Translation & Sermon by
Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 14 Sept.
2025
Underlined words in Scripture quotes indicate words that
are in common with the Greek text of the sermon passage. Otherwise,
underlining indicates words to emphasize when reading this transcript
out loud.
Omitting greyed-out text should
reduce read-aloud time to around 40 minutes.
Despite the fact that my undergraduate degree was in Physics and Mathematics, my first career was as a full-time promoter of foreign missions among university students in the United States. This led to me working for a time under the leadership of Dr. Greg Fritz, whose legendary missionary work in one of the world’s most-closed countries, and visionary leadership in mission mobilization (which led to tens of thousands of university students pledging to devote their lives to missions), and whose personal godly character I greatly admired. So, one week, I got to travel with Greg to Wheaton for the national conference of the Association of Church Mission Committees, where Greg was a seminar speaker. After the first plenary session, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I whipped around, and there was my old college Mathematics professor, Dr. Clumpner – another man I greatly admired. He had come to the conference as a representative of his church and had seen me in the row ahead of him and recognized me as one of his former students. Well, I wanted to make a good impression on my old college professor, so after some small talk, I showed him what prestigious circles I was now running in by introducing him to Greg Fritz, my boss who was sitting next to me. Unfortunately for me, Dr. Clumpner had never heard of Greg Fritz, so it didn’t make the impression I had hoped, but being a congenial man, Dr. Clumpner asked Greg a question natural to a college professor, “Ah,” he said, “So what did you study in school?” Now, one of the godly character traits I appreciated about Greg Fritz was his humility. Instead of touting all his missions credentials, Greg meekly answered, “I studied Agriculture at Penn State.” Well, Dr. Clumpner apparently didn’t think much of agriculture, so he quickly took his leave. I got the feeling he was not at all impressed with my choice of career!
People don’t always ask the right questions or consider the right credentials, do they? Sometimes a degree in a particular field doesn’t really qualify you for expertise in that field, and sometimes, a charismatic personality can present flashy credentials that make you forget what’s really important. That’s apparently what had happened in Corinth: Some guys who apparently called themselves “super-apostles” (11:5; 12:11) had come to town after Paul, and had raised questions about Paul’s credentials, and that had tempted some of the Corinthians to forget Paul’s good ministry among them. Paul addresses this problem in chapter 3:
Read my translation of this passage, starting at verse ??:
Shall
we begin again to provide endorsements for ourselves, when we have
no need (as some guys do) for endorsement letters with y’all –
or of endorsements from y’all? You yourselves are our letter,
written into our hearts, known and read by everybody, while y’all
are being revealed that y’all are the Anointed One’s letter
which is being served by us, inscribed not with ink but with the
Spirit of the Living God, not in tablets of stone but in heart-flesh
tablets. And such confidence we have through Christ before God. It
is not that we are sufficient of ourselves to reckon anything as
being from ourselves, but rather our sufficiency [comes] out of God,
who also made us sufficient servers of a new covenant, not
consisting of legal-code, but rather of the Spirit, for the
legal-code kills, but the Spirit gives life!
Remember that this was almost 2,000 years before the Internet was invented. If you wanted to know something, you had to talk or write to someone who knew what you needed to know. So if you wanted to know someone’s reputation, you would read a letter written by someone who knew that person’s reputation.
Another dynamic going on in the first Century was that the persecution of Christians was resulting in a lot of Christians moving away from Jerusalem to new places around the world, so Christians from who-knows-where might arrive on a ship in the seaport city of Corinth, claiming to have been discipled by the Apostle Peter or the Apostle John himself, and all you would have to go on was their word, unless they could produce a letter written by Peter or John substantiating their claim. (This is part of the reason why Paul mentions the names of so many of his associates in his letters – it was to provide credentials for those people to start their ministries1.)
So these so-called “super-apostles” who moved into Corinth after Paul, apparently started asking what credentials Paul had.
Galatians chapter 2 says that something like that had already happened back in Antioch. Certain men with direct connections to the Apostle James came in and disrupted the newly-planted church with instructions to keep the races pure and segregate Jews and Gentiles into separate places for worship and meals. Paul got in their faces and told them they were denying the Gospel and returning to the man-made legalism of apostate Judaism and making Christ out to be “a minister of sin,”
and he told the Galatians in Galatians chapter 3 that anybody that followed those guys, credentials from the Apostle James notwithstanding, was “foolish” and “bewitched.”
