2 Corinthians 3:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The understanding of the superiority of this latter glory was inaccessible to the weak. Therefore that Old Covenant glory captivated them more and drew them to itself. Since he has already allowed such a comparison, he strives to show the superiority of the New Covenant glory.

But since this was very difficult because of the weakness of his hearers, see what he does and what method he uses to achieve his purpose. First he shows this difference and superiority through inferences that he draws from what was said above.

If that Old Covenant ministry was a ministry of death, and this New Covenant ministry is a ministry of life, then the glory of the latter ministry is certainly greater than the glory of the first.

Since he could not set the New Covenant glory before bodily eyes, he showed its superiority by inference, saying, “If the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, will not the ministry of the Spirit be much more glorious?” By the ministry of death he means the Law.

See how great a caution he observes in the comparison, so as not to give any occasion to heretics. He did not say that the Law was the cause of death, but “the ministry of death,” because the Law ministers unto death, but did not produce death.

The cause of death was sin. The Law subjected sin to condemnation and only revealed sin, but did not produce it. It disclosed the evil more clearly and only punished evil, but did not incite to evil.

It served not in order to produce sin or death, but to punish the one who sins. In this way it was also a destroyer of sin. Indeed, when it showed sin to be so terrible, it clearly compelled men to flee it.

One who takes a sword in hand and puts a condemned man to death serves only as the instrument of the judge who pronounces the sentence. Though he kills, he is not a murderer. Likewise, the one who pronounces sentence and condemns the guilty man is not the cause of death.

The cause of death is the crime of the one punished. So also here, it is not the Law that kills, but sin. Sin both killed and condemned. The Law, by punishing the transgressor, deprived sin of its strength, taming it through fear of punishment.

But the Apostle was not satisfied with this comparison alone to persuade them of the superiority of the New Covenant. He added something else, saying, “engraved on stones.” See how he again casts down Jewish pride.

Indeed, the Law was nothing other than writings. And writings gave and imparted no help to those under the Law, such as occurs in baptism. Instead, the tablets and inscriptions brought death to those who transgressed the writings.

Do you see how he corrects Jewish contentiousness and, by the very names, takes away the Law’s superiority? He calls it now “stone,” now “letters,” now “ministry of death,” and again “formed” or “engraved.”

By this he shows either that the Law is bound to one definite place, unlike the Spirit, who is present everywhere and breathes great power into all things. Or he shows that the writings breathe great threats, and threats that cannot be destroyed, but always remain as if cut into stone.

Then, although he appears to praise the ancient Law, he at the same time again rebukes the coarseness of the Jews. Having said, “engraved on stones, was glorious,” he added, “so that the children of Israel could not look at the face of Moses.”

This exposed their great weakness and fleshliness. Again he says that the Jews could not gaze not because of the glory of the tablets, but “because of the glory of his face, which was passing away.”

By these words he shows that the tablets were not glorified with glory, but the one who brought the tablets. He did not say that they could not gaze at the tablets, but “at the face of Moses.”

Nor does he say, “because of the glory of the tablets,” but “because of the glory of his face.” Yet after exalting this glory, see how he again lowers it by the word “passing away.”

Still, by this word he does not lower Moses, but only shows the temporariness of his glory. He did not say that it was somehow impure or evil, but only that it was ceasing and had an end.

“Will not the ministry of the Spirit be much more glorious?” Now he speaks with boldness of the superiority of the New Covenant, since it is no longer subject to doubt. See what he does: he sets stone over against heart, and writings over against Spirit.

Then, after pointing out the consequences that must arise from each covenant, he does not yet say what actually arose from each. Having shown the consequence of the letter, namely, death and condemnation, he still passes over the fruits of the Spirit, life and righteousness.

He speaks only of the Spirit Himself, and this gave him occasion for a great expansion of his discourse. The New Covenant not only granted life, but also communicated the Spirit who gives life, which is greater than life itself. Therefore he said, “the ministry of the Spirit.”

He says that the Law was a minister of death. He did not say, “the cause of death,” lest he give occasion to heretics, but “minister.” For the cause of death was sin, while the Law subjected it to punishment.

Moreover, the Law was only a letter and gave no help to those who struggled, as Baptism gives. Rather, it imposed punishments that could not be effaced. For this minister of death was engraved on stones.

If, then, the Law, being of such a character, was so glorious, how much more glory does grace possess, which surpasses it beyond all comparison?

So that the children of Israel could not look at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was passing away. He covertly accuses the Jews. They were so coarse, he says, that they could not even look upon a perceptible glory.

He did not say that the Law and the tablets had glory, but the face of Moses. For Moses was glorified, not the tablets of the Law.

Yet he also sets aside the very glory of Moses by calling it passing away. Observe, however, that he did not call it evil, but something that has an end and ceases.

He shows that the Law punishes, but grace gives life. The glory allotted to Moses lasted a little while, while the glory of the preachers abides forever.

