2:14 But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession 1 in Christ 2 and who makes known 3 through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place. 2:15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing – 2:16 to the latter an odor 4 from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? 5 2:17 For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, 6 but we are speaking in Christ before 7 God as persons of sincerity, 8 as persons sent from God.
3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we? 9 3:2 You yourselves are our letter, 10 written on our hearts, known and read by everyone, 3:3 revealing 11 that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, 12 written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets 13 but on tablets of human hearts.
3:4 Now we have such confidence in God through Christ. 3:5 Not that we are adequate 14 in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy 15 is from God, 3:6 who made us adequate 16 to be servants of a new covenant 17 not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
3:7 But if the ministry that produced death – carved in letters on stone tablets 18 – came with glory, so that the Israelites 19 could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face 20 (a glory 21 which was made ineffective), 22 3:8 how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be? 23 3:9 For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, 24 how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness 25 excel 26 in glory! 3:10 For indeed, what had been glorious now 27 has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it. 28 3:11 For if what was made ineffective 29 came with 30 glory, how much more has what remains 31 come in glory! 3:12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we behave with great boldness, 32 3:13 and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites 33 from staring 34 at the result 35 of the glory that was made ineffective. 36 3:14 But their minds were closed. 37 For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read. 38 It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away. 39 3:15 But until this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds, 40 3:16 but when one 41 turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 42 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, 43 there is freedom. 3:18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, 44 are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, 45 which is from 46 the Lord, who is the Spirit. 47
4:1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, just as God has shown us mercy, 48 we do not become discouraged. 49 4:2 But we have rejected 50 shameful hidden deeds, 51 not behaving 52 with deceptiveness 53 or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God. 4:3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, 4:4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe 54 so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel 55 of Christ, 56 who is the image of God. 4:5 For we do not proclaim 57 ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves 58 for Jesus’ sake. 4:6 For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” 59 is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge 60 of God in the face of Christ. 61
1 tn Or “who always causes us to triumph.”
2 tn Or “in the Messiah.”
3 tn Or “who reveals.”
4 tn The same Greek word (ὀσμή, osmh) translated “odor” here (in relation to the stench of death) has been translated “fragrance” in 2:14 and in the next phrase of the present verse. The word itself can describe a smell or odor either agreeable or disagreeable depending on the context (L&N 79.45).
5 sn These things refer to the things Paul is doing in his apostolic ministry.
7 tn The participle καπηλεύοντες (kaphleuonte") refers to those engaged in retail business, but with the negative connotations of deceptiveness and greed – “to peddle for profit,” “to huckster” (L&N 57.202). In the translation a noun form (“hucksters”) has been used in combination with the English verb “peddle…for profit” to convey the negative connotations of this term.
8 tn Or “in the presence of.”
9 tn Or “persons of pure motives.”
10 tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply (“No, we do not”) which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ at the end, “do we?”
13 tn That is, “letter of recommendation.”
16 tn Or “making plain.”
17 tn Grk “cared for by us,” an expression that could refer either to the writing or the delivery of the letter (BDAG 229 s.v. διακονέω 1). Since the following phrase refers to the writing of the letter, and since the previous verse speaks of this “letter” being “written on our [Paul’s and his companions’] hearts” it is more probable that the phrase “cared for by us” refers to the delivery of the letter (in the person of Paul and his companions).
18 sn An allusion to Exod 24:12; 31:18; 34:1; Deut 9:10-11.
19 tn Or “competent.”
20 tn Or “competence.”
22 tn Or “competent.”
23 sn This new covenant is promised in Jer 31:31-34; 32:40.
25 tn Grk “on stones”; but since this is clearly an allusion to the tablets of the Decalogue (see 2 Cor 3:3) the word “tablets” was supplied in the translation to make the connection clear.
26 tn Grk “so that the sons of Israel.”
27 sn The glory of his face. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the tablets of the Decalogue, the people were afraid to approach him because his face was so radiant (Exod 34:29-30).
28 tn The words “a glory” are not in the Greek text, but the reference to “glory” has been repeated from the previous clause for clarity.
29 tn Or “which was transitory.” Traditionally this phrase is translated as “which was fading away.” The verb καταργέω in the corpus Paulinum uniformly has the meaning “to render inoperative, ineffective”; the same nuance is appropriate here. The glory of Moses’ face was rendered ineffective by the veil Moses wore. For discussion of the meaning of this verb in this context, see S. J. Hafemann, Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel (WUNT 81), 301-13. A similar translation has been adopted in the two other occurrences of the verb in this paragraph in vv. 11 and 13.