In fact, he wrote in Galatians 1:8 that “...even if... an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!” (NASB)
Now, to tell the truth, Paul did have endorsement letters from the apostles:
His name is all over the book of Acts, written by Dr. Luke,
and the Apostle James had written an endorsement-letter for Paul in Acts 15:23, but Paul didn’t have that letter with him when he went to Corinth because he had previously delivered that letter to the churches in Asia Minor to whom it was originally addressed.
Peter also wrote an endorsement for Paul in 2 Peter 3:15, but that was about 10 years into the future from where Paul stood when he wrote 2 Corinthians, so Paul didn’t have that letter yet.
Perhaps word had gotten around to Paul that folks in Corinth were saying, “Hmm. So what ARE Paul’s credentials anyway? I’m just asking. You know, he doesn’t seem to be a very impressive person. I mean, he was decent at making tents, I’ll give him that. But all he has is this claim that he had some vision on the road to Damascus and that he had talked to some of Jesus’ disciples afterwards. Should that really qualify him to be our pastor? Maybe we were a little hasty in following him.”
So here in 2 Corinthians 3, Paul says, “Whoa! Stop and think about this:
When I moved in among y’all three years ago, I introduced myself, I shared how God had sent me to preach the Good news about Jesus to Gentiles, and I shared how all the elders and apostles in Jerusalem had commissioned me with Barnabas and Silas to welcome Gentile believers into the churches of Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.
“Furthermore, you were convinced by the gospel messages I preached, and you became followers of Jesus through my teaching. You wouldn’t even have become Christians if it weren’t for me. We know each other and we love each other, we don’t need to start over from scratch as though we had never met before and introduce ourselves all over again! Don’t be ridiculous!”
All the Greek manuscripts of verse 1 have the word “no” in, “...we have no need for letters of recommendation with y’all…,” but the traditional Greek punctuation (introduced during the Middle Ages) is a question mark, which leaves English Bible translators in a quandary, since it is not good grammar to say “we have no need” and then to end the sentence with a question mark, so most English versions omit the “no” and keep the question mark2.
The word “commend” at the beginning of verse 1 is the same root as the word for “letters of commendation” in the middle of verse 1, so I think they are the same thing:
Paul is not suggesting that he become his own hype man and start bragging on himself;
Paul is protesting being asked to present letters of endorsement as though he needed to introduce himself to the Corinthians all over again3.
There is no question that introductory letters were unnecessary for Paul and Timothy; Paul is just being diplomatic and “going easy on” (2 Cor. 1:23) the Corinthians.
At the same time Paul and Timothy can’t help but put in a jibe at the “super-apostles,” saying, “we don’t need reference letters like some/others do.” In other words, “Those guys don’t have the reputation that comes from telling the truth (like we do), and they don’t have the respect that comes from laying down your life for others over years (like we do), so (unlike us), all they have to go on is letters of recommendation!”
Paul comes back to this point several more times in 2 Corinthians4:
4:2 “...by manifestation of the truth [we are] commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God…” We don’t need an endorsement from a famous person; we are teaching what is true, and the truth proves itself true!
5:12 “For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart…”
6:4 “But in all things [we are] approving/[commending] ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses...” The very fact that we endured such hardship in order to tell you folks about Jesus is proof enough!
10:12 “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise...”
10:18 “For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth...”
12:11 “... for I ought to have been commended of/[by] you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.” You’re the ones who ought to be writing me endorsements!
In fact, he says in v.2, “You yourselves are our letter… known and read by everybody.”
This 2nd person plural pronoun “you yourselves” is emphatic.
Paul says, in effect, “If anybody wants to know my character, and what my doctrine is, and what I have devoted my life to, and what I would do again in a heartbeat if I could, all they need to do is look at you Christians in Corinth. What I preached is what you believe, the church values which you are developing are my values, and the planting of churches - just like yours - is what I have been doing for years.”5
As he wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:15 & 9:2 “... in Christ Jesus through the good news I myself begot y'all… If to others I am not an apostle, nevertheless I still am to you, for you yourselves are my seal of apostleship in the Lord!” (NAW)
A special bond develops between parishioners and a pastor over the years, if he is a good leader.
I think the world of Randy Nabors, my college pastor, and a true visionary for urban church ministry, who was the first to suggest I become a pastor,
and of Rick Vasquez, my pastor for about a decade in Colorado, under whom I did my first church internship,
and if anybody ever were to ask me to give a reference for one of those men, they would get a reference that practically paints halos around their heads!
