2 Corinthians 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul asks whether he needs letters of recommendation, and answers that the Corinthians themselves are his letter, written by the Spirit of the living God on human hearts. He then compares two kinds of service: the covenant carved on stone, which came with a glory that was fading, and the service of the Spirit, which he says has far greater and lasting glory. He speaks of a veil that remains over minds when the old covenant is read, a veil removed in Christ, and says those whose faces are uncovered are being changed into the Lord's image.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • Paul asks whether he and his companions are beginning again to commend themselves.
   • Paul asks whether they need letters of commendation to the Corinthians, as some people do.
   • Paul asks whether they need letters of commendation from the Corinthians.
   • Some people do use letters of commendation.
2. 3:2
   • The Corinthians themselves are Paul's letter.
   • That letter is written on the hearts of Paul and his companions.
   • That letter is known by all people.
   • That letter is read by all people.
3. 3:3
   • It is made evident that the Corinthians are a letter of Christ.
   • That letter was delivered by Paul and his companions.
   • That letter was not written with ink.
   • That letter was written with the Spirit of the living God.
   • That letter was not written on tablets of stone.
   • That letter was written on tablets that are hearts of flesh.
4. 3:4
   • Paul and his companions have such confidence toward God.
   • That confidence is held through Christ.
5. 3:5
   • Paul and his companions are not competent of themselves to count anything as coming from themselves.
   • Their competence comes from God.
6. 3:6
   • God made them competent as ministers of a new covenant.
   • That ministry is not of the letter.
   • That ministry is of the spirit.
   • The letter kills.
   • The spirit gives life.
7. 3:7
   • There was a ministry of death.
   • That ministry was engraved in letters on stones.
   • That ministry came into being with glory.
   • The sons of Israel could not gaze steadily at the face of Moses.
   • They could not gaze because of the glory of his face.
   • That glory of his face was being brought to an end.
8. 3:8
   • The ministry of the spirit will be attended with glory even more than the ministry of death was.
   • This is put as a question expecting agreement.
9. 3:9
   • The ministry of condemnation had glory.
   • The ministry of righteousness abounds in glory much more.
10. 3:10
    • What has been glorified has in this respect not been glorified at all.
    • The reason is the surpassing glory.
11. 3:11
    • That which is being brought to an end came through glory.
    • That which remains is attended with glory much more.
12. 3:12
    • Paul and his companions have such a hope.
    • Because of that hope they use great boldness of speech.
13. 3:13
    • Paul and his companions do not act as Moses did.
    • Moses put a veil over his face.
    • The purpose was that the sons of Israel would not gaze at the end of that which was being brought to an end.
14. 3:14
    • The minds of the Israelites were hardened.
    • Until the present day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant.
    • That veil is not lifted.
    • It is abolished in Christ.
    • It is left unstated whether what is abolished in Christ is the veil or the old covenant.
15. 3:15
    • Even to the present day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart.
16. 3:16
    • Whenever a turning to the Lord occurs, the veil is taken away.
    • The subject that turns to the Lord is left unstated.
17. 3:17
    • The Lord is the Spirit.
    • Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18. 3:18
    • All of them have an unveiled face.
    • With unveiled face they behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror.
    • Whether the beholding is looking into a mirror or reflecting like a mirror is left unstated.
    • They are being transformed into the same image.
    • The transformation goes from glory to glory.
    • The transformation comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
    • Whether the source is the Lord who is Spirit or the Spirit of the Lord is left unstated.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

3:1

Letters of recommendation were a standard feature of ancient travel and business. A traveler carried a letter from someone the host already knew, vouching for him so that strangers would house him, fund him, or let him teach. Teachers who had arrived at Corinth after Paul seem to have carried such letters, and Paul, who founded the congregation himself, had none. "Commend ourselves" means to present our own credentials rather than have someone else vouch for us.

3:2

In 1611 "read of all men" meant read BY everyone, not read about them. The sense is that the Corinthians themselves are a public document anyone can inspect.