28 tn Grk “how will not rather the ministry of the Spirit be with glory?”
31 tn Grk “the ministry of condemnation”; translated as an objective genitive, “the ministry that produced condemnation.”
32 tn Grk “the ministry of righteousness”; translated as an objective genitive, “the ministry that produces righteousness.”
33 tn Traditionally, “abound.”
34 tn Grk “in this case.”
35 tn The words “of what replaced it” are not in the Greek text, but have been supplied to clarify the meaning.
37 tn Or “what was fading away.” See note on “which was made ineffective” in v. 7.
38 tn Or “through” (διά, dia).
39 tn Or “what is permanent.”
40 tn Or “we employ great openness of speech.”
43 tn Grk “the sons of Israel.”
44 tn Or “from gazing intently.”
45 tn Or “end.” The word τέλος (telos) can mean both “a point of time marking the end of a duration, end, termination, cessation” and “the goal toward which a movement is being directed, end, goal, outcome” (see BDAG 998-999 s.v.). The translation accepts the interpretation that Moses covered the glory of his face with the veil to prevent Israel from being judged by the glory of God (see S. J. Hafemann, Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel [WUNT 81], 347-62); in this case the latter meaning for τέλος is more appropriate.
46 tn Or “was fading away”; Grk “on the result of what was made ineffective.” The referent (glory) has been specified in the translation for clarity. See note on “which was made ineffective” in v. 7.
46 tn Grk “their minds were hardened.”
47 tn Grk “the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant”; the phrase “they hear” has been introduced (“when they hear the old covenant read”) to make the link with the “Israelites” (v. 13) whose minds were closed (v. 14a) more obvious to the reader.
48 tn Or “only in Christ is it eliminated.”
49 tn Grk “their heart.”
52 tn Or perhaps “when(ever) he turns,” referring to Moses.
53 sn An allusion to Exod 34:34. The entire verse may refer to Moses, viewing him as a type portraying the Jewish convert to Christianity in Paul’s day.
55 tn Grk “where the Spirit of the Lord is”; the word “present” is supplied to specify that the presence of the Lord’s Spirit is emphasized rather than the mere existence of the Lord’s Spirit.
58 tn Or “we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror.”
59 tn Grk “from glory to glory.”
60 tn Grk “just as from.”
61 tn Grk “from the Lord, the Spirit”; the genitive πνεύματος (pneumato") has been translated as a genitive of apposition.
61 tn Grk “just as we have been shown mercy”; ἠλεήθημεν (hlehqhmen) has been translated as a “divine passive” which is a circumlocution for God as the active agent. For clarity this was converted to an active construction with God as subject in the translation.
62 tn Or “we do not lose heart.”
64 tn L&N 13.156; the word can also mean “to assert opposition to,” thus here “we have denounced” (L&N 33.220).
65 tn Grk “the hidden things [deeds] of shame”; here αἰσχύνης (aiscunh") has been translated as an attributive genitive.
66 tn Or “not conducting ourselves”; Grk “not walking” (a common NT idiom for conduct, way of life, or behavior).
67 tn Or “craftiness.”
67 tn Or “of unbelievers.”
68 tn Grk “the gospel of the glory”; δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.
69 tn Or “so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ would not be evident to them” (L&N 28.37).
70 tn Or “preach.”
71 tn Traditionally, “servants.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.
73 sn An allusion to Gen 1:3; see also Isa 9:2.
74 tn Grk “the light of the knowledge of the glory”; δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.
75 tc ‡ Most witnesses, including several early and important ones (Ì46 א C H Ψ 0209 1739c Ï sy), read ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Ihsou Cristou, “Jesus Christ”), while other important witnesses, especially of the Western text (D F G 0243 630 1739* 1881 lat Ambst), have Χριστοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ. The reading with just Χριστοῦ is found in A B 33 {sa} Tert {Or Ath Chr}. Even though the witnesses for the shorter reading are not numerous, they are weighty. And in light of the natural scribal proclivity to fill out the text, particularly with reference to divine names, as well as the discrepancy among the witnesses as to the order of the names, the simple reading Χριστοῦ seems to be the best candidate for authenticity. NA27 reads ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ with ᾿Ιησοῦ in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.