As for us, God has planted our Church like He planted the church in Corinth:
We’re in a highly-transient town, with as much as a third of our congregation turning over in the space of a single year (Some of my pastor friends say it’s like preaching to a revolving door!),
but that means we have the opportunity to model and share a vision of what we believe the Bible says a church can be like, and to make disciples of folks while they’re here, and then send them out to the four corners of the earth where they can implement and share these ideas we shared with them from God’s word while they lived in “The Little Apple.”
I hope that someday it will be said of our church, what was said of the church in Romans 1:8 “...I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” (NKJV)
Fondness is “inscribed on the hearts” of both pastors and parishioners. Paul loves the Corinthian church dearly, and he says it again in 2 Corinthians 7:3 “...you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.” (NKJV, cf. Philip. 1:7)
Verse 3 continues as a parallel to verse 2. Verse 2 said, “Y’all are our letter,” and now verse 3 elaborates: “Actually, y’all are being revealed as Christ’s letter, ministered-to by us.” In other words, “We (Paul & Timothy) planted your church, and the values of your church are very much a reflection of our values as your pastors, so you are ‘our letter,’ but ultimately, you are not our church, you are Christ’s church – ‘Christ’s epistle,’ and the values we are trying to pass on to you and which you are growing to ‘reveal/manifest/show’ are actually Christ’s values. We are only ‘ministers’ sent by Him to you, to do what He wants. So the more you become “our letters” the more you make it “clear” that you are really letters “from Christ”!
And letters are primarily about carrying a message, are they not? So what message is it that Christians communicate the more Christ-like they get? That’s right: the Good news that Jesus can save us from our sin!
I am awed to think of the influence that God has given me as a church pastor.
I am held up as an example to follow, and I am supposed to represent Christ’s own values to you, such that the more you listen to me and follow me, the more you will be revealed to be Christ’s own letters. I want to be faithful in this.
By the same token, I would also exhort you to be very careful who else you choose to pastor you – especially on social media.
Are they careful with God’s word, or do they play fast and loose with the truth?
Are they humble, gracious, and obedient, like Christ, or are they arrogant, unaccountable, and self-promoting, like super-apostles?
Does the Holy Spirit write love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control in your heart through them? (Gal. 5:22-23)
If not, I urge you to forsake those influencers.
Now, the ESV followed the NET Bible in extending the letter metaphor to make the apostles the “deliverers” of the letter, but,
according to the NET Bible’s own notes, their translation was not based on any evidence that this word was actually used to describe a postal carrier,
so we should not run too far with applications based on the image of apostles as postmen.
The apostles were “ministers” of Christ, “serving” Christ’s interests, and “helping” the spread of the Gospel, and those are meanings of this Greek word which were actually used in the Greek Bible.
At the end of verse 3, the imagery of letter-writing is explained as not being literal but figurative: “inscribed, not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, not in tablets of stone but in human/heart-flesh tablets.”
Back in the ancient world (before Georgia-Pacific and Hammermill paper companies!) a lot of writing was done by flattening a handful of wet clay and etching a message on it,
however, the Greek word that Paul uses here is only ever used in the Greek Bible to refer to the stone tablets that Moses presented to God to etch the Ten Commandments on6.
Yet, God intended for His word to make the jump from the stone tablets into the “hearts” and lives of His people, even in the Old Testament:
It’s what He said in Deuteronomy 6:6 about the Ten Commandments: “And these words, all that I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart and in thy soul. And thou shalt teach them to thy children…” (Brenton)
“And bind them on thy fingers, and write7 them on the table8 of thine heart,” says Proverbs 7:3 (Brenton)
Then God promised through the prophets that He Himself would write His law in the hearts of His people by means of His Spirit as part of the New Covenant:
Jeremiah 31:33 "...I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." (NKJV)
Ezekiel 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (NKJV)
“flesh” doesn’t connote anything bad here, it is something living.
2 Corinthians 4:6 “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (NKJV)
In verse 4, Paul and Timothy encourage the Corinthian church that they have confidence “through Christ before God” that the Corinthians are indeed Christ’s letter with the Gospel engraved in their hearts by the Holy Spirit9. This is indeed what Jesus does, and the apostles trust God that this indeed will be the character of the Christians in Corinth.
This is the same “confidence” that Paul expressed in Ephesians 3:1210 that he could enter the presence of God and “speak openly” in prayer since Jesus had granted “access” and made God propitious to him.
