2 Corinthians — Chapter 3
A letter on hearts
3:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Paul rejects dependence on external letters of commendation. [Homily 6, on 2 Corinthians 3:1].
3:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
You are our letter, inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all people.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The converted community itself commends its teacher. [Homily 6, on 2 Corinthians 3:2].
3:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
You are made manifest as a letter of Christ, ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.
Textual & reception notes
Hearts of flesh renders sarkinos positively in contrast with stone. It is not a statement of moral fleshliness.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The disciples' virtue publicly witnesses to Christ's work in their hearts. [Homily 6, on 2 Corinthians 3:3].
3:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Ministerial confidence comes through Christ and is directed toward God. [Homily 6, on 2 Corinthians 3:4].
3:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Not that we are sufficient from ourselves to reckon anything as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The whole of ministerial sufficiency belongs to God. [Homily 6, on 2 Corinthians 3:5-6].
3:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Textual & reception notes
Letter and Spirit are contrasted within the covenantal argument, not expanded into a rejection of careful reading or written Scripture. Reception [CHR6], Homily 6 §2: Chrysostom relates the killing letter to the law’s punishment of transgression, and the life-giving Spirit to grace and baptismal restoration; this is separately attributed interpretation.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: He identifies the life-giving Spirit with baptismal grace. [Homily 6, on 2 Corinthians 3:5-6].
The glory of the new ministry
3:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Now if the ministry of death, engraved in letters on stones, came in glory, so that the sons of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, which was being brought to an end,
Textual & reception notes
Being brought to an end renders katargeō, also being rendered ineffective. The same word family is carried through 3:11–14; fading is an interpretive rendering rather than the only lexical sense.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Moses's visible glory introduces the comparison with spiritual glory. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:7-8].
3:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
how will the ministry of the Spirit not be still more in glory?
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The Spirit's ministry surpasses the earlier ministry's glory. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:7-8].
3:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For if there is glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The law exposes sin; the Spirit's ministry confers righteousness. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:9].
3:10
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For indeed what had been glorified has not been glorified in this respect, because of the surpassing glory.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The earlier glory is real but surpassed in comparison. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:10].
3:11
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For if what is being brought to an end came through glory, much more is what remains in glory.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The enduring covenant exceeds what passes away. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:11].
The unveiled face
3:12
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore, having such hope, we use great boldness,
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Hope supports open, confident instruction. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:12].
3:13
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel might not gaze at the end of what was being brought to an end.
Textual & reception notes
End renders telos; outcome or goal is also possible. The passage’s interpretation of Moses is retained without editing Exodus to match it.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Unveiled instruction contrasts with Moses's veiled appearance. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:13].
3:14
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But their minds were hardened. For until this very day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant, not being unveiled, because in Christ it is brought to an end.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: He reads the old covenant as finding its fulfillment in Christ. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:14].
3:15
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: He locates the veil in readers' hearts rather than textual obscurity. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:15].
3:16
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Textual & reception notes
One supplies an English subject to the unexpressed Greek subject. The antecedent may be the heart or a person turning, with the Moses narrative in view; no particular group or individual is newly named.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: Turning to the Lord removes the veil, as Moses's example suggests. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:16].
3:17
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Textual & reception notes
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: He invokes this verse to affirm the Spirit's divine lordship. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:17].
3:18
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And 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, as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Textual & reception notes
Beholding as in a mirror is the chosen sense of katoptrizomenoi; reflecting is another. From the Lord, the Spirit reads kyriou pneumatos appositionally; from the Spirit of the Lord is another construction. Both require further linguistic review.
Reception (Tier A; direct commentary) — St John Chrysostom: The Spirit transforms all the faithful, not merely the apostles. [Homily 7, on 2 Corinthians 3:18].