2 Corinthians — Chapter 3

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul writes from Macedonia in about AD 55–56. At 2:14 he broke off the story of waiting for Titus to reflect on what gospel ministry is, and that reflection runs to 7:4. Chapter 2 ended with a question: "Who is sufficient for these things?" Chapter 3 answers it. In the background are rival teachers who had arrived in Corinth with letters of recommendation and impressive credentials. They were Jewish (11:22) and seem to have made much of Moses and the law. So Paul sets the two covenants side by side, the covenant given through Moses at Sinai and the new covenant promised by the prophets. He builds the comparison around one scene: Moses coming down the mountain with his face shining, and the veil he put over it (Exod 34:29–35). The ESV keeps the whole chapter under one heading.

Ministers of the New Covenant (vv1–18)

• "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again?" (v1). Paul has just spoken boldly about his ministry (2:14–17). He knows his critics will say, "There he goes, praising himself again."
• "Letters of recommendation" (v1). Traveling teachers carried letters from churches that knew them, so strangers could trust them. Apollos came to Corinth with one (Acts 18:27), and Paul wrote them for others (Rom 16:1–2; 2 Cor 8:16–24). The practice was fine. The problem was rivals who leaned on such letters while running Paul down, and Corinthians who wanted to see Paul's paperwork.
• "You yourselves are our letter of recommendation" (v2). Paul founded this church. Their changed lives are his credential, "known and read by all." "Written on our hearts": Paul carries them with him. A few manuscripts read "your hearts," and the ESV notes this, but "our" has stronger support.
• "A letter from Christ delivered by us" (v3). Paul shifts the picture. Christ is the author, the church is the letter, and Paul is only the one who carried it. "Delivered" is literally "ministered," the first of the diakonia (ministry, service) words that run through the chapter.
• "Not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (v3). The tablets of stone are the Ten Commandments, written "with the finger of God" (Exod 31:18). God promised through Jeremiah that the new covenant would be written "on their hearts" (Jer 31:33). Ezekiel promised to remove the "heart of stone" and give "a heart of flesh" (Ezek 11:19; 36:26). The ESV footnote says the Greek is literally "fleshly hearts," meaning hearts made of living flesh, not "fleshly" in the bad sense of sinful nature.
• "Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God" (v4). Paul's confidence is not in himself but in what God has done through him.
• "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves… but our sufficiency is from God" (v5). This answers 2:16. "Sufficient" (hikanos) means adequate, qualified, up to the task. Many scholars hear an echo of Moses at the burning bush, where the Greek Old Testament has him say he is not hikanos, not able to speak (Exod 4:10). Paul is no more adequate than Moses was. God makes him adequate.
• "Ministers of a new covenant" (v6). The "new covenant" was promised in Jeremiah 31:31–34. Jesus took the phrase at the Last Supper: "This cup… is the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25). Paul's rivals pointed to Moses. Paul says he serves the covenant Moses' covenant was pointing toward.
• "Not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (v6). This verse is often misused. It does not set the plain meaning of Scripture against a deeper spiritual meaning, or rules against feelings. "Letter" (gramma) means the law as an outward written code (Rom 2:29; 7:6). The law is good and holy (Rom 7:12), but written on stone it can only tell people what is right and condemn them when they fail. It cannot change a heart. The Spirit writes God's will on the heart and gives the life the law never could (Rom 8:2–4). The Nicene Creed later calls the Holy Spirit "the Lord and giver of life," language drawn from passages like this one (v17).
• "The ministry of death, carved in letters on stone" (v7). A shocking phrase for the law of Sinai, but Paul means its effect on sinners: it pronounced the sentence of death on law-breakers (Rom 7:9–11). "Came with such glory": Paul does not deny the old covenant's glory. Sinai shook, and Moses' face shone.
• Moses' shining face (v7). After forty days with God, "the skin of his face shone" (Exod 34:29). The Hebrew verb (qaran) means to send out rays. It is related to the word for "horn," which is why the Latin Bible said Moses' face was "horned," and why Michelangelo's famous statue of Moses has horns.
• "Which was being brought to an end" (v7). Katargeō means made ineffective, set aside, brought to nothing (the same verb is used of death in 1 Cor 15:26). Many translations say "fading." Exodus itself does not say the glory faded. Paul reads the passing glory on Moses' face as a picture of the old covenant itself, glorious but temporary.
• Three comparisons (vv8–11). Paul argues from lesser to greater, a common Jewish form of argument: if this, how much more that. The ministry of death had glory, so the ministry of the Spirit has more (v8). The ministry of condemnation had glory, so the ministry of righteousness far more (v9). What was ending had glory, so what is permanent has much more (v11). "Glory" (doxa) appears more than a dozen times in the chapter.
• "What once had glory has come to have no glory at all" (v10). Not that the law was never glorious, but its glory is outshone, the way the moon and stars vanish when the sun comes up.
• "Since we have such a hope, we are very bold" (v12). "Bold" (parrēsia) is openness, especially plain and fearless speech. Paul hides nothing. That leads straight into the contrast with Moses.
