2 Corinthians 3

Are we starting to recommend ourselves again? Or do we need letters of recommendation to you, or from you, the way some people do?

1Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?

NoteLetters 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.

2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.

2Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

NoteIn 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.

3It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, produced by our work. You were written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and not on stone tablets but on tablets that are human hearts.

3Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Note"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.

4That is the kind of confidence we have before God, and it comes through Christ.

4And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

Note"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.

5We are not able on our own to claim that anything comes from us. Whatever ability we have comes from God.

5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

6He is the one who made us able to serve a new covenant. It is not a covenant of the written letter but of the Spirit, because the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

6Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Note"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.

7The work of serving that brought death was carved in letters on stone. Even that came with such glory that the people of Israel could not keep looking at Moses' face, because of the glory shining from it, a glory that was fading.

7But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

NoteThe 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.

8If that was true, will the work of serving the Spirit not have even more glory?

8How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

9If the work that brought a guilty verdict had glory, then the work that brings righteousness has far more glory.

9For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

Note"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.

10In fact, what once had glory has no glory now when you set it beside this greater glory.

10For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

11If what was fading away came with glory, then what lasts has much more glory.

11For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

12So, since we have a hope like this, we speak very openly and boldly.

12Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:

Note"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.

13We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not keep looking at the end of what was fading away.

13And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:

NoteIn 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.

14But their minds were closed. To this day the same veil stays in place when the old covenant is read. It has not been lifted, because it is removed only in Christ.

14But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

Note"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.

15Even today, whenever the books of Moses are read aloud, a veil lies over their hearts.

15But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

Note"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.

16But when a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

16Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.

NoteThe 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.

17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

17Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

18And all of us, with faces uncovered, look at the glory of the Lord as in a mirror. We are being changed into that same image, going from one degree of glory to the next. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

18But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.

Note"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."