2 Corinthians · Bible in Basic English
2 Corinthians 3 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Do we seem to be again attempting to put ourselves in the right? or have we need, as some have, of letters of approval to you or from you?
1 ¿COMENZAMOS otra vez á alabarnos á nosotros mismos? ¿ó tenemos necesidad, como algunos, de letras de recomendación para vosotros, ó de recomendación de vosotros?
2 You yourselves are our letter, whose writing is in our heart, open for every man's reading and knowledge;
2 Nuestras letras sois vosotros, escritas en nuestros corazones, sabidas y leídas de todos los hombres;
3 For you are clearly a letter of Christ, the fruit of our work, recorded not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in stone, but in hearts of flesh.
3 Siendo manifiesto que sois letra de Cristo administrada de nosotros, escrita no con tinta, mas con el Espíritu del Dios vivo; no en tablas de piedra, sino en tablas de carne del corazón.
4 And this is the certain faith which we have in God through Christ:
4 Y tal confianza tenemos por Cristo para con Dios:
5 Not as if we were able by ourselves to do anything for which we might take the credit; but our power comes from God;
5 No que seamos suficientes de nosotros mismos para pensar algo como de nosotros mismos, sino que nuestra suficiencia es de Dios;
6 Who has made us able to be servants of a new agreement; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter gives death, but the Spirit gives life.
6 El cual asimismo nos hizo ministros suficientes de un nuevo pacto: no de la letra, mas del espíritu; porque la letra mata, mas el espíritu vivifica.
7 For if the operation of the law, giving death, recorded in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the eyes of the children of Israel had to be turned away from the face of Moses because of its glory, a glory which was only for a time:
7 Y si el ministerio de muerte en la letra grabado en piedras, fué con gloria, tanto que los hijos de Israel no pudiesen poner los ojos en la faz de Moisés á causa de la gloria de su rostro, la cual había de perecer,
8 Will not the operation of the Spirit have a much greater glory?
8 ¿Cómo no será más bien con gloria el ministerio del espíritu?
9 For if the operation of the law, producing punishment, had its glory, how much greater will be the operation of the Spirit causing righteousness?
9 Porque si el ministerio de condenación fué [con] gloria, mucho más abundará en gloria el ministerio de justicia.
10 For the glory of the first no longer seems to be glory, because of the greater glory of that which comes after.
10 Porque aun lo que fué glorioso, no es glorioso en esta parte, en comparación de la excelente gloria.
11 For if the order which was for a time had its glory, much more will the eternal order have its glory.
11 Porque si lo que perece [tuvo] gloria, mucho más [será] en gloria lo que permanece.
12 Having then such a hope, we keep nothing back,
12 Así que, teniendo tal esperanza, hablamos con mucha confianza;
13 And are not like Moses, who put a veil on his face, so that the children of Israel might not see clearly to the end of the present order of things:
13 Y no como Moisés, [que] ponía un velo sobre su faz, para que los hijos de Israel no pusiesen los ojos en el fin de lo que había de ser abolido.
14 But their minds were made hard: for to this very day at the reading of the old agreement the same veil is still unlifted; though it is taken away in Christ.
14 Empero los sentidos de ellos se embotaron; porque hasta el día de hoy [les] queda el mismo velo no descubierto en la lección del antiguo testamento, el cual por Cristo es quitado.
15 But to this day, at the reading of the law of Moses, a veil is over their heart.
15 Y aun hasta el día de hoy, cuando Moisés es leído, el velo está puesto sobre el corazón de ellos.
16 But when it is turned to the Lord, the veil will be taken away.
16 Mas cuando se convirtieren al Señor, el velo se quitará.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there the heart is free.
17 Porque el Señor es el Espíritu; y donde hay el Espíritu del Señor, [allí] hay libertad.
18 But we all, with unveiled face giving back as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord who is the Spirit.
18 Por tanto, nosotros todos, mirando á cara descubierta como en un espejo la gloria del Señor, somos transformados de gloria en gloria en la misma semejanza, como por el Espíritu del Señor.
Cross references (18)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 2 Corinthians 10:12; 2 Corinthians 12:11; 2 Corinthians 5:12; Acts 18:27; 1 Corinthians 16:3
- 2 1 Corinthians 9:1–2; 1 Thessalonians 1:8; Romans 1:8; Philippians 1:7; 2 Corinthians 7:3
- 3 Ezekiel 11:19; Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10; Hebrews 10:16; Psalm 40:8
- 4 Philippians 1:6; Ephesians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:8; Exodus 18:19; 2 Corinthians 2:14
- 5 2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 4:13; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Philippians 2:13; John 15:5
- 6 John 6:63; Romans 7:6; Romans 8:2; Jeremiah 31:31; Hebrews 8:6–10
- 7 2 Corinthians 3:9–11; Romans 10:4; Exodus 31:18; 1 Corinthians 13:10; 2 Corinthians 3:3
- 8 1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:18; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Joel 2:28–29
- 9 Hebrews 12:18–21; Romans 3:21–22; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 2 Corinthians 3:6–7; 1 Corinthians 15:41
- 10 2 Peter 1:17; Haggai 2:7–9; Revelation 22:5; Job 25:5; Acts 26:13
- 11 Romans 5:20–21; Hebrews 8:13; Hebrews 7:21–25; 2 Corinthians 4:1; 2 Corinthians 3:6–7
- 12 2 Corinthians 7:4; Ephesians 6:19–20; Philippians 1:20; Acts 4:13; John 16:29
- 13 Exodus 34:33–35; Ephesians 2:14–15; Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 10:1–9; 2 Corinthians 3:7
- 14 2 Corinthians 4:3–4; Acts 26:18; Romans 11:25; Ephesians 1:17–20; Romans 11:7–10
- 15 Acts 13:27–29
- 16 Exodus 34:34; Isaiah 25:7; Isaiah 29:18; John 6:45–46; Romans 11:23
- 17 Romans 8:2; John 8:32; Galatians 5:13; Galatians 4:6; Galatians 5:1
- 18 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 4:22–24; Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 Corinthians 13:12
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
He anticipates and puts himself an objection which others would have urged against him, Thou vauntest thyself;' and this though he had before employed so strong a corrective in the expressions, "Who is sufficient for these things?" and, "of sincerity...speak we." (2 Cor. ii. 16, 17.) Howbeit he is not satisfied with these. For such is his character.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 12 (1889)
… hold on the flesh, he says in the same Epistle, "That ye are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart." If, therefore, in the present time, fleshly hearts are made partakers of the Spirit, what …
… before, when I censured Thy holy ones for so thinking, whereas in truth they thought not so; and with delight I heard Ambrose, in his sermons to the people, oftentimes most diligently recommend this text as a rule,--"The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life;" whilst, drawing aside the mystic veil, he spiritually laid open that which, accepted according to …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
… their mind, and in their heart I will write them," and, "they shall be all taught of God." And Paul too, pointing out the same superiority, said, that they had received a law "not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." But since in process of time they made shipwreck, some with regard to doctrines, others …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
For until this day...when Moses is read, a vail lieth upon their heart.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)