2 Corinthians 3
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation 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 All of you are our epistle written in our hearts, known 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 Forasmuch as all of you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit (pneuma) of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy 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 have we through Christ toward God:
This, then, is the confidence in regard to God that we have gained through the Christ.
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency 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 has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: (pneuma) for the letter kills, but the spirit (pneuma) gives 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 But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be 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 How shall not the ministration of the spirit (pneuma) be rather glorious?
will not the religion that confers the Spirit have still greater glory?
9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
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 even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels.
Indeed, that which then had glory has lost its glory, because of the glory which surpasses it.
11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is 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 have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
With such a hope as this, we speak with all plainness;
13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is 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 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
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 even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
But, even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their hearts.
16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
Yet, whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: (pneuma) and where the Spirit (pneuma) of the Lord is, there is liberty.
And the Lord is the Spirit, and, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit (pneuma) 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.