There, Moses alone partook of glory. Here, not only the Apostles partake, but also those who have believed through them.

Then the Apostle, to show the superiority of grace, makes the comparison in a fuller way.

Drawing a parallel between the ministry of Moses and his own, and calling the former a ministry of condemnation and death, the Apostle calls his own ministry a ministry of righteousness.

He calls it this because it leads to man’s justification. He also calls it a ministry of the Spirit, because its chief character is spiritual, and because through it the Holy Spirit is given to believers.

Here the Apostle directly calls himself and the other Apostles, the preachers of the Gospel, ministers of the New Testament. That is, they are its bearers and mediators between God the Lawgiver and men.

In this they resemble Moses, who was such a mediator in the Old Testament. But if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, the Apostle concludes, the ministry of justification must be far more glorious.

If this ministry, “engraved on stones,” meaning the tablets of the Law, “was so glorious that the children of Israel could not look at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face. Which was passing away,” then how much more glorious must the ministry of the Spirit be (2 Cor 3:7-8), and the ministry “of justification” (2 Cor 3:9)?

The light of Moses’ face shone only for a time and then faded. According to the Apostle, the superiority of the New Testament ministry over the Old is so great that the glory of the latter’s ministers cannot even be compared with the glory of the ministers of the New Testament.

This is true even if one speaks of Moses himself, whose face shone with light. “What was made glorious,” that is, the Old Testament ministry, “has not even been made glorious in this respect, because of the glory that surpasses it” (2 Cor 3:10).

For it is not passing away, as the Old Testament religion was, but abiding (2 Cor 3:11).

Chrysostom’s words on the deadly character of the letters of the Old Testament Law, and on the life-giving power of New Testament grace, are very characteristic.

“If the Law catches a murderer, it condemns him to death. But if grace catches a murderer, it sanctifies him and gives him life.

But why do I speak of a murderer? The Law even seized and stoned the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath. This is what it means that the letter kills.

By contrast, grace catches countless murderers and robbers, washes them with the waters of Baptism, and releases them from their former evils. This is what it means that the Spirit gives life.”

His reasoning here is this. You know by your own experience how much more excellent the divine economy of salvation is which we set before you and which you received, compared with that of the Old Covenant. You received the Life-giving Spirit. He gave you new life, sanctified you, and tangibly showed the sign of His abiding in you through extraordinary gifts. The Old Covenant service gave nothing of this kind.

But see what glory accompanied its establishment. Moses, coming down from the mountain with its inscription, shone with glory. From this conclude the following. If that service, so much lower than ours, appeared so glorious, how much more glorious must our service be?

The Apostle's purpose in speaking thus seems to be this. I am explaining to you the superiority of the new grace over the Old Covenant service. Yet someone may think: how then did Moses shine with glory, while here what do we see? The Savior is in humiliation. The Apostles are all without outward splendor. The lot of all believers is likewise without visible glory.

Take care not to be scandalized by such a thought. On the contrary, from the very fact that the Old Covenant service appeared so glorious, conclude that ours is incomparably more glorious. You have already experienced its power in yourselves. You bear within yourselves the testimony of its superiority.

If what you receive from this service is incomparably superior to what that service gave, then do not doubt that the glory of our service is also more radiant than the glory of that service. Do not look at outward appearance. What is seen is temporal, but what is unseen is eternal.

Is what you have from the Spirit of grace visible? It is invisible. Is it therefore any less real? Not in the least. For nothing external is being reported to you about this. It is what you yourselves feel and experience within yourselves.

So, if this is beyond doubt though invisible, do not doubt that the glory of our service is truly more radiant than the glory of the Old Covenant service, though no one sees the radiance of this glory.

The Apostle impresses this truth upon them by reasoning. He could not point to this glory in such a way that bodily eyes could see it, as the Israelites saw the glory of Moses. He could not say: here, look, what glory! Nor is this glory beheld by the eyes of the mind as some visible light. It is only received in the certainty of conviction that it exists. This certainty of conviction is its light.

The glory itself is the superiority of its dignity, clearly perceived. All this was built upon the unquestionable fact that the divine economy of salvation gave the Spirit of grace, communicated new spiritual life, and was crowned with special gifts.

This quickening by the Spirit, experienced by all, and this Spirit-bearing and movement by the Spirit, present in all, gave the Apostle's reasoning an unshakable point of support. It also gave it power to answer every perplexity.

Saint Chrysostom sees this structure of thought in the Apostle, and all our interpreters follow him. He says: "The Apostle said that the tablets of Moses were stone and were inscribed with letters or writings. He also said that the tablets of the New Covenant were of flesh and were written by the Spirit. He further said that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

It remained, finally, to add to this comparison something else of no small importance. This concerned the glory of Moses' face, a glory which no one saw in the New Covenant with bodily eyes. The first glory therefore seemed great, because it struck the senses and was beheld with bodily eyes, though it was also unapproachable.