Hebrews 4:14-16 puts it this way: “Therefore, since we have Jesus, the Son of God, the Great High Priest who has crossed into the heavens... Let us therefore keep approaching the throne of grace with openness11 in order that we may receive mercy and find grace for the purpose of a timely rescue.”
Hebrews 10 also says, “19 Therefore, brothers, having, by means of the blood of Jesus, open-access* into the entryway of the holy places... 22 let's keep approaching with sincerity of heart in full assurance of faith… 35-36 Therefore, don't y'all throw away your open-access* which has [such] a great payoff, for y'all have need of endurance in order that, after y'all have done the will of God, y'all may obtain what was promised.” (NAW)
In 2 Corinthians 3:5, Paul and Timothy remind the Corinthians that this outcome of a vibrant, Spirit-filled, gospel-oriented church is not due to how great they were as apostles; rather, it is, as he said in verse 4, “through Christ.”
This is probably yet another dig at the “super-apostles” who were touting their credentials as though it were their own “sufficiency/adequacy/competence” that made them useful to God.
It is pride that makes us think that our church is lucky to have us – or that God would not be able to do things without us.
It is also pride that tempts us to claim credit for the things God has done through us (and despite us). Don’t steal God’s glory; give Him credit for everything!
Paul says, in effect, “The Spirit-directed, gospel-sharing, live-wire church in Corinth came from God and is God’s work, so we will give God glory for that. And any ‘competence/adequacy/sufficiency’ we have that contributed to that is from God as well!”
And that’s the answer to the question in 2 Corinthians 2:16 “...who is sufficient for these things?” No one. Your ability to do anything for the kingdom of God comes from God Himself! God alone is sufficient to satisfy God’s plans.
Without God’s help, we would have to say with Isaiah, “...Woe to me, for I am undone…” (Isa. 6:5, NAW)
In 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul explained, “...by God's grace, I am what I am, and His grace which came into me did not become void, but rather I toiled harder than all of them (yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me).” (NAW, cf. 2 Cor. 5:18, 1 Tim. 1:12, James 1:17)
When we think back through the great spiritual leaders in the Bible,
God used Moses, a man who was “not eloquent” and “slow of speech and tongue” (Ex. 4:1012) to humble one of the greatest empires in the world and to compile the foundational first five books of the Bible.
God called Gideon, the smallest of his siblings from the most unimportant tribe in Israel13, while Gideon was cowering in hiding, and God used him to whip an invading army that had more soldiers than could be counted.
God called Jeremiah, a man who could not speak well, and who was too young to even serve in the temple14, and made him a major prophet, second only to Isaiah!
We have to agree with Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:26-30 “...it was the stupid ones of the world God that chose for Himself in order that He might put down the strength of the wise men, and it was the weak ones of the world God that chose for Himself in order that He might put down the strength of the strong, and the ones without class of the world and the ones that have been despised that God chose for Himself... so that all flesh might not boast before the face of God…” (NAW)
Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5, NKJV)
and Paul will write later, “...we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Cor. 4:7, NKJV), “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philip. 2:13, NKJV)
and so we “giv[e] thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” (Col. 1:12, NKJV)
In verse 6, Paul and Timothy say that God made them “able/adequate/competent deacons of of a new covenant.”
The Greek word διακόνους generally means someone who “serves” – who does an act of service. We sometimes call those who serve in the church “ministers,” but this is not an exalted title15; it just means you do things for other people.
But what does it mean to be a “servant/minister of the new covenant”?
This refers to the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-34 “...I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah – not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people… they all shall know Me... For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (NKJV)
Now, you may say, “Isn’t that basically the same as the old covenant from Moses’ day? This ‘new covenant’ is for ‘Israel’ and ‘Judah,’ for them to be God’s ‘people’ and Yahweh to be their ‘God;’ it involves God’s ‘Law16,’ which is to be ‘on their hearts’ the disobedience of which will be ‘forgiven.’ All that is in the Old Testament!” I think the correct answer is, “Yes,” that’s why the word in Hebrew and in Greek for “new” here is not the word for “brand-new/novel,” but rather the word for “renewed/refurbished.” And yet it is “better” (Heb. 7:22) in the sense that the interaction of every Christian with God is no longer mediated through human prophets and priests but is directly with God the Son and with God the Holy Spirit, straight to our hearts and minds.
