2 Corinthians 3
1 Doe we begin to praise our selues againe? or neede we as some other, epistles of recommendation vnto you, or letters of recommendation from you?
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or are we like some who need letters of commendation to you, or from you?
2 Yee are our epistle, written in our hearts, which is vnderstand, and read of all men,
You yourselves are our letter – a letter written on our hearts, and one which everybody can read and understand.
3 In that yee are manifest, to be the Epistle of Christ, ministred by vs, and written, not with yncke, but with the Spirite of the liuing God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.
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 And such trust haue we through Christ to God:
This, then, is the confidence in regard to God that we have gained through the Christ.
5 Not that we are sufficient of our selues, to thinke any thing, as of our selues: but our sufficiencie is of God,
I do not mean that we are fit to form any judgment by ourselves, as if on our own authority;
6 Who also hath made vs able ministers of the Newe testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirite: for the letter killeth, but the Spirite giueth life.
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 If then the ministration of death written with letters and ingrauen in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel coulde not beholde the face of Moses, for the glorie of his countenance (which glorie is done away.)
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 Howe shall not the ministration of the Spirite be more glorious?
will not the religion that confers the Spirit have still greater glory?
9 For if the ministerie of condemnation was glorious, much more doeth the ministration of righteousnesse exceede in glorie.
For, if there was a glory in the religion that involved condemnation, far greater is the glory of the religion that confers righteousness!
10 For euen that which was glorified, was not glorified in this point, that is, as touching the exceeding glorie.
Indeed, that which then had glory has lost its glory, because of the glory which surpasses it.
11 For if that which should be abolished, was glorious, much more shall that which remaineth, be glorious.
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 Seeing then that we haue such trust, we vse great boldnesse of speach.
With such a hope as this, we speak with all plainness;
13 And we are not as Moses, which put a vaile vpon his face, that the children of Israel should not looke vnto the ende of that which should be abolished.
unlike Moses, who covered his face with a veil, to prevent the Israelites from gazing at the disappearance of what was passing away.
14 Therefore their mindes are hardened: for vntill this day remaineth the same couering vntaken away in the reading of the olde Testament, which vaile in Christ is put away.
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 But euen vnto this day, whe Moses is read, the vaile is laid ouer their hearts.
But, even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their hearts.
16 Neuertheles when their heart shall be turned to the Lord, the vaile shalbe taken away.
Yet, whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
17 Nowe the Lord is the Spirite, and where the Spirite of the Lord is, there is libertie.
And the Lord is the Spirit, and, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 But we al behold as in a mirrour the glory of the Lord with open face, and are changed into the same image, from glorie to glorie, as by the Spirit of the Lord.
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.
