Galatians (Gal 4:21 and following).

2 Corinthians 3:14. But their minds were hardened; for to this day the same veil remains unlifted at the reading of the Old Covenant, because it is removed only in Christ. From here to the end of the chapter the subject is the consequences that the fact of Moses’s covering his face with a veil had for the Israelites. — “But their minds were hardened” — more accurately: “but their thoughts (νοήματα) were hardened (ἐπωρώθη, or as Theophylact reads, ἐπωρώθησαν).” — “For the same veil.” Here is the proof of the fact of “hardening” just stated. By the veil here is meant the inability to be convinced that the ministry of Moses must come to an end. — “At the reading” — more precisely: “upon the reading.” The Apostle represents the matter thus: when on the Sabbath in the Jewish synagogue (Acts 15:21) the reading of the Old Covenant takes place, this act occurs as it were under a covering that prevents the Jews from peering into the New Covenant. — “It is removed in Christ,” that is, only in Christ do people understand the transitory significance of the Mosaic ministry.

2 Corinthians 3:15. But to this day, when they read Moses, a veil lies over their hearts; “Over their hearts.” The heart here denotes the center of the soul’s life (cf. 2 Cor 4:6; Rom 1:21).

2 Corinthians 3:16. but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. “Turn to the Lord,” that is, become believers in Christ. The Apostle has in mind here the account in the book of Exodus that when Moses appeared before God, he removed the veil from his face (Exod 34:34 and following). Likewise the veil will be removed from the hearts of those Jews who turn, who come to Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:17. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Here is the conclusion to the thought expressed in verse 16. Here properly is a syllogism of the following kind: Proposition: “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Minor premise: but this Spirit belongs only to the one who has turned to the Lord, because “the Lord is the Spirit.” Conclusion: consequently, in the one who has turned there cannot be the mentioned veil, but only freedom. — “The Lord” (ὁ κύριος) — this is the subject (the structure of the text requires this identification). By the Lord here is meant Christ: to enter into communion with Christ is the same as to enter into communion with the Holy Spirit. Already in the Epistle to the Romans the Apostle said that the Holy Spirit belongs to Christ and through him Christ comes to believers (Rom 8:9-11). Why, however, does the Apostle here draw attention to the absolute spirituality of Christ? One must suppose that he wished by this to show that Christ and Christianity are not bound by the letter and have no obligations before the Mosaic law. — “There is freedom,” that is, freedom to think, feel, and act. The Spirit of the Lord, as the sole master in the soul of the converted person, destroys all veils, all barriers belonging to an alien power.

2 Corinthians 3:18. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit. “And we all,” that is, Christians. The Apostle now speaks of the persons upon whom freedom displays its power. — “With unveiled face.” The Apostle changes the image. He speaks here not of those who are listening (as in verse 15) but of those who are looking, which is why he replaces the word “heart” (in verse 15) with the word “face.” For looking, one must have one’s eyes open. — “As in a mirror.” The Christian can see the full glory of Christ only in the future life (John 17:24; 1 John 3:2; Col 3:4), while here he sees only its reflection in the Gospel (the Gospel of the glory of Christ — see 2 Cor 4:4). — “The glory of the Lord,” that is, we behold Christ as the Head of the Church, our Intercessor in heaven, the Victor over all his enemies, and so on. — “Are being transformed into the same image,” that is, we are so changed that we come to resemble the glorified Christ even here on earth. — “From glory to glory,” that is, from one level of greatness we pass to another (cf. Rom 1:17; Ps 83:8). — “As from the Lord who is the Spirit” — more accurately: “from the Lord who is the Spirit” (cf. verse 17). Our transformation proceeds to the extent that the Lord — the Spirit (πνεύματος — genitive of quality) — sends us strength.