2 Corinthians 3
3
Living Letters
1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. # 3:2 1Co 9:2 3You show that you are Christ’s letter, # 3:3 Phm 13 delivered # 3:3 Lit ministered to by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God # 3:3 Dt 5:26 — not on tablets of stone # 3:3 Ex 24:12 but on tablets of human hearts. # 3:3 Lit fleshly hearts,# 3:3 Pr 3:3; 7:3; Jr 17:1; 31:33; Ezk 11:19; 36:26; Heb 8:10
Paul’s Competence
4Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. 5It is not that we are competent in # 3:5 Lit from ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. # 3:5 1Co 15:10 6He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, # 3:6 Lk 22:20; Heb 7:22 not of the letter, # 3:6 Rm 7:6 but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
New Covenant Ministry
7Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, # 3:7 Ex 34:29–35; Mk 10:37; Lk 9:32; Jn 17:24; 2Co 3:18; 2Pt 3:18 so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, 8how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory. 10In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. 11For if what was set aside # 3:11 Heb 2:14 was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.
12Since, then, we have such a hope, # 3:12 1Th 1:3 we act with great boldness. 13We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face # 3:13 Ex 34:33 to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end # 3:13 Or at the outcome of the glory of what was being set aside, 14but their minds were hardened. # 3:14 Mk 8:17; Heb 3:13 For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, # 3:14 Ac 13:15; 15:21; Heb 7:22 the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. # 3:14 Rm 16:7; 1Pt 5:14 15Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, 16but whenever a person turns # 3:16 1Pt 2:25 to the Lord, the veil is removed. # 3:16 Ex 34:34 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at # 3:18 Or are reflecting,# 3:18 1Co 13:12 the glory of the Lord # 3:18 Jn 17:24; 2Co 1:20; 4:4–6; 1Tm 1:11,17 and are being transformed # 3:18 Mk 9:2 into the same image # 3:18 Gn 1:27; 1Jn 3:2 from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit. # 3:18 Or from the Spirit of the Lord, or from the Lord, the Spirit
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
2 Corinthians 3
3
1Do we begin again to commend ourselves?#3:1 2C 5:12 Or surely we do not need, as some do, iggrot of haskama (letters of approval, commendation) to you or from you?#3:1 Ac 18:27; Ro 16:1 2You are our iggeret, written on our levavot, being known and being read by kol Bnei Adam.#3:2 1C 9:2 3And you show that you are an iggeret from Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, prepared by us, having been written not with ink but with the Ruach Hakodesh of the Elohim Chayim, not on luchot of stone#3:3 Ex 24:12; 31:18; 32:15,16; 34:1; Dt 9:10,11 but on luchot of lev basar.#3:3 Jer 31:33
4Such is the bitachon (confidence) that we have through Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach toward Hashem. 5Not that we are competent from ourselves to claim anything as of ourselves, but our competence is from Hashem,#3:5 2C 2:16 6Who also made us competent as klei kodesh mesharetim (ministers) of a Brit Chadasha#3:6 Jer 31:31 — not b'khol chomer hadin (not by strict letter of the law, legalism), but of the Ruach Hakodesh: for kol chomer hadin (strict letter of the law) kills,#3:6 Dt 27:26; Ro 8:1 but the Ruach Hakodesh gives Chayim —
7Now if the Sherut avodas kodesh (ministry) of mavet chiseled in letters engraved on luchot of stone came with kavod, so that the Bnei Yisroel were not able to gaze into the face of Moshe#3:7 Rabbeinu because of P'NI MOSHE KI KARON#3:7 Ex 34:35 (face of Moshe Rabbeinu that he was radiant) because of the kavod of his face, the kavod which is fading,#3:7 Ex 34:29-34 8Then how much more will the avodas kodesh ministry of the Ruach Hakodesh come in kavod (glory)? 9For if there was kavod in the Sherut avodas kodesh of harsha'ah (condemnation),#3:9 Dt 27:26; Ro 8:1 how much more abounds in kavod the ministry of tzedek,#3:9 Dan 9:24 10For indeed what once had kavod has lost its kavod#3:10 Ex 34:29-30 on account of the surpassing kavod (glory). 11For if the thing which now is fading away came with kavod, much more has that which remains come in kavod.
12Since, then, we have such a tikvah (hope), we act with much boldness. 13And we are not as Moshe,#3:13 Rabbeinu who was putting HAMASVEH AL PANAV#3:13 Ex 34:33,35 (the veil over his face) so that the Bnei Yisroel might not see the end of the fading kavod. 14But their minds were hardened;#3:14 Ro 11:25 for until the present day the same veil remains at the Kri'at HaSefer Torah (the reading of Torah in shul), because the veil is taken away in Moshiach. 15But even today, whenever Moshe#3:15 Rabbeinu is being read, a veil lies on their levavot. 16But whenever one turns to Adoneinu HAMASVEH is taken away.#3:16 Ex 34:34; Isa 25:7; Ro 11:23-26 17Now Adoneinu is HaRuach and where HaRuach Adoneinu is, there is cherut (freedom).#3:17 Isa 61:1,2; Yn 7:39; 8:32,36; Ro 8:2; Ga 5:1,13 18Now all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the kavod of Adoneinu#3:18 Ex 16:7; 24:17 as if reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same demut from kavod to kavod, even as from HaAdon, HaRuach.
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
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