コリント人への手紙第二 3
1 我等ふたたび己を薦め始めんや、また或 人のごとく人の推薦の書を汝らに齎し、また汝 等より受くることを要せんや。
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or are we like some who need letters of commendation to you, or from you?
2 汝らは即ち我らの書にして我らの心に録され、又すべての人に知られ、かつ讀まるるなり。
You yourselves are our letter — a letter written on our hearts, and one which everybody can read and understand.
3 汝らは明かに我らの職によりて書かれたるキリストの書なり。而も墨にあらで活ける神の御靈にて録され、石碑にあらで心の肉碑に録されたるなり。
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 我らはキリストにより、神に對して斯かる確信あり。
This, then, is the confidence in regard to God that we have gained through the Christ.
5 されど己は何事をも自ら定むるに足らず、定むるに足るは神によるなり。
I do not mean that we are fit to form any judgment by ourselves, as if on our own authority;
6 神は我らを新約の役者となるに足らしめ給へり、儀文の役者にあらず、靈の役者なり。そは儀文は殺し、靈は活せばなり。
our fitness comes from God, who himself made us fit to be ministers 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 石に彫り書されたる死の法の職にも光榮ありて、イスラエルの子 等はそのやがて消ゆべきモーセの顏の光榮を見つめ得ざりし程ならんには、
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 on account of its glory, though it was but a passing glory,
8 まして靈の職は光榮なからんや。
will not the religion that confers the Spirit have still greater glory?
9 罪を定むる職もし光榮あらんには、まして義とする職は光榮に溢れざらんや。
For, if there was a glory in the religion that involved condemnation, far greater is the glory of the religion that confers righteousness!
10 もと光榮ありし者も更に勝れる光榮に比ぶれば、光榮なき者となれり。
Indeed, that which then had glory has lost its glory, because of the glory which surpasses it.
11 もし消ゆべき者に光榮ありしならんには、まして永存ふるものに光榮なからんや。
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 我らは斯くのごとき希望を有つゆゑに、更に臆せずして言ひ、
With such a hope as this, we speak with all plainness;
13 又モーセの如くせざるなり。彼は消ゆべき者の消えゆくをイスラエルの子らに見せぬために、面帕を顏におほひたり。
unlike Moses, who covered his face with a veil, to prevent the Israelites from gazing at the disappearance of what was passing away.
14 然れど彼らの心 鈍くなれり。キリストによりて面帕の廢るべきを悟らねば、今日に至るまで舊約を讀む時その面帕なほ存れり。
But their minds were slow to learn. Indeed, to this very day, at the public reading of the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted; only for those who are in union with Christ does it pass away.
15 今日に至るまでモーセの書を讀むとき、面帕は彼らの心のうへに置かれたり。
But, even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their hearts.
16 然れど主に歸する時、その面帕は取り除かるべし。
‘Yet, whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.’
17 主は即ち御靈なり、主の御靈のある所には自由あり。
And the ‘Lord’ is the Spirit, and, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 我等はみな面帕なくして、鏡に映るごとく主の榮光を見、榮光より榮光にすすみ、主たる御靈によりて主と同じ像に化するなり。
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.
