Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
The Letter Kilhth, 2 CORINTHIANS III. but the Spirit givelh Life, tianity, on the other hand, makes the spirit of our outward observances everything, and the letter a secondary consideration (John 4. "24). Still the moral law of tlie teu commandments, being written by the finger of God, is as obligatory now as ever; but put more on the Gospel spirit of "love," than on the letter of a servile obedience, and in a deeper and fuller spirituality (Matthew 5. 17-43 ; Romans 13. 9). No literal precepts could fully comprehend the wide range of holiness which love, the work of the Holy Spirit, under the Gospel, suggests to the believer's heart instinctively from the word understood in a letter coming manifestly from Christ, and " ministered by us," £. e., carried about and presented by us as its (ministering) bearers to tliose (tlie world) for whom it is intended : Christ is the Writer and tlie Recommender, ye are tlie letter recommending us. -written not wHU Ink, but with tlie Spirit of the living God—St. Paul was the ministering pen or other instrument of writing, as well as the juiiiisterlng bearer and presenter of tlie letter. "Not With ink" stands in contrast to the letters of commendation which "some" at Corinth (r. 1) used. "Ink" is also used here to include all outward materials lor writing, such as the Sinaitic tables of stone were. These, however, were not written with ink, but "graven" by " the finger of God" (Exodus 31. 18; 32. 16). Christ's Epistle (his believing members converted by St. Paul) is better still: its deep spirituality, letter killeth—by bringing home the knowledge of guilt and its punishment, deaA ,• v. 7, "ministration of death" (Romans 7. 9). spirit giveth life—The spirit of the Gospel when brought home to the heart by the Holy Spirit, gives new spiritual life to a man (Romans 6. 4, 11). This "spirit of life" is for us in Christ Jesus (Romans 8. 2, 10), who dwells in the believer as a " quickening" or " life-giving Spirit" (1 Corinthians 15. 45). Note, the spiritualism of rationalists is very difl Terent. It would admit no "stereotyped revelation, ' except so much as man's own inner instrument of revelation, the conscience and reason, can approve of; thus making the conscience judge of the written word, whereas the apostles make the written word the judge of the conscience (Acts 17. 11; 1 Peter 4. 1). True spirituality rests on the whole written word, applied to the soul by the Holy Spirit as the only infallible interpreter of its far-reaching spirituality. The letter is nothing without the spirit, in a subject essentially spiritual. The spirit is nothing without the letter, in a record substantially historical. 7. the ministration of death—the legal dispensation, summed up in the Decalogue, which denounces death against niau for transgression, written and engraven in stones There is no "and" in the Greek. The lit. translation is, " The ministration of death in letters," of which "engraven on stones" is an explanation. The preponderance of oldest MSS. is for the English Version reading. But one, perhaps the oldest existing MS., has "in the letter," which refers to the pi'eceding words (v. 6), "the letter killeth," and this seems the probable reading. Even if we read as English Version, "The ministration of death (written) in letters," alludes to tlie literal p7-ecepts of the law as only bringing us the knowledge of sin and " death," in contrast to " the Spirit" in the Gospel bringing us " life" (v. 6). The opposition between "the letters" and "the Spirit" (v. 8) confirms this. This explains why the phrase in Greek should be "in letters," instead of the ordinary one which English Version has substituted, "written and." was glorious lit., "was inade (invested) in glory:" glory was the atmosphere with which it was encompassed, could not steadfastly behold lit., " fix their eyes on." Exodus .34. 30, "The skin of his face shone; and they were AFRAID to come nigh him." "Could not," therefore means here, /or fear. The "glory of Moses" countenance" on Sinai passed away when the occasion was over: a type of the transitory character of the dispensation which he represented (i'. 11), as contrasted with the permanency of the Christian dispensation (v. 11). 9. be rather glorionst it is written not merely with the finger, but with the
Spirit oi the living God:" it is not the "ministration of death" as the law, but of the "living Spirit" that "giveth life" (u. t)-8). not In—not on tables (tablets) of stone, as the ten commandments were written {v. 7). In fleshy tables of the heart—ALL the best MSS. read, "On (your) he<irls (which are) tables of flesh." Once your hearts were spiritually what the tables of the law were physically, tables of stone, but God has " taken away the stony heart out of your Hesh, and given you a heart of flesh" (fleshy, not fleshly, i. e., carnal; hence it is written, "out of your tlesh," i.e., your carnal nature), Ezekiel 11. 19; 36. 26. Cf. v.
