Bible Commentaries
Abbott's Illustrated New Testament
2 Corinthians 3
The meaning is, that the feelings of attachment and regard which subsisted between Paul and the Corinthian church were universally known.
The epistle of Christ ministered by us; the work of Christ, performed by our instrumentality.--Tables; tablets.
Not of the letter; not of the written law, that is, of the Old Testament dispensation.--Of the spirit; off the gospel, which had yet been communicated thus far chiefly by direct spiritual influences, and not by written records.--Killeth; denounces death.
The ministration of death; the ministration of that covenant which denounced death.--In stones; referring to the two tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written.--Was glorious; in respect to the circumstances of its first promulgation. Allusion is here made to the account recorded in Exodus 34:29,30.--Was to be done away; was temporary and transient.
The ministration of the Spirit, that is, of the gospel promulgated by the agency of the Spirit.
Put a veil over his face; symbolical of the mystery under which spiritual truth was veiled, in the old dispensation; so that the children of Israel could not understand the true end and design of these temporary ordinances, which were enjoined upon them.
That Spirit; the spirit spoken of in 2 Corinthians 3:6,--namely, the spiritual dispensation. The Lord is the foundation and support of it.--Liberty; freedom from the darkness and bondage in which the soul had often been enveloped under the old dispensation.
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