• "Not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face" (v13). In Exodus, Moses spoke to the people with his face uncovered, then veiled it afterward. He took the veil off whenever he went in to speak with the Lord (Exod 34:33–35). Exodus gives no reason for the veil, though the people's fear is mentioned (34:30). Paul gives one: "so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end." "Outcome" (telos) can mean the end, when the glory ran out, or the goal, what it was all pointing to. Some take it both ways: Israel did not see that the old covenant was temporary, or what it led to (Rom 10:4: "Christ is the end of the law"). This is Paul's inspired reading of the scene, not a detail stated in Exodus. Paul is not calling Moses dishonest. He is reading the veil as a sign.
• "But their minds were hardened" (v14). The verb (pōroō) means to turn to stone or grow a callus. The problem was not Moses' veil but Israel's heart (Rom 11:7–8; Mark 6:52). "To this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted." This is the earliest surviving use of "old covenant" for the Scriptures read in the synagogue. Paul says the veil has moved from Moses' face to the hearers' hearts (v15). He is speaking from experience. As a Pharisee he knew the law thoroughly and still did not see Christ in it until the Damascus road.
• "Only through Christ is it taken away" (v14). The same verb, katargeō. In Christ the veil is set aside.
• "But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed" (v16). Paul echoes Exodus 34:34, where Moses removed the veil whenever he went in before the LORD. The ESV footnote notes the Greek is simply "he turns." What Moses did, anyone may now do. Turning to the Lord in faith is what removes the veil, for Jew or Gentile alike. Paul still hopes for that turning among his own people (Rom 11:23–26).
• "Now the Lord is the Spirit" (v17). A short, much-debated sentence. The main readings: (1) Paul is explaining the Exodus verse he just quoted: "the Lord" Moses turned to stands for the Spirit, whom believers now turn to, much as he says "the Rock was Christ" (1 Cor 10:4). (2) Paul is affirming that the Spirit is the Lord, fully God, which matches the Creed's "the Lord and giver of life." (3) Some older commentators take "the Lord" as Christ, who is met through the Spirit. Paul is not merging Christ and the Spirit into one person. In the next breath he speaks of "the Spirit of the Lord," keeping them distinct. The ESV offers "this Lord is the Spirit" as an alternative.
• "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (v17). Paul doesn't say freedom from what. In context it is freedom from the veil, from the condemnation of the law, and from the fear that kept Israel back from the shining face, and so freedom to come near God and see. It is not permission for disorder, a mistake Corinth knew well (1 Cor 14:33).
• "And we all, with unveiled face" (v18). Not only Moses on the mountain, but every believer. What one man had in the Old Testament, the whole church now has.
• "Beholding the glory of the Lord" (v18). The verb (katoptrizomai, from the word for a mirror) appears only here in the New Testament. It can mean "seeing as in a mirror" or "reflecting like a mirror," and the ESV footnote gives "reflecting" as an alternative. Ancient mirrors were polished metal, and Corinth was famous for its bronze work. Both meanings fit Moses, who first saw God's glory and then reflected it. Paul said in his first letter that for now "we see in a mirror dimly" (1 Cor 13:12). Here even that dim seeing changes us.
• "Are being transformed into the same image" (v18). Metamorphoō is the word used of Jesus' transfiguration (Matt 17:2) and of believers being "transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom 12:2). It is present tense, an ongoing process, and passive: God does it. "The same image" is the image of Christ, who "is the image of God" (4:4; Rom 8:29).
• "From one degree of glory to another" (v18). Literally "from glory to glory," as the footnote says. Moses' glory faded and had to be covered. Believers' glory grows, step by step, until the day they bear the image of the man of heaven completely (1 Cor 15:49; 1 John 3:2). "For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit": from start to finish it is the Spirit's work.
• Commentators: JFB on v3: "Christ is the Writer and the Recommender, ye are the letter recommending us." On v6 it insists that "The letter is nothing without the spirit, in a subject essentially spiritual," and Guzik makes the same point from the other side: the Spirit does not replace Scripture but brings it to life, and experiences must be tested by the Word. Henry warns that even the New Testament becomes a killing letter if taught as a mere system without the Spirit's power. On the two covenants Henry writes, "The gospel so much exceeds the law in glory, that it eclipses the glory of the legal dispensation," and JFB pictures it "as the light of the stars and moon fades in the presence of the sun." On the veil the three differ. JFB says Israel could not look "for FEAR," following Exodus 34:30. Guzik reads Paul as saying the veil hid the fading of the glory. JFB adds a severe note on v14: "Because the Jews would not see, God judicially gave them up so as not to see." It also suggests a possible allusion to the prayer shawl (tallith) worn in the synagogue. Henry draws a lesson for preachers: "It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech." On v17 Guzik takes "the Lord is the Spirit" as a statement of the Spirit's deity, while JFB reads "the Lord" as Christ and links "the Spirit" back to v6. Guzik's practical point on v18 is that transformation comes from time spent beholding the Lord, not from guilt or sheer willpower. JFB calls it the image of Christ's glory "spiritually now," a preview of the bodily change to come.

