King James Version
2 Corinthians 3
18 verses with commentary
Ministers of the New Covenant
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?</strong> Paul opens with a rhetorical question addressing accusations that he was self-promoting. The Greek <em>synistaō</em> (συνιστάω, "to commend" or "recommend") was used in the first-century world for formal letters of introduction carried by travel...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
**III.**
(1) **Do we begin again to commend ourselves?**—The MSS. present various readings: “Do we begin again to commend ourselves [Nay, not so], unless we desire [which we do not] letters of commendation;” but the Received text is sufficiently supported, and gives a clearer and simpler meaning. Here, again, we have to read between the lines. Titus has told St. Paul what has been said of him at C...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
8. Translate, "For if also," an additional step in the argument.
**uncertain sound--**having no definite meaning: whereas it ought to be so marked that one succession of notes on the trumpet should summon the soldiers to attack; another, to retreat; another, to some other evolution.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:</strong> The Corinthians themselves are Paul's <em>epistolē</em> (ἐπιστολή)—not a letter of parchment but a living testimony. The phrase <strong>written in our hearts</strong> reverses the expected metaphor: rather than carrying a letter in his hands to show others, Paul carries the Corinthians in his heart. The Greek <em...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Ye are our epistle written in our hearts.**—This is an answer. They, the Corinthian converts, are written on his heart. In his thoughts and prayers for them he finds his true commendatory letter, and this a letter which is patent to the eyes of all men. In “known and read” we find the familiar play on the two words, *epiginoskein* and *anaginoskein.* (See Note on 2Corinthians 1:13.) All who ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**9. So ... ye--**who have life; as opposed to "things without life" (1Co 14:7).
**by the tongue--**the language which ye speak in.
**ye shall speak--**Ye will be speaking into the air, that is, in vain (1Co 9:26).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.</strong> Paul develops the living letter metaphor with theological depth. The Corinthians are <strong>the epistle of Christ</strong>—not Paul's letter but Christ's, with Paul serving mer...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Forasmuch, as ye are manifestly declared.**—The metaphor appears to shift its ground from the subjective to the objective. It is not only as written in his heart, but as seen and known by others, that they (the Corinthians) are as a letter of commendation. They are as a letter which Christ had written as with the finger of God. That letter, he adds, was “ministered by us.” He had been, that ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**10. it may be--**that is, perhaps, speaking by conjecture. "It may chance" (1Co 15:37).
**so many--**as may be enumerated by investigators of such matters. Compare "so much," used generally for a definite number left undefined (Ac 5:8; also 2Sa 12:8).
**kinds of voices--**kinds of articulate speech.
**without signification--**without articulate voice (that is, distinct meaning). None is wi...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:</strong> Paul transitions from the Corinthians as evidence to his apostolic confidence (<em>pepoithēsis</em>, πεποίθησις, "trust" or "confidence"). This confidence is crucially qualified: <strong>through Christ to God-ward</strong> (Greek <em>dia tou Christou pros ton Theon</em>, διὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν). Paul's boldness is not self-...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **Such trust have we.**—The words carry us back to the expressions of 2Corinthians 3:2-3, perhaps, also, to the assertion of his own sincerity and sufficiency implied in 2Corinthians 2:16-17. He has this confidence, but it is through Christ, who strengthens him (Colossians 1:11)*.*
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**11. Therefore--**seeing that none is without meaning.
**a barbarian--**a foreigner (Ac 28:2). Not in the depreciatory sense as the term is now used, but one speaking a foreign language.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;</strong> Paul immediately clarifies verse 4 lest anyone misunderstand his confidence as self-confidence. The Greek <em>hikanoi</em> (ἱκανοί, "sufficient" or "adequate") appears three times in verses 5-6, emphasizing a central theme: all competence for ministry comes from God alone. Th...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Not that we are sufficient . . .**—He had not used the word “sufficient” of himself, but it was clearly the implied answer to the question, “Who is sufficient for these things?” In the Greek there are two different prepositions for the one “of” in English. “Not as though we are sufficient of ourselves to form any estimate as originating with ourselves,” would be a fair paraphrase. The habit ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**12. zealous--**emulously desirous.
**spiritual gifts--**literally, "spirits"; that is, emanations from the one Spirit.
**seek that ye may excel to--**Translate, "Seek them, that ye may abound in them to the edifying," &c.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. giveth life: or, quickeneth
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.</strong> This verse contains one of Paul's most quoted—and misunderstood—statements. God has made (<em>hikanōsen</em>, ἱκάνωσεν, "qualified" or "made sufficient") Paul and his colleagues <strong>ministers of the new testament</strong> (Greek <...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **Able ministers of the new testament.**—Better, perhaps, as keeping up the stress on the word that had been used in 2Corinthians 2:16, in the English as in the Greek, *sufficient ministers.* The noun is used as carrying out the thought implied in the “ministered by us” in 2Corinthians 3:3. In the “new covenant”—new, as implying *freshness* of life and energy—we have a direct reference, both t...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
13. Explain, "Let him who speaketh with a tongue [unknown] in his prayer (or, when praying) strive that he may interpret" [Alford]. This explanation of "pray" is needed by its logical connection with "prayer in an unknown tongue" (1Co 14:14). Though his words be unintelligible to his hearers, let him in them pray that he may obtain the gift of interpreting, which will make them "edifying" to "the ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious , so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:</strong> Paul begins his argument from the lesser to the greater (Hebrew <em>qal wahomer</em> reasoning). The Mosaic law is called <strong>the ministration of death</st...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious.**—More accurately, *engraved in a writing *(*i.e.,* in a written formula) *upon stones.* The word for “writing” is the same as the “letter” of the preceding verse, and the whole might, perhaps, be best translated, *if the ministration of death in the letter, engraved upon stones, was glorious.* The English versio...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**14. spirit--**my higher being, the passive object of the Holy Spirit's operations, and the instrument of prayer in the unknown tongue, distinguished from the "understanding," the active instrument of thought and reasoning; which in this case must be "unfruitful" in edifying others, since the vehicle of expression is unintelligible to them. On the distinction of soul or mind and spirit, see Ep 4:...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?</strong> Paul completes his <em>qal wahomer</em> (light-to-heavy) argument: if the ministry of death had glory, then <strong>the ministration of the spirit</strong> (Greek <em>hē diakonia tou pneumatos</em>, ἡ διακονία τοῦ πνεύματος) must <strong>be rather glorious</strong> (Greek <em>mallon estai en doxē</em>, μᾶλλον ἔσται ἐ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious**?—Better, *be more in glory.* The ministration of the spirit—that which has spirit for its characteristic attribute, and proceeds from *the* Spirit and imparts it to others—is that which St. Paul claims as his ministry. The glory of the new covenant, must be as much above the glory of the old, as the living, life-giving Spirit ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**15. What is it then?--**What is my determination thereupon?
**and--**rather as Greek, "but"; I will not only pray with my spirit, which (1Co 14:14) might leave the understanding unedified, BUT with the understanding also [Alford and Ellicott].
**pray with the understanding also--**and, by inference, I will keep silence altogether if I cannot pray with the understanding (so as to make myself ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.</strong> Paul presents a second parallel contrast, this time between <strong>condemnation</strong> (Greek <em>katakrisis</em>, κατάκρισις) and <strong>righteousness</strong> (Greek <em>dikaiosynē</em>, δικαιοσύνη). The old covenant is called <strong>the ministration of condem...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **If the ministration of condemnation be glory . . .**—Many of the better MSS. give the reading, *if there be glory to the ministry of condemnation.* The latter phrase takes the place here of “the ministry of death” in 2Corinthians 3:7. The “letter,” the “written law,” as such, works death, because it brings with it the condemnation which awaits transgressors. It holds out to them the pattern ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**16. Else ... thou--**He changes from the first person, as he had just expressed his own resolution, "I will pray with the understanding," whatever "thou" doest.
**bless--**the highest kind of prayer.
**occupieth the room of the unlearned--**one who, whatever other gifts he may possess, yet, as wanting the gift of interpretation, is reduced by the speaking in an unknown tongue to the position...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.</strong> Paul employs comparative negation: the old covenant's glory was real, but when compared to the new covenant's <strong>glory that excelleth</strong> (Greek <em>tēs hyperbalousēs doxēs</em>, τῆς ὑπερβαλλούσης δόξης, literally "the surpassing glory"), it <strong>had no glory in ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **For even that which was made glorious had no glory.**—More accurately, St. Paul reproducing the very tense which he found in the LXX. of Exodus 34:35, *that which had been glorified has not been glorified*—*i.e.,* has lost its glory.
**In this respect . . .**—The phrase is the same as in 2Corinthians 9:3; 1Peter 4:16. The English expresses it very fairly. “In this point,” as compared with t...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**17. givest thanks--**The prayers of the synagogue were called "eulogies," because to each prayer was joined a thanksgiving. Hence the prayers of the Christian Church also were called blessings and giving of thanks. This illustrates Col 4:2; 1Th 5:17, 18. So the Kaddisch and Keduscha, the synagogue formulæ of "hallowing" the divine "name" and of prayer for the "coming of God's kingdom," answer to...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →For if that which is done away was glorious , much more that which remaineth is glorious .
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.</strong> Paul presents his third contrast: the <strong>done away</strong> (Greek <em>to katargoumenon</em>, τὸ καταργούμενον, "being abolished" or "fading") versus <strong>that which remaineth</strong> (Greek <em>to menon</em>, τὸ μένον, "abiding" or "permanent"). The old covenant was never designed to...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(11) **For if that which is done away . . .**—The Greek participle is in the present tense, “being done away,” or “failing,” expressing the same thought as the “decaying and waxing old” of Hebrews 8:13. The contrast between the transient and the permanent is expressed by the same Greek words as in 1Corinthians 13:8-11.
**Glorious.**—Literally, *through glory,* seen, as it were, through a medium of...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**18. tongues--**The oldest manuscripts have the singular, "in a tongue [foreign]."
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 3
Chapter Outline
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses.(1-11)
The preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost.(12-18)
**Verses 1-11**
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithfu...
Read full commentary →The Glory of the New Covenant
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: plainness: or, boldness
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:</strong> The conjunction <strong>seeing then</strong> (Greek <em>echontes oun</em>, ἔχοντες οὖν, "having therefore") connects to the preceding argument. Because Paul possesses <strong>such hope</strong> (Greek <em>toiautēn elpida</em>, τοιαύτην ἐλπίδα)—the confident expectation that the new covenant is permanent and glor...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(12) **Seeing then that we have such hope.**—The “hope” is in substance the same as the “confidence” of 2Corinthians 3:4; but the intervening thoughts have carried his mind on to the future as well as the present. He has a hope for them and for himself, which is more than a trust in his own sufficiency.
**We use great plainness of speech.**—The word so rendered expresses strictly the openness whic...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**19. I had rather--**The Greek verb more literally expresses this meaning, "I WISH to speak five words with my understanding (rather) than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue"; even the two thousandth part of ten thousand. The Greek for "I would rather," would be a different verb. Paul would NOT wish at all to speak "ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-18**
It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech. The Old Testament believers had only cloudy and passing glimpses of that glorious Saviour, and unbelievers looked no further than to the outward institution. But the great precepts of the gospel, believe, love, obey, are truths stated as clearly as possible. And the whole doctrine of...
Read full commentary →And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:</strong> Paul now applies the Moses narrative allegorically. In Exodus 34:33-35, Moses veiled his face after speaking with the people because the reflected glory was fading. Paul interprets this: Moses veiled himself <strong>that the children of Isr...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) **And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face.**—The Apostle, it must be remembered, has in his thoughts either the LXX. version of Exodus 34:33, or an interpretation of the Hebrew answering to that version. (See Note on 2Corinthians 3:7.) What was the object of this putting on of the veil? The English version of that text suggests that it was to hide the brightness from which they shran...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**20. Brethren--**an appellation calculated to conciliate their favorable reception of his exhortation.
**children in understanding--**as preference of gifts abused to nonedification would make you (compare 1Co 3:1; Mt 10:16; Ro 16:19; Ep 4:14). The Greek for "understanding" expresses the will of one's spirit, Ro 8:6 (it is not found elsewhere); as the "heart" is the will of the "soul." The same...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-18**
It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech. The Old Testament believers had only cloudy and passing glimpses of that glorious Saviour, and unbelievers looked no further than to the outward institution. But the great precepts of the gospel, believe, love, obey, are truths stated as clearly as possible. And the whole doctrine of...
Read full commentary →But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.</strong> Paul shifts from historical exposition to present application. The veil that physically covered Moses' face has become a spiritual veil over Jewish minds: <strong>their minds were blinded</strong> (Greek <em>epōrōthē ta noēma...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(14) **But their minds were blinded.**—The Greek verb expresses strictly the callousness of a nerve that has become insensible, as in Mark 6:52; Mark 8:17; Romans 11:7. Here, as applied to the faculties of perception, “blinded” is, perhaps, a legitimate rendering.
**Remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament . . .**—The words are better translated: *the same veil rema...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**21. In the law--**as the whole Old Testament is called, being all of it the law of God. Compare the citation of the Psalms as the "law," Joh 10:34. Here the quotation is from Is 28:11, 12, where God virtually says of Israel, This people hear Me not, though I speak to. them in the language with which they are familiar; I will therefore speak to them in other tongues, namely, those of the foes who...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-18**
It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech. The Old Testament believers had only cloudy and passing glimpses of that glorious Saviour, and unbelievers looked no further than to the outward institution. But the great precepts of the gospel, believe, love, obey, are truths stated as clearly as possible. And the whole doctrine of...
Read full commentary →But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.</strong> Paul emphasizes the tragic present reality: <strong>when Moses is read</strong> (Greek <em>hēnika anaginōskētai Mōusēs</em>, ἡνίκα ἀναγινώσκηται Μωϋσῆς)—that is, when the Torah is read in synagogue worship—<strong>the vail is upon their heart</strong> (Greek <em>kalymma epi tēn kardian autōn keitai</em>, κάλ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(15) **Even unto this day, when Moses is read . . .**—The mention of Moses is decisive as to the meaning of the “Old Testament,” or *covenant,* in the previous verse. When he, as being read, speaks to the people now, St. Paul reasons, there is still a veil between him and them; but it is, to use modern phrase, subjective and not objective—on their heart, and not over his face. It has been suggeste...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
22. Thus from Isaiah it appears, reasons Paul, that "tongues" (unknown and uninterpreted) are not a sign mainly intended for believers (though at the conversion of Cornelius and the Gentiles with him, tongues were vouchsafed to him and them to confirm their faith), but mainly to be a condemnation to those, the majority, who, like Israel in Isaiah's day, reject the sign and the accompanying message...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-18**
It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech. The Old Testament believers had only cloudy and passing glimpses of that glorious Saviour, and unbelievers looked no further than to the outward institution. But the great precepts of the gospel, believe, love, obey, are truths stated as clearly as possible. And the whole doctrine of...
Read full commentary →Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.</strong> Paul offers hope: the veil is not permanent. <strong>When it shall turn</strong> (Greek <em>hēnika epistrepsē</em>, ἡνίκα ἐπιστρέψῃ) uses the verb <em>epistrephō</em> (ἐπιστρέφω), meaning "to turn," "return," or "convert"—biblical language for repentance and conversion. The subject <strong>it</strong> is am...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(16) **Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord.**—Better, *But when it shall turn.* The allegorising process is still carried on. Moses removed the veil when he went into the tabernacle to commune with the Lord (Exodus 34:35); so, in the interpretation of the parable, the veil shall be taken away when the heart of Israel shall turn, in the might of a real conversion, to the Lord of Israel. The...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**23. whole ... all ... tongues--**The more there are assembled, and the more that speak in unknown tongues, the more will the impression be conveyed to strangers "coming in" from curiosity ("unbelievers"), or even from a better motive ("unlearned"), that the whole body of worshippers is a mob of fanatical "madmen"; and that "the Church is like the company of builders of Babel after the confusion ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-18**
It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech. The Old Testament believers had only cloudy and passing glimpses of that glorious Saviour, and unbelievers looked no further than to the outward institution. But the great precepts of the gospel, believe, love, obey, are truths stated as clearly as possible. And the whole doctrine of...
Read full commentary →Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.</strong> This verse is theologically dense. <strong>The Lord is that Spirit</strong> (Greek <em>ho kyrios to pneuma estin</em>, ὁ κύριος τὸ πνεῦμα ἐστιν) does not collapse Christ and the Spirit into one person (that would be modalism) but identifies the "Lord" of Exodus 34:34 (to whose presence Moses came u...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(17) **Now the Lord is that Spirit.**—Better, *the Lord is the Spirit.* The words seem at first inconsistent with the formulated precision of the Church’s creeds, distinguishing the persons of the Godhead from each other. We apply the term “Lord,” it is true, as a predicate of the Holy Spirit when we speak, as in the Nicene Creed, of the Holy Ghost as “the Lord, and Giver of life,” or say, as in t...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**24. all--**one by one (1Co 14:31).
**prophesy--**speak the truth by the Spirit intelligibly, and not in unintelligible tongues.
**one--**"anyone." Here singular; implying that this effect, namely, conviction by all, would be produced on anyone, who might happen to enter. In 1Co 14:23 the plural is used; "unlearned or unbelievers"; implying that however many there might be, not one would prof...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-18**
It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech. The Old Testament believers had only cloudy and passing glimpses of that glorious Saviour, and unbelievers looked no further than to the outward institution. But the great precepts of the gospel, believe, love, obey, are truths stated as clearly as possible. And the whole doctrine of...
Read full commentary →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 of the Lord. by the: or, of the Lord the Spirit
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>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 of the Lord.</strong> Paul concludes with the glorious result of the unveiled life. <strong>We all</strong> (Greek <em>hēmeis pantes</em>, ἡμεῖς πάντες) emphasizes universal access—not just apostles or Moses, but all believers—<strong>with ope...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(18) **But we all, with open face.**—Better, *And we all, with unveiled face.*—The relation of this sentence to the foregoing is one of sequence and not of contrast, and it is obviously important to maintain in the English, as in the Greek, the continuity of allusive thought involved in the use of the same words as in 2Corinthians 3:14. “We,” says the Apostle, after the parenthesis of 2Corinthians...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**25. And thus--**omitted in the oldest manuscripts and versions.
**secrets of his heart made manifest--**He sees his own inner character opened out by the sword of the Spirit (He 4:12; Jas 1:23), the word of God, in the hand of him who prophesieth. Compare the same effect produced on Nebuchadnezzar (Da 2:30 and end of Da 2:47). No argument is stronger for the truth of religion than its manifest...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-18**
It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech. The Old Testament believers had only cloudy and passing glimpses of that glorious Saviour, and unbelievers looked no further than to the outward institution. But the great precepts of the gospel, believe, love, obey, are truths stated as clearly as possible. And the whole doctrine of...
Read full commentary →