2 Corinthians 3:3

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 ministered by us i.e. brought into existence through our instrumentality. It can hardly be said that St Paul has varied the figure of speech here. The Corinthians are an epistle. Of that epistle Christ is the author; the thoughts and sentiments are His. St Paul (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:5; 1Co 3:7; 1 Corinthians 3:9; 1 Corinthians 4:1; 2 Corinthians 6:1) is the instrument by which the epistle was written. Its characters were preserved by no visible or perishable medium, but by the invisible operation of the Spirit. It was graven, not on stone, but on human hearts. And it was recognized wherever St Paul went as the attestation of his claim to be regarded as a true minister of Christ, and this equally in his own consciousness (see last verse) and in that of all Churches which he visited. Dean Stanley remarks on the number and variety of the similes with which this chapter is crowded.

ink A black pigment of some kind was used by the ancients for all writings of any length. For shorter writings recourse was frequently had to waxen tablets. See Jeremiah 36:18; 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:13, and articles Atramentum, Tabulae, Stilus, Liber, in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.

the Spirit of the living God St Paul never seems to lose sight of the fact that Christianity is a communication of life, the life of Him who alone is the fountain of life. See note on 1 Corinthians 15:1, and Romans 8:2; Romans 8:10. Cf. also John 1:4; John 5:26; John 5:40; John 14:6; 2 Timothy 1:10; 1 Peter 2:5.

not in tables of stone See Exodus 24:12; Exodus 34:1; Deuteronomy 9:9-11; Deuteronomy 10:1. Here the Apostle first hints at what is to be the subject of the next section of the Epistle, the inferiority of the law to the Gospel. There is a slight incongruity thus introduced into the simile. One does not write with inkon tables of stone. But the Apostle, in the pregnant suggestiveness of his style, neglects such minor considerations when he has a great lesson to convey. Dean Stanley refers us to Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26-27 and also suggests that the form of the expression -tables of the heart," may be derived from Proverbs 3:3; Proverbs 7:3, not however from the LXX., which there has a different translation of the Hebrew word.

of the heart Most recent editors read -in fleshy tables, namely, hearts." All the old English versions, however, follow the Vulgate here. It is extremely difficult to decide between the two readings, which depend upon the absence or presence of a single letter in the Greek. It should be noted here that the word translated fleshydoes not mean carnal, i.e. governedby the flesh, but made of flesh.