Every covenant in the Bible also involved the killing of a sacrifice, and the New Covenant is no exception. Jesus, the Son of God Himself was the sacrifice that ratified the New Covenant (Heb. 9:12ff). Jesus picked up on Jeremiah’s prophecy at the Last Supper before His crucifixion and said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” (Luke 22:20, NKJV)
And book of Hebrews adds: “So, on account of death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions upon the first covenant, He [Jesus] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that the ones who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” (Hebrews 9:15, NAW)
Paul and Timothy close verse 6 with one more statement about the new covenant: it is characterized by “spirit” rather than “letter.”
It’s important to note that this word for “letter” in verse 6 is different from the Greek word for “letter” in verses 2-3. Unfortunately we use the same English word for both,
but at the beginning of the chapter, the Greek word is ἐπιστολὴ, from which we get the old English word “epistle,” and it means “a communication that is written out and sent to someone else.”
The Greek word here in verse 6 is γράμμα, which means an “alphanumeric character” – and, by extension, anything with writing on it. In several places, this word gramma is used as a synonym for the Old Testament law17, and that is the meaning of the word here18.
Paul explains in Romans 7:5-11 how it is that the “letter kills”: “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve19 in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’... [B]ut when the commandment came, sin [came into existence] and I died... For sin, taking occasion by the commandment... killed me.” (NKJV)
So this is the sense in which the “letter [of the law] kills.” The Apostle’s ministry was not to try to get people to obey the law better20, because that is not a solution. All the law can do is expose sin and condemn people because, as Paul noted in Rom. 6:23, “the wages of sin is death.”
So in order to “minister” spiritual life, Paul and Timothy shared the good news that the “Spirit gives life.” How does that work? Paul explained in Romans 8:2-11 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death… For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit…. [and] if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (NKJV, cf. John 6:63)21
This is the message of those who are becoming “letters from Christ” – the message “engraved” on our “living hearts” by the Holy Spirit is that Jesus died to pay the price for our sin and forgive us, and Jesus rose and sent His Spirit to bring us into fellowship with God and to empower us to minister to others. John 6:47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.” (NKJV)
ByzantineB |
NAW |
KJVC |
RheimsD |
MurdockE |
1 ᾿Αρχόμεθα πάλιν ἑαυτοὺς συνιστάνεινF; ἢG μὴ χρῄζομεν, ὥς τινες συστατικῶν ἐπιστολῶν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἢ ἐξ ὑμῶν συστατικῶνH; |
1 Shall we begin again to provide endorsements for ourselves, when we have no need (as some guys do) for endorsement letters with y’all – or of endorsements from y’all? |
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or X need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? |
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we X need (as some do) epistles of commendation to you, or from you? |
1
Do we begin again to
show you who
we are?
Or do we, like |
2 ἡ ἐπιστολὴ ἡμῶν ὑμεῖςI ἐστε, ἐγγεγραμμένηJ ἐν ταῖς καρδίαιςK ἡμῶν, γινωσκομένηL καὶ ἀναγινωσκομένηM ὑπὸ πάντων ἀνθρώπων, |
2 You yourselves are our letter, written into our hearts, known and read by everybody, |
2 Ye X are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: |
2 You are our epistle, written in our hearts, [which] is known and read by all men: |
2
Ye are our epistle, written
|
3 φανερούμενοιP ὅτι ἐστὲQ ἐπιστολὴ Χριστοῦ διακονηθεῖσαR ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν, ἐγγεγραμμένηS οὐ μέλανι, ἀλλὰ Πνεύματι Θεοῦ ζῶντος, οὐκ ἐν πλαξὶ λιθίναις, ἀλλὰ ἐν πλαξὶ καρδίαιςT σαρκίναις. |
3 while y’all are being revealed that y’all are the Anointed One’s letter which is being served by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, not in tablets of stone but in heart-flesh tablets. |
3
Forasmuch
|
3
Being manifested,
that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered
by us, and written: not with ink but with the Spirit of the living
God: not in tables of stone but in the fleshly tables |
3
For ye
|
4 Πεποίθησιν δὲ τοιαύτην ἔχομεν διὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν. |
4 And such confidence we have through Christ before God. |
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: |
4 And such confidence we have, through Christ, towards God. |
4 And such confidence have we in the Messiah towards God. |
5 οὐχ ὅτι ἱκανοί ἐσμενU ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτῶν λογίσασθαί τι ὡς ἐξ ἑαυτῶν, ἀλλ᾿ ἡ ἱκανότης ἡμῶν ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, |
5 It is not that we are sufficient of ourselves to reckon anything as being from ourselves, but rather our sufficiency [comes] out of God, |
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; |
5 Not that we are sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God. |
5 Not that we are sufficient X X to think any thing as of ourselves; but our efficiency is from God: |
6 ὃς καὶ ἱκάνωσενV ἡμᾶς διακόνους καινῆς διαθήκης, οὐ γράμματος, ἀλλὰ πνεύματος· τὸ γὰρ γράμμα ἀποκτέννειW, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ζῳοποιεῖ. |
6 who also made us sufficient servers of a new covenant, not consisting of legal-code, but rather of the Spirit, for the legal-code kills, but the Spirit gives life! |
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of [the] new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. |
6
Who also hath made
us fit
ministers
of [the]
new testament, not |
6
who hath fitted
us to be ministers
of [the]
new Testament, not |
1eg. Rom. 16:1 (for Phoebe), Col. 1:7 & 4:12 (for Epaphras), 2 Cor 1:1 & 19 (for Timothy). Cf. Acts 18:27 (for Apollos).
