2 Corinthians 3:8

2 Corinthians 3:8 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
• New International Version (NIV)will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
• English Standard Version (ESV)will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?
• New King James Version (NKJV)how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

Context of 2 Corinthians 3:8

6who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7But if the ministry that produced death – carved in letters on stone tablets – came with glory, so that the Israelites could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (a glory which was made ineffective), how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be? 9For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness excel in glory! 10For indeed, what had been glorious now has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it.

2 Corinthians 3:8 word by word

πῶς οὐχὶ μᾶλλον ἡ διακονία τοῦ πνεύματος ἔσται ἐν δόξῃ;Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Howπῶςpōs · how?!G4459
• shallεἰμίeimi · to beG1510
• notοὐχίouchi · not!G3780
• the ministrationὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588
• the ministrationδιακονίαdiakonia · serviceG1248
• of the spiritπνεῦμαpneuma · spirit/breath: spiritG4151
• ratherμᾶλλονmallon · moreG3123
• ·ἐνen · in/on/amongG1722
• gloriousδόξαdoxa · gloryG1391

Cross-references for 2 Corinthians 3:8

• 2 Corinthians 3:6who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
• 2 Corinthians 11:4For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough!
• Isaiah 11:2The Lord’s spirit will rest on him – a spirit that gives extraordinary wisdom, a spirit that provides the ability to execute plans, a spirit that produces absolute loyalty to the Lord.
• Isaiah 44:3For I will pour water on the parched ground and cause streams to flow on the dry land. I will pour my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your children.
• Isaiah 59:21“As for me, this is my promise to them,” says the Lord. “My spirit, who is upon you, and my words, which I have placed in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and descendants from this time forward,” says the Lord.
• Joel 2:28(3:1) After all of this I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your elderly will have revelatory dreams; your young men will see prophetic visions.
• John 1:17For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.
• John 7:39(Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)
• Acts 2:17‘And in the last days it will be,’ God says, ‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all people, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.
• Acts 2:32This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it.
• Romans 8:9You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
• 1 Corinthians 12:4Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit.
• Galatians 3:2The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?
• Galatians 5:5For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness.
• Ephesians 2:18so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 3:8

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 8The ministration of the Spirit - The Gospel dispensation, which gives the true spiritual sense of the law. Be rather glorious? - Forasmuch as the thing signified is of infinitely more consequence than that by which it is signified. The Thing bread will preserve a man alive; the Word bread can give life to nothing.Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 8How shall not the ministration of the Spirit - This is an argument from the less to the greater. Several things in it are worthy of notice: (1) The proper contrast to the “ministration of death” 2 Corinthians 3:7, would have been ministration of life.‘ But Paul chose rather to call it the ministration of the spirit;‘ as the source of life; or as conferring higher dignity on the gospel than to have called it simply the ministration of life. (2) by the…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 7-11The old covenant had moments of glory, like when the face of Moses shone from talking with the Lord (Exodus 34:29–35). The old way has been replaced by the new, eternal way (Hebrews 8:8–13).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 88. be rather glorious--literally, "be rather (that is, still more, invested) in glory." "Shall be," that is, shall be found to be in part now, but fully when the glory of Christ and His saints shall be revealed.Read the comment

Topics related to 2 Corinthians 3:8

• Gospel
• Holy Spirit
• Law
• Minister, Christian

In the dictionaries

• Corinthians, Second Epistle to the
• Plainness
• Sufficiency
• Untaken
• Corinthians, Second Epistle to the
• Covenant, the New
• Exodus, the Book of
• Galatians, Epistle to the
• Law in the New Testament
• Paul, the Apostle

Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 3

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings