What Does 2 Corinthians 3:14 Mean?

(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 remaineth in the reading of the old covenant; the fact not being revealed *(*i.e.,* by the removal of the veil) *that it* (the old covenant) *is being done away in Christ* The figure is passing through a kind of dissolving change. There is still a veil between the hearers of the Law and its true meaning; but the veil is no longer on the face of the law-giver, but on their hearts; and the reason of this is that, the veil not being withdrawn, they do not see that the glory of the older covenant is done away by the brightness of the new. It is doing violence to the context to refer to the veil the words “is done away,” which through the whole passage is applied to the Law itself; and in 2Corinthians 3:16 a new and appropriate word is used for the withdrawal of the veil. It is, the Apostle says, because the veil of prejudice and tradition hinders them from seeing the truth that the Jews of his own time still think of the Law as permanent, instead of looking on it as passing through a process of extinction. The “Old Testament” is clearly used, not, as in the modern sense, for the whole volume of the Law—Prophets and Psalms—but specially for the law which was the basis of the covenant. The other, but less adequate, rendering would be, *the veil remaineth* . . . *unwithdrawn, for it* (the veil) *is abolished in Christ.* If there was any authority for giving an active force to the middle form of the verb, we might translate with a perfectly satisfactory meaning, *the same veil remaineth* . . . *not revealing the fact that it is being done away in Christ;* but unfortunately there is no such authority. The English, “which veil is done away,” fails to give, in any case, the true force of the Greek.