哥林多後書 3
1 我們豈又開始舉薦我們自己嗎﹖或是，難道我們也應像某些人一般，需要遞上薦書，或由你們寫薦書嗎﹖
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or are we like some who need letters of commendation to you, or from you?
2 你們就是我們的薦書，是寫在我們心上，為眾人所共知共讀的，
You yourselves are our letter – a letter written on our hearts, and one which everybody can read and understand.
3 因為明顯地，你們就是我們供職所寫的基督的書信：不是用墨水寫的，而是以生活的天主聖神；不是寫在石版上，而是在血肉的心版上。
All can see that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, a letter written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.
4 我們藉著基督在天主前才敢這樣自信，
This, then, is the confidence in regard to God that we have gained through the Christ.
5 但這並不是說：我們憑自己能夠承擔什麼事，好似出於自己一般；而是說：我們夠資格，是出於天主，
I do not mean that we are fit to form any judgment by ourselves, as if on our own authority;
6 並且是衪使我們能夠做新約的僕役：這約並不是在於文字，而是在於神，因為文字人死，神卻叫人活。
our fitness comes from God, who himself made us fit to be assistants of a new covenant, of which the substance is, not a written Law, but a Spirit. For the written Law means death, but the Spirit gives life.
7 如果那以文字刻在石頭上而屬死的職務，尚且過光榮──甚至以色列子民為了梅瑟面貌上易於消逝的光榮，不能注視衪的面貌──
If the system of religion which involved death, embodied in a written Law and engraved on stones, began amid such glory, that the Israelites were unable to gaze at the face of Moses because of its glory, though it was but a passing glory,
8 那麼，屬神的職務，豈不更該有光榮嗎﹖
will not the religion that confers the Spirit have still greater glory?
9 如果先前定罪的職務有過光榮，那麼，成義的職務更該多麼充滿光榮!
For, if there was a glory in the religion that involved condemnation, far greater is the glory of the religion that confers righteousness!
10 真實，那先前有過光榮的，因了這更超越的光榮，已算不得光榮了，
Indeed, that which then had glory has lost its glory, because of the glory which surpasses it.
11 因為那易於消逝的曾一度有過光榮，那麼，那常存的更該多麼有光榮!
And, if that which was to pass away was attended with glory, far more will that which is to endure be surrounded with glory!
12 所以，我們既懷有這種希望，所以坦白行事，
With such a hope as this, we speak with all plainness;
13 不像梅瑟一般，將帕子蒙在臉上，免得以色列子民看到那易於消逝的光榮終結；
unlike Moses, who covered his face with a veil, to prevent the Israelites from gazing at the disappearance of what was passing away.
14 但是他們的心陷於遲純，因為直到今天，在讀舊約時，同漾的帕子仍然存在，沒有揭去，因為只有在基督內才能除去；
But their minds were slow to learn. Indeed, to this very day, at the public reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; only for those who are in union with Christ does it pass away.
15 而且直到今天，幾時讀梅瑟時，還有帕子蓋在他們的心上；
But, even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their hearts.
16 他們幾時轉向主，帕子就會除掉。
Yet, whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
17 主就是那神；主的神在那裏，那裏就有自由。
And the Lord is the Spirit, and, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 我們眾人以揭開的臉面反映主的光榮的，漸漸地光榮另上加光榮，都變成了與主同樣的肖像，正如由主，即神在我們內所完成的。
And all of us, with faces from which the veil is lifted, seeing, as if reflected in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into his likeness, from glory to glory, as it is given by the Lord, the Spirit.
