2 Corinthians 3 is the third chapter of the

Second Epistle to the Corinthians The Second Epistle to the Corinthians is a Pauline epistle of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author named Timothy, and is addressed to the church in Corinth and Christians in the ...

in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

. It is authored by

Paul the Apostle Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

and Timothy ( 2 Corinthians 1:1) in

Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...

in 55–56 BC. Biblical commentator Heinrich Meyer emphasises that the use of the plural 'we' in 2 Corinthians 3:2 ("in our hearts") and 2 Corinthians 3:6 (

e are E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plura ...

"ministers of the new covenant") includes Timothy in the writing of the letter.

Text

The original text was written in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

. This chapter is divided into 18 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: *

Papyrus 46 Papyrus 46 (''P. Chester Beatty II''), designated by siglum (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), is an early Greek New Testament manuscript written on papyrus, and is one of the manuscripts comprising the Chester Beatty Papyri. Manuscripts among ...

(~AD 200) *

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(325–350) *

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts) ...

(330–360) *

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(400–440; complete) *

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Paris, National Library of France, Greek 9) designated by the siglum C or 04 {in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 3 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a ma ...

(~450) * Codex Freerianus (~450; extant verses 6–7,16–17) *

Codex Claromontanus Codex Claromontanus, symbolized by Dp, D2 or 06 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1026 ( von Soden), is a Greek-Latin diglot uncial manuscript of the New Testament, written in an uncial hand on vellum. The Greek and Latin texts are on facing p ...

(~550)

Verse 2

: ''You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;'' *"Epistle written in our hearts": Paul (and Timothy) call the readers their "epistle" in a similar sense to Paul's earlier description of them as his "work in the Lord, and the seal of his apostleship", in .''John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible'', 2 Corinthians 3:2
/ref>

Verse 3

New King James Version The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...

: ''Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.''

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

: ''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.'' *"The epistle of Christ ministered by us": The apostles and ministers of the Word were only "

amanuenses An amanuensis () is a person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another, and also refers to a person who signs a document on behalf of another under the latter's authority. In one example Eric Fenby ...

", whereas Christ was the "author and dictator" (i.e., who dictates the Word). *"Written... with the Spirit of the living God": the believers become the "living epistles of Christ" as a "living disposition of the soul in likeness to Him." *"Tables of stone": on

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai ( he , הר סיני ''Har Sinai''; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ ''Ṭūrāʾ Dsyny''), traditionally known as Jabal Musa ( ar, جَبَل مُوسَىٰ, translation: Mount Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is ...

the primary (Mosaic) law was written on tables of stone. They were made twice: the first by God Himself, the latter were hewed by Moses, at the command of God, ; ). The former are said to be "miraculously made, and not by the means and artifice of men", which, the Jewish writers say, were made of

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sapphir ...

, but they were broken by Moses when he came down from the mount. Both the former and the latter were of two stones of an equal size, in the form of small tables, such as for children to learn to write, each with the dimensions of six hands long, six hands broad and three hands thick, weighing forty "seahs" (a miracle that Moses should be able to carry them). On these stones were written the "Ten Commandments", that five were written on one table, and five on the other, as noted by

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's deplo ...

, and the Talmudic writers, and were written on both sides (). *"Fleshly tables of the heart" alluding to , not "carnal hearts", but the one "made soft and tender by the Spirit of God". The phrase "table of the heart" is found in the books of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

(; ; Jeremiah 17:1) and very frequently in the writings of the Jews.''John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible'', 2 Corinthians 3:3
/ref>

Verse 6

:''who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.'' *"Made us sufficient as ministers": This is an answer to the question in ( 2 Corinthians 2:16: ''who is sufficient for these things?'') that 'our sufficiency' is of God, for he had enabled Paul and his co-workers to be "sufficient ministers", which is totally God's making.''John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible'', 2 Corinthians 3:6
/ref>

Verse 17

:''Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.'' *"Liberty": this means freedom from the law (cf. Galatians 5:18) and the transformation of believers.

Verse 18

:''But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.'' *"By the Spirit of the Lord": or "from the Lord, the Spirit"Notes on 2 Corinthians 3:18 in NKJV *"The same image": The image of the believer, reflected as in a mirror, becomes that of Christ (cf. ; ).

References

Sources

External links

* King James Bible - Wikisource
English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Multiple bible versions at ''Bible Gateway''
(NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.) {{Second Epistle to the Corinthians

2 Corinthians 3 2 Corinthians 3 is the third chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament of the Christianity, Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle and Saint Timothy, Timothy (2 Corinthians 1:1) in Macedonia (Roman provin ...