2 Corinthians 3:6

ὃς καὶ ἱκάνωσεν κ. τ. λ.: who also (“qui idem”; cf. 1 Corinthians 1:8) made us sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant [ministers] not of the letter (i.e., the Law), but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. The Apostle's opponents at Corinth were probably Judaisers (2 Corinthians 11:22), and thus the description of his office as the διακονία καινῆς διαθήκης leads him to a comparison and a contrast of the Old Covenant and the New. The “covenants” (Romans 9:4; Ephesians 2:12) between Jehovah and Israel were the foundation of Judaism. They began (not to speak of the Covenant with Noah) with the Covenant of Circumcision granted to Abraham (Genesis 17:2) and repeated more than once (Genesis 22:16; Genesis 26:3), which is often appealed to in the N.T. (Luke 1:72; Acts 3:25; Acts 7:8, etc.). This was not abrogated (Galatians 3:17) by the Covenant of Sinai (Exodus 19:5; cf., for its recapitulation in Moab, Deuteronomy 29:1), which, as the National Charter of Israel, was pre-eminently to a Hebrew “the Old Covenant”. The great prophecy of a Deliverer from Zion (Isaiah 59:21) is interpreted by St. Paul (Romans 11:27) as the “covenant” of which the prophet spoke in the next verse; and Jeremiah, in a passage (Jeremiah 31:31-33) from which the Apostle has just now (2 Corinthians 3:3 above) borrowed a striking image, had proclaimed a New Covenant with Israel in the future. The phrase had been consecrated to the Gospel, through its employment by Christ at the Institution of the Eucharist (Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25); and in that solemn context it bore direct allusion to the Blood of Sprinkling which ratified the Old Covenant of Sinai (Exodus 24:8). It is of this “New Covenant” that St. Paul is a διάκονος (Christ is its μεσίτης, Hebrews 9:15); i.e., he is a διάκονος οὐ γράμματος ἀλλὰ πνεύματος, not of the letter of the Law (as might be wrongly inferred from his statement in 2 Corinthians 3:3 that the ἐπιστολὴ Χριστοῦ was “ministered” [διακονηθεῖσα] by him), but of the “Spirit of the living God” (2 Corinthians 3:3). This is a much more gracious διακονία, inasmuch as the Law is the instrument of Death (cf. Romans 5:20; Romans 7:9; Romans 8:2, in all which passages the Apostle brings into closest connexion the three thoughts of the Law, Sin, and Death), but the Spirit of God is the Giver of Life (see reff. and cf. Galatians 3:21, where he notes that the law is not able, ζωοποιεῖν, “to give life”). It will be observed that the article is wanting before καινῆς διαθήκης, as it is before γράμματος and πνεύματος; but we need not on that account with the Revisers translate “ a new covenant”. The expression “New Covenant,” like the words “Letter” (for the Law) and “Spirit” for the Holy Spirit, was a technical phrase in the theology of the day; and so might well dispense with the article. The contrast between “letter” and “Spirit” here (so often misunderstood, as if it pointed to a contrast between what is verbally stated and what is really implied, and so justified an appeal from the bare “letter” of the law to the principles on which it rests) is exactly illustrated by Romans 7:6, where St. Paul declares that the service of a Christian is ἐν καινότητι πνεύματος καὶ οὐ παλαιότητι γράμματος, i.e., “in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter”. And (though not so plainly) the same contrast is probably intended in Romans 2:29. In St. Paul's writings πνεῦμα, when used for the human spirit, is contrasted with σῶμα (1 Corinthians 5:3), σάρξ (2 Corinthians 7:1) and νοῦς (1 Corinthians 14:14), but never with γράμμα. This is a technical term for the “Law” (like γραφή, Scripture; cf. 2 Corinthians 3:7, ἐν γράμμασιν), and is properly set over against the “Spirit” of God, whose office and work were first plainly revealed in the Gospel.