2 Corinthians 3:1-6. St Paul's Ministry no self-assumed task, but the communication of the Spirit 1. _Do we begin again to commend ourselves?_ A charge had been apparently brought against St Paul that he had before (probably in 1 Corinthians 2:16; 1Co 3:10; 1 Corinthians 4:11-14; 1 Corinthians 9:20... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye are our epistle_ See note on last verse. _written in our hearts_ -Others bear their letters of commendation in their hands, we in our consciences, being fully aware that the existence of the Church of Corinth, due, under God, to us, is a sufficient authentication of the genuineness of our minist... [ Continue Reading ]
_Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared_ The Corinthians -fell short in no gift," but were -enriched by Christ in all utterance and in all knowledge," 1 Corinthians 1:7. These were notorious facts that could not be gainsaid, capable of being -known of all men." _to be the epistle of Christ minister... [ Continue Reading ]
_such trust_ Better, perhaps, with the Rhemish version, CONFIDENCE (Vulgate and Calvin _fiducia_), i.e. the confidence which St Paul had above expressed (ch. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17) in the reality of his mission and work, or in the fact that the Corinthian Church is in itself a sufficient guarantee o... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not that we are sufficient_ We here return to the idea touched upon in ch. 2 Corinthians 2:16, but then passed over on account of St Paul's eagerness to assert the purity of his motives. _of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves_ The two prepositions translated -of" here are not the same in... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who also hath made us able ministers_ None of the old English versions have given the threefold repetition of the word by St Paul, who writes, -Who hath made us _sufficient_ministers." The word St Paul uses signifies the having _reached a certain standard_of ability. _of the new testament_ We must... [ Continue Reading ]
The Ministration of the Spirit superior to that of the Law 7. _But if the ministration of death_ He does not say -which causeth," but -the ministration of death," for that which _caused_death was sin, while the Law made the sin manifest, but did not cause it. Chrysostom. See Romans 7:7; 1 Corinthia... [ Continue Reading ]
_How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious_?] Literally, _how shall not the ministration of the spirit rather_ BE IN GLORY, i.e. if the brightness which was actually fading was so glorious that the Israelites could not bear to look at it, how much more shall the ministration of... [ Continue Reading ]
_For if the ministration of condemnation be glory Dampnacioun_, Wiclif, and similarly the Rhemish version. The law must be understood to be a ministry of condemnation, "not in itself and in its own nature, but accidentally, in consequence of man's corruption," Turretin. So St Paul explains in Romans... [ Continue Reading ]
_For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth_ Rather, FOR EVEN THAT WHICH HAS BEEN GLORIFIED (i.e. the face of Moses, typical of the Law) HAS NOT BEEN GLORIFIED IN THIS RESPECT (i.e. in comparison of the New Covenant. The Geneva Version r... [ Continue Reading ]
_For if that which is done away_ Rather, is (or was) BEING done away. See note on 2 Corinthians 3:7. _was glorious_ Literally, was BY MEANS OF, or THROUGH glory, i.e. was accompanied with, or seen through a haze of glory. See note on 2 Corinthians 3:7. _much more that which remaineth is glorious_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Seeing then that we have such hope_ i.e. the hope that the Christian covenant is one of which the glory is permanent. _we use great plainness of speech] Trist_(i.e. trust) Wiclif. _Boldness_, Tyndale and Cranmer. The translation _boldness of speech_we owe to the Geneva version. The word means origi... [ Continue Reading ]
_And not as Moses_ i.e. we do not act as Moses did, who put a veil on his face. _that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished_ The Greek implies that Moses placed the veil on his face _after_speaking to the people that they might not see the glory on hi... [ Continue Reading ]
_But their minds were blinded_ They neither obeyed the Law when it was given, nor would cease to obey it when it was superseded. The word rendered _blinded_properly signifies hardened, and is so translated in Mark 6:52; Mark 8:17; John 12:40; and in the margin of Romans 11:7 (where the text gives th... [ Continue Reading ]
_the vail is upon their heart_ Literally, A VEIL LIETH ON THEIR HEART. Not upon their head. It was moral, not intellectual blindness which caused their unbelief. See Acts 6:13-14; Acts 7:51; Acts 22:18; Acts 22:21-22. We may remark on the change of figure here (see note on 2 Corinthians 3:13). The v... [ Continue Reading ]
_when it shall turn to the Lord_ The A. V. makes (1) _Israel's heart_the nominative to the verb in this sentence. Wiclif and the other Protestant translators (2) make _Israel itself_the nominative, while (3) the Rhemish version makes _Moses_the nominative, referring to the fact that in the narrative... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now the Lord is that Spirit_ Literally THE _spirit_, i.e. the spirit which was to replace the letter. The sense is as follows: -The Lord (of whom I have just spoken see last verse) is the spirit of which I have said (2 Corinthians 3:6) that it should be substituted for the letter." For the Lord, ev... [ Continue Reading ]
_But we all_ i.e. we Christians, in contradistinction to the Jews. _with open face_ i.e. unveiled. Cf. 1 Corinthians 11:7. _beholding as in a glass_ Either (1), according to the more ordinary meaning of the word, - _beholding_as in a mirror," or (2) with Chrysostom, - _reflecting_as in a mirror.... [ Continue Reading ]