2Chrysostom suggested that the question was to make the “irony… more cutting,” dating the addition of the question mark at least as far back as the year 400 AD.
3Alternately, Vincent and Hughes interpreted the “again” as meaning that Paul had commended himself in 1 Corinthians (9:15-21) and was about to do it again, but I don’t think that fits Paul’s character. Hughes concurred: “When he asks whether he is again beginning to commend himself, it does not imply that he had actually on some earlier occasion been guilty of the indiscretion of self-laudation, but rather that the charge of commending himself had already been made against him.” Calvin noted: “We must not, however, infer from this, that it is absolutely and in itself wrong to receive recommendations, provided you make use of them for a good purpose.”
4The KJV is quoted in these instances.
5“[T]he virtue of the disciples is wont to adorn and to commend the teacher more than any letter.” ~Chrysostom
6Here are all 35 instances of this word outside of 2 Cor. 3:3: Ex. 31:18; 32:15-16, 19; 34:1, 4, 28-29; Deut. 4:13; 5:22; 9:9-11, 15, 17; 10:1-5; 1 Ki. 8:9; 2 Chr. 5:10; and Heb. 9:4.
7Ἐπίγραψον (“write upon”) – compare to 2 Cor. 3:3 ἐγγεγραμμένη (“written in”).
8ἐπὶ τὸ πλάτος (“on the breadth”) – compare to 2 Cor. 3:3 ἐν πλαξὶν (“in the tablets”).
9Alternately, Vincent suggested that Paul’s “confidence” was “In the fact that he may appeal to them, notwithstanding their weaknesses and errors,” but this does not seem to fit the immediate context.
10“in whom we have boldness* and access with confidence through faith in Him.” (NKJV)
11παρρησίαν,
a synonym to 2 Cor. 3:4’s Πεποίθησιν.
* The asterisked words in the neighboring verse
quotes also use this synonym.
12“Then Moses said to the LORD, ‘O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.’” (NKJV)
13Judges 6:15 “...O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” (NKJV)
14Jeremiah 1:6 “...Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” (NKJV)
15A trap into which which Calvin seems to have fallen in his commentary on this verse.
16Hughes commented, “It is most important to realize that it is the selfsame law which was graven on tables of stone at Sinai that in this age of the new covenant is graven on the tables of the human heart by the Holy Spirit. The gospel does not abrogate the law, but fulfils it. There is no question, as Augustine points out, of Paul finding fault with the dispensation of the Old Testament. The Christian is still under solemn obligation to keep the law of God, but with this vital difference, that he now has the power, the power of Christ by the Holy Spirit within himself, to keep it.”
17Rom. 2:27 & 29, 7:6, and John 5:46-47 “[I]f you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings/γράμμα-, how will you believe My words?”
18Calvin disagreed, suggesting that “letter” was “outward” religiosity whereas “spirit” was sincere “living doctrine.”
19δουλεύειν, a synonym to διακονηθεῖσα in 2 Cor. 3:3
20Chrysostom, Hughes, Herveius, and others agreed that the imposters in Corinth were Judaizers who were opposing the Christian gospel by preaching works-righteousness. Talbot Chambers commented in a footnote to his translation of Chrysostom’s Homilies: “The contrast is not between the Old covenant and the New, considered as successive dispensations of the one system of grace, but between the Mosaic economy as conditioning acceptance upon works (‘Do this and live’), and the Christian as offering salvation to every one that