Pointing to Christ

Moses saw a reflection of God's glory and had to cover it. In Christ the glory is not reflected secondhand but shown in full, "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (4:6). The veil comes off when anyone turns to him. The law written on stone could only condemn. The Spirit he sends writes God's will on living hearts, and day by day makes those who look to him look more like him.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik examines the living letter, the old/new covenant contrast, the veil metaphor, and the progressive transformation of v.18.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of 2 Corinthians -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

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Reflection

• A Living Letter Everyone Reads (vv.2-3) — Paul says the Corinthians' transformed lives, not paper credentials, are the proof of his ministry. If people read your life like a letter, what would they learn about Christ from it?
• Sufficiency That Isn't Your Own (v.5) — Paul insists he is not adequate in himself to claim anything as his own doing; his adequacy comes entirely from God. Where are you still trying to be sufficient on your own strength instead of leaning on His?
• The Letter Kills, the Spirit Gives Life (v.6) — Paul contrasts a ministry built on rule-keeping, which condemns, with a ministry of the Spirit, which brings life. Are there areas where you're relating to God more through obligation than through the Spirit's life?
• The Veil Removed by Turning to the Lord (v.16) — Paul says that whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil that blinds understanding is taken away. Is there a part of Scripture, or your own past, that still feels veiled to you?
• Transformed From Glory to Glory (v.18) — Paul describes believers being progressively changed into Christ's likeness as they behold His glory with unveiled faces. What are you spending your attention gazing at, and is it shaping you to look more like Him?