2, "As ye are our Epistle written in our hearts," so Christ has in the first instance made you " His Epistle written with the Spirit in (on) your hearts." I bear on my heart, as a testimony to all men, that which Christ has by His Spirit written in your heart [Alfobd] (cf. Proverbs 3. 3; 7.
S; Jeremiah 31.31-34). This passage is quoted by Paley {Horce Paulinoe) as illustrating one peculiarity of St. Paul's style, viz., his going off at a word into a parenthetic reflection : here it is on the word "Epistle." So "savour," ch. 2.14-17. 4. XnA— Greek, "But." "Such confidence, however {viz., of our 'sufficiency,' v. 5, 6; ch. 2. 16 [to which he reverts after the parenthesis], as ministers of the New Testament, 'not fainting,' ch. 4. 1), we have through Christ (not through ourselves, cf. v. 18) toward God" (i. e., in our relation to God and His work, the ministry committed by Him to us, for which we must render an account to Him). Confidence toward God is solid and real, as looking to Him for the strength needed now, and also for the reward of grace to be "given hereafter. Cf. Acts 24. 15, "Hope toward God." Human confidence is unreal in that it looks to man for its help and its reward. 5. The Greek is, "Not that we are (even yet alter so long experience as ministers) sufficient to think any thing of ourselves as (coming) FKOM ourselves; but our sufticiencj' is (derived) from God." "From" more definitely refers to the source out of which a thing comes ; "of" is more general. "To think," Greek, to "reason out" or "devise;" to attain to sound pieac Uing by our reasonings. [Theodoret.] The "we" refers here to minisleis (2 IVter 1. 21). anything—even the least. We cannot expect too little from man, or too much from God. 6. able—rather, as the Greek is the same, corresponding to v. 5, translate, " suffieient as ministers". (Ephesians 3. 7 ; ColoKsians 1. 23). the new testament —"the neyf covenant
—lit., "be rather (i. <>., still more, invested) In glory." "Shall be," i.e., shall bi* found to be in part now, but fully when the glory of Christ and His saints shall bo revealed. 9. ministration of condemnation—the law regarded in the "letter" which "killeth" (d. 6; Romans 7.
' as contrasted with the Old Testament or covenant (1 tJorintliians 11. 25; Galatians 4. 21). He reverts here again to the contrast between the law on "tables of stone," and that "written by the Spirit on fleshly tables of the heart" (v. 3). not of the letter—joined with "ministers:" ministers not of the mere literal pre-
9-11). The oldest existing MS. seems to read as English
But most of the almost contemporary MSS., versions, and fathers, read, "If to the ministration of condemnation there be glory." tl»e ministration of righteousness—the Gospel, which especially reveals the righteousness of God (Romans 1. 17), and imputes righteousness to men through faith in Christ (Romans 3. 21-28; cept, \n which the old law, as then understood, consisted
"but of the Spirit," /. c, .ipirilual holiness which lay under the old law, and which the new covenant brings to light (Matthew 5. 17-18) with new motives added, and a new poiver of obedience Imparted, r/e., the Holy Spirit (Romans 7. 6). Even in writing the letter of the New Testament, St. Paul and the other sacred writers were min-
4. 3, 2'2-25), and imparts rlghteoiisness by the Spirit (Romans S. 1-4). exceeil — "abound." 10. /'or even the ministration of condemnation, the law, v. 7 {which h<u been glorified at Sinai in Moses' person), has now {Engluh isters not of the letter, but of the spirit. No pletj' of spirit tould exempt a man from the yoke of the letter of each legal ordinance under the Old Testament; for God had appointed this as the way in which he chose a devout Jew to express his state of mind towards God. Chris304
Version translates less fitly, "was made . . . had") lost itt glory in this respect by reason of the surpassing glory (of the Gospel): as the light of the atara and moon faces lu the