The glory of the New Covenant, however, is spiritual. Yet the apprehension of the superiority of this latter glory was inaccessible to the weak. For this reason the Old Covenant glory captivated them more and drew them to itself.

Therefore, since he had already admitted such a comparison between the New Covenant and the Old, he resolved also to show the superiority of the New Covenant glory. Since this was very difficult because of the weakness of his hearers, observe what he does. See what method he uses to achieve this purpose.

He shows this distinction and superiority by reasonings drawn from what he has already said. If the Old Covenant service, he says, was a service of death, while the New Covenant is a service of life, then without doubt the glory of the latter service is greater than the glory of the former.

Since he could not present the New Covenant glory to bodily eyes, he shows its superiority by reasoning."

The Apostle constructs three such reasonings. Their starting points are, on the one hand, the glory of Moses' face, and on the other, the spiritual perfections of the New Covenant service. The reasoning proceeds everywhere in the same way. The former is lesser, yet so glorious. How then will the latter, which is better and greater, not be incomparably more excellent?

First he states in what way the former is lesser and the latter greater. From this he draws the evident conclusion. If the lesser is glorious, then of course the greater is incomparably more glorious.

The following features are compared. The former is a service of death, dead in character. The latter is a service of the Spirit, living and life-bearing, verses 7 and 8. The former is a service of condemnation. The latter is a service of righteousness, verses 9 and 10. The former is passing away. The latter abides, verse 11.

Who does not see that, if the first is glorious, the second must be incomparably more glorious? After this, the content of verses 7 through 11 becomes understandable.

It is necessary, however, to make some needed observations on certain expressions. What should be understood here by service? Not the mediation of Moses and the Apostleship, but the divine economy of salvation under the Law and under grace, in their comparison with each other.

So teaches Saint Chrysostom, and all our interpreters with him. Theodoret alone points now to the one, now to the other. According to the course of the discourse, it is better to understand the latter. In this section the Apostle is reasoning throughout about the superiority of the New Covenant. He sets it forth, while in every way he hides and shields himself.

Just before this he said that, of themselves, they are nothing. Is it fitting to suppose that after such a word he immediately sets forth the glory of the Apostleship?

"But if the ministry of death, formed in letters on stones, came with glory." Formed is εντετυπωμενη, impressed with letters on stones, on the two stone tablets. On these tablets only the Decalogue was written. Yet by the service of death the whole Old Covenant institution is meant.

The Apostle includes the whole of it in the one thing written on the tablets, because the Decalogue formed the center of the whole Old Covenant institution. He does this also because the glory on Moses' face first appeared when he brought down the tablets.

Perhaps he also does this because writing with letters on stones expresses very well the essential features of the Old Covenant. The words "came with glory" point to the glorification of the appearance of the flesh of Moses' face when he came down from the mountain.

This glorification was so great that Aaron and all the sons of Israel could not endure its radiance, and "they were afraid to come near Moses" (Ex 34:29-30). This is what the Apostle expresses when he says that the sons of Israel could not gaze upon the face of Moses.

At first Moses himself "did not know that the appearance of the flesh of his face had been glorified." But when he learned this, he began to put a veil over his face, so that he could enter freely into communion with the sons of Israel in arranging the whole Covenant.

When Moses went up the mountain, he removed the veil in order to speak with God. This glorification of his face was the consequence of seeing the glory of God. It was its reflection. Therefore, after the whole work of arranging the covenant order was completed, it probably ceased. For this reason the Apostle called this glory one that was passing away.

The sons of Israel, he says, could not gaze upon Moses, because of the glory of his face, which was passing away. But why is this institution called a service of death?

"The Apostle called the service of the Law a service of death because the Law punished transgressors with death" (Theodoret).

"By the service of death the Apostle means the Law, although the Law was not the cause and begetter of death. The cause of death is sin. It led to the transgression of the Law. The Law disclosed this and subjected one to condemnation for sin.

It revealed evil more clearly and only punished evil. It did not incite to evil. It served not to produce sin or death, but to punish the one who sins. In this way it was also a destroyer of sin.

For when it showed sin to be so terrible, it undoubtedly compelled one to flee from it, or else curbed sin by fear of punishment" (Saint Chrysostom).

The Law restrained the works of sin, but the power of sin remained active even under it. Since the power of sin is a death-dealing power, and since it was provoked by the Law, while the Law gave no help for resisting it, the Law held those under it within the death-dealing realm of sin.

"The Law was nothing other than writings. But writings did not provide any help to those under the Law, unlike what happens in Baptism. Rather, the tablets and the inscriptions brought death to those who transgressed the writings" (Saint Chrysostom).

This is why the Law is a service of death. Or perhaps the institution under the Law is called a service of death in the sense that it was a dead service. That is, it was written, literal, statutory, and external, without the inner power of life.

The Law did not give the Spirit, but only prescribed works. The works were performed in the customary manner, while inwardly there was no spiritual life. For spiritual life is given by the Spirit, whom the Law did not communicate.