3:3

"Tables of stone" are the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written and given to Moses at Sinai (Exodus 31:18; 34:1). "Tables" in 1611 English meant writing tablets, flat surfaces made to be written on, not furniture. "Fleshy" means made of flesh, that is, living human hearts; it carried none of the modern suggestion of fat. The picture behind the verse is Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26, where God promises to write his instruction inside people rather than on stone. "Ministered by us" pictures Paul as the one who delivered and served the letter, not its author.

3:4

"To God-ward" is 1611 English for "toward God." The KJV builds several such compounds ("to us-ward," "to you-ward") where modern English simply uses a preposition.

3:5

In 1611 English "sufficient" and "sufficiency" mean competent and competence, being up to a job. Paul is not talking about having enough of something.

3:6

"Testament" in 1611 meant covenant, a formal binding agreement between two parties, as well as a will; the King James translators used the same word for both. Paul is referring to the new covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34. "The letter" means the written text of the law taken as bare written code, letter by letter. "Ministers" translates a word for a servant or an agent who carries out a task on someone's behalf, not a title of office.

3:7

The background is Exodus 34:29-35. After Moses came down from Sinai carrying the stone tablets, his face shone from having been in God's presence, and the Israelites were afraid to come near him. "Ministration" is the work of administering or serving something, from the same root as "ministers" in verse 6; Paul is comparing two jobs of delivery, not two documents. "Stedfastly behold" means to fix the eyes on something and keep looking. The KJV's "which glory was to be done away" and the modern "fading" translate one Greek participle that can mean either being brought to an end or being made ineffective; the tense leaves open whether the fading was already happening or was simply destined to come.

3:9

"Condemnation" is a courtroom word: the verdict that declares a defendant guilty. Its opposite here, "righteousness," carries the matching legal sense of being declared in the right.

3:11

"Done away" in 1611 English covers fading out or being set aside at the end of its term. It does not carry the sense of being destroyed or discredited.

3:12

"Plainness of speech" translates a Greek word, parrhesia, that means outspokenness or freedom to say everything, the frankness of someone with nothing to hide and nothing to fear. It does not mean simple or unadorned language, which is what "plainness" suggests today.

3:13

In Exodus 34:33-35 Moses veiled his face after speaking to the people and removed the veil when he went back in to speak with God. Exodus does not say why. Paul supplies a reason, and the Greek behind "the end of that which is abolished" is genuinely open: the word rendered "end" can mean the termination of something, or its outcome, or the goal it was aiming at. So the phrase can mean the Israelites were kept from seeing that the glory was stopping, or from seeing what it was finally pointing toward.

3:14

"Blinded" translates a word meaning hardened or dulled, as a callus thickens over skin; the image is of a mind that has become unresponsive rather than one deprived of sight. "The old testament" again means the old covenant, and here specifically the writings of that covenant as they were read aloud in the synagogue. "Vail" is simply the 1611 spelling of veil.

3:15

"When Moses is read" refers to the public reading of the five books of Moses, the Law, which was a fixed part of synagogue worship each Sabbath. "Moses" stands for the books by long custom, the way one might say reading Shakespeare.

3:16

The wording echoes Exodus 34:34, where Moses turned to the LORD and took the veil off. The Greek has no stated subject for "shall turn," so who does the turning is left open: Moses in the Exodus scene, a person generally, or the heart named in the previous verse. Translations differ on which to supply.

3:18

"Glass" in 1611 English meant a mirror. Ancient mirrors were disks of polished bronze or silver, and the image they returned was real but dimmer and less exact than a modern glass mirror. The Greek verb behind "beholding as in a glass" is disputed and can mean either looking at something in a mirror or reflecting it as a mirror does, which is why translations divide between "behold" and "reflect." "Open face" means an uncovered face, the opposite of Moses' veiled one. "From glory to glory" is a Greek idiom for movement from one stage to a further one, as in "from strength to strength."