New American Standard Bible 1995

2 Corinthians 3

Ministers of a New Covenant

1Are we beginning to 1commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, 2letters of commendation to you or from you? 2 3You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, 4 5cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of 6the living God, not on 7tablets of stone but on 8tablets of 9 10human hearts.

4Such 11confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but 12our adequacy is from God, 6who also made us adequate as 13servants of a 14new covenant, not of 15the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but 16the Spirit gives life.

7But if the 17ministry of death, 18in letters engraved on stones, came 19with glory, 20so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, 8how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 9For if 21the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the 22ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11For if that which fades away was 23with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

12 24Therefore having such a hope, 25we use great boldness in our speech, 13and are not like Moses, 26who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. 14But their minds were 27hardened; for until this very day at the 28reading of 29the old covenant the same veil 30remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. 15But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 31but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where 32the Spirit of the Lord is, 33there is liberty. 18But we all, with unveiled face, 34beholding as in a mirror the 35glory of the Lord, are being 36transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from 37the Lord, the Spirit.

Notes

1. 2 Corinthians 3:1 2 Cor 5:12; 10:12, 18; 12:11 ↩
2. 2 Corinthians 3:1 Acts 18:27; 1 Cor 16:3 ↩
3. 2 Corinthians 3:2 1 Cor 9:2 ↩
4. 2 Corinthians 3:3 Lit served ↩
5. 2 Corinthians 3:3 2 Cor 3:6 ↩
6. 2 Corinthians 3:3 Matt 16:16 ↩
7. 2 Corinthians 3:3 Ex 24:12; 31:18; 32:15f; 2 Cor 3:7 ↩
8. 2 Corinthians 3:3 Prov 3:3; 7:3; Jer 17:1 ↩
9. 2 Corinthians 3:3 Lit hearts of flesh ↩
10. 2 Corinthians 3:3 Jer 31:33; Ezek 11:19; 36:26 ↩
11. 2 Corinthians 3:4 Eph 3:12 ↩
12. 2 Corinthians 3:5 1 Cor 15:10 ↩
13. 2 Corinthians 3:6 1 Cor 3:5 ↩
14. 2 Corinthians 3:6 Jer 31:31; Luke 22:20 ↩
15. 2 Corinthians 3:6 Rom 2:29 ↩
16. 2 Corinthians 3:6 John 6:63; Rom 7:6 ↩
17. 2 Corinthians 3:7 Rom 4:15; 5:20; 7:5f; 2 Cor 3:9; Gal 3:10, 21f ↩
18. 2 Corinthians 3:7 Ex 24:12; 31:18; 32:15f; 2 Cor 3:3 ↩
19. 2 Corinthians 3:7 Or in glory ↩
20. 2 Corinthians 3:7 Ex 34:29-35; 2 Cor 3:13 ↩
21. 2 Corinthians 3:9 Deut 27:26; 2 Cor 3:7; Heb 12:18-21 ↩
22. 2 Corinthians 3:9 Rom 1:17; 3:21f ↩
23. 2 Corinthians 3:11 Lit through ↩
24. 2 Corinthians 3:12 2 Cor 7:4 ↩
25. 2 Corinthians 3:12 Acts 4:13, 29; 2 Cor 7:4; Eph 6:19; 1 Thess 2:2 ↩
26. 2 Corinthians 3:13 Ex 34:33-35; 2 Cor 3:7 ↩
27. 2 Corinthians 3:14 Rom 11:7; 2 Cor 4:4 ↩
28. 2 Corinthians 3:14 Acts 13:15 ↩
29. 2 Corinthians 3:14 2 Cor 3:6 ↩
30. 2 Corinthians 3:14 Or remains, it not being revealed that it is done away in Christ ↩
31. 2 Corinthians 3:16 Ex 34:34; Rom 11:23 ↩
32. 2 Corinthians 3:17 Is 61:1f; Gal 4:6 ↩
33. 2 Corinthians 3:17 John 8:32; Gal 5:1, 13 ↩
34. 2 Corinthians 3:18 1 Cor 13:12 ↩
35. 2 Corinthians 3:18 John 17:22, 24; 2 Cor 4:4, 6 ↩
36. 2 Corinthians 3:18 Rom 8:29 ↩
37. 2 Corinthians 3:18 2 Cor 3:17 ↩

Ministers of a New Covenant

Notes

Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 3