II CORINTHIANS 3:1-4:6

In attempting to outline this rather dense passage, the best way is to look at how Paul repeats several key words within it. That leads to the following suggested division into smaller units:

A. 3:1-7a “letter” – 6 appearances

B. 3:7b-11 “glory” – 10 appearances

C. 3:12-4:6 “veil” – 7 appearances

These three images are put to service by Paul to express to the reader the contrast between the new covenant (3:6) and the new covenant (3:14). Thus, the letters in which the OT law was written (Section A) are actually letters of death compared to the living letters written on human hears. Similarly, the glory (Section B) that Moses experienced when God gave him the commandments pales in comparison to the glory of the ministry of justification. And lastly, the veil (Section C) that blinds those still adhering to the old covenant from seeing the truth can only be removed in Christ.

Tying together the whole of this passage are the full designations “Spirit of the living God” (3:3) and “Spirit of the Lord” (3:17) located near its start and finish. In addition, the key verb translated as “fade away” or “set aside” appears at the start and conclusion of Section B (3:7b,11) and the start of Section C (3:13-14). As two sets of verbal bookends for II Corinthians 3:1-4:6, we have “we commend ourselves” at 3:1 and 4:2, and “hearts at 3:2 and 4:6. The seven appearances of “Spirit” also act to unify the whole unit.

This is not an easy passage to decode, as shown by this comment from Brevard Childs: “The difficulties of understanding II Cor. 3 are so many that one hesitates to enter the arena...Unfortunately, there has emerged nothing which even begins to resemble a consensus of opinion among New Testament scholars in spite of considerable attention to these problems within recent years.” If a noted commentator of Childs' stature is hesitant to approach this chapter, I am certainly not going to attempt it on my own. Therefore, the following comments gleaned from the literature were ones chosen that even I could understand.

II Corinthians 3:1 Letters of recommendation were a means of introducing visiting missionaries to a congregation (see Acts 18:27 and Romans 16).

3:3 The new covenant doesn't cancel the law, but “indeed now provides the means of fulfilling it, through the power of the risen Christ within the believer (Rom. 10:4f.).” (Hillyer)

“The Spirit, however is the link term connecting Paul's gospel of divine righteousness to his exercise of diakonia [ministry].” (Martin)

3:5 “Paul's sufficiency as an apostle is based on his call according to the pattern of the call of Moses as portrayed in Exodus 4:10.” (Hafemann)

3:6 The designation “new covenant” appears only here in the whole NT. The Greek word employed is kainos (meaning new in quality or essence), not neos (new in time). You should compare different translations here since some capitalize both appearances of “Spirit” and others do not.

There is some controversy concerning the meaning of “the letter” in this verse:

    Morris treats “the letter,” in contrast to the spirit [no caps], as follows: “A woodenly literal, flesh-dominated manner of looking at Jesus' words that will not yield the correct interpretation.”

    Hafemann says, “The 'letter' (gramma) of 2 Corinthians 3:6 is therefore the Law apart from the power of the Spirit.”

    “It had become a covenant of letter (a merely written code of laws requiring obedience) leading to death...” (Fee)

    R. Mayer treats the whole discussion of 3:1-6 as dealing with the “contrast between the Jewish use of Scripture [i.e., the Old Testament] with the reality of life in Christ and the Spirit.” In demolishing his opponent's position, Paul made it look “as if the common ground from which both originated, now emptied of its value, is the property of the opponents alone.” But, in fact, Paul “presents a state of continual tension. On the one hand, it emphasizes strongly the authority of the Hebrew Bible. On the other, it allows this authority to almost disappear before the claims of the new gospel.”

    Martin notes that 6b “is capable of several esoteric interpretations.” He opts for the idea that the “letter” refers back to the “letters of recommendation” that the Jewish-Christian opponents of Paul provided the Corinthians as credentials.

II Corinthians 3:7-11 This passage is almost impossible to understand without first reading Exodus 34:29-35.Hillyer notes that “Paul makes three contrasts between the dispensations: letter and Spirit (vv. 7,8); condemning and justifying (v. 9); passing and permanent (v. 11).” These verse contain the “highest single concentration of glory vocabulary in Paul's letters...” (Griffin)

Here Paul utilizes the common rabbinical method of arguing from the lesser to the greater. Thus, note the form “if...much more,” which appears three times in these verses.

3:7-18 Hafemann calls these verses “one of the most complex passages in the Pauline corpus.”

3:7 R.P. Martin treats the concept of ministry as “the central theme of the chapter.”

3:11 Kaiser feels that “what was fading away is neither the law nor the religious system based on the law, but it is rather the service and ministry that Moses rendered is passing away...”

3:12 Van Unnik notes that the Aramaic equivalent of the Greek word for boldness literally means “to uncover the face.”

3:13 Martin says that “the aura of splendor that illuminated Moses' face lasted only briefly in contrast to the radiance of the Spirit that is ever-increasing [see v. 18]...”

Although Exodus 34 does not mention that the glory was fading away from Moses' face, it can be deduced from Exodus 40:35, and it was the belief of later rabbis. (Childs)

3:14 “Old Covenant refers not to the Hebrew Bible in general but to the Sinai covenant (Ex 24:7) or to the law (2 Chr 34:30).” (Wan)

3:14-15 Although some translations have the word “minds” in both verses, in fact the Greek of the first occurrence is noemata (“thought”) while it is kardia (“hearts”) in 3:15.

3:16-17 “Jesus as Moses removed the veil when he went in to God (Exod. 34:34, so will the veil be removed from Israel when they are converted to the Lord, i.e. when they allow themselves to be ruled by the Spirit.” (Mendle)

3:17-18 Maile: “Paul's thinking was clearly trinitarian, even in the much discussed 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, whose concise language appears to identify the Lord and the Spirit. In reality, Paul is expounding Exodus 34:34, and he should probably be understood as saying that the Lord of whom this passage speaks is the Spirit.” Paige basically agrees with this interpretive position.

But Martin takes it to mean that we used to understand him to be the predicted Messiah, but now we appreciate him “as exalted Lord (Rom 1:3,4) sharing in his Spirit (Rom 8:9.).”

3:18 Wan feels that “'From one degree of glory to another ' reflects belief in the Greco-Roman world that an encounter with the divine transforms the beholder into its image.”

II Corinthians 4:1-6 These verses are treated by Hafemann as “the necessary conclusion” from the preceding argument.

4:4 Beale says that this “probably refers to Christ as the pristine image in which the first Adam should have been” in light of the reference to Genesis 1:3 in II Corinthians 4:6.

Beale and Gladd discuss the question of when this glory of Christ was first revealed. They cite Kim who feels that Paul in this verse is alluding to his own revelation of Christ's glory on the road to Damascus. But they prefer to see that glory present even in the crucifixion, however in a concealed form.

Wan notes that “this world” also appears in I Corinthians 3:19; 5:10; and 7:31 (twice). Paul uses this phrase as an equivalent to “the present age” (Galatians 1:4) and “the present time (Romans 3:26; 8:18; 11:6).

4:6 “The new covenant doxa [glory] in Christ is the climactic revelation of God's glory...Its full dimensions are especially apparent in 2 Corinthians 4:6.” (Griffin)