2 Corinthians · Majority Standard Bible
2 Corinthians 3 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation 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, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by everyone.
2 Nuestras letras sois vosotros, escritas en nuestros corazones, sabidas y leídas de todos los hombres;
3 It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
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 Such confidence before God is ours through Christ.
4 Y tal confianza tenemos por Cristo para con Dios:
5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence 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 And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, 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 Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory,
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 ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
8 ¿Cómo no será más bien con gloria el ministerio del espíritu?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of righteousness!
9 Porque si el ministerio de condenación fué [con] gloria, mucho más abundará en gloria el ministerio de justicia.
10 Indeed, what was once glorious has no glory now in comparison to the glory that surpasses it.
10 Porque aun lo que fué glorioso, no es glorioso en esta parte, en comparación de la excelente gloria.
11 For if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which endures!
11 Porque si lo que perece [tuvo] gloria, mucho más [será] en gloria lo que permanece.
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
12 Así que, teniendo tal esperanza, hablamos con mucha confianza;
13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was fading away.
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 closed. For to this day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant. It has not been lifted, because only in Christ can it be removed.
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 And even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
15 Y aun hasta el día de hoy, cuando Moisés es leído, el velo está puesto sobre el corazón de ellos.
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is 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 is freedom.
17 Porque el Señor es el Espíritu; y donde hay el Espíritu del Señor, [allí] hay libertad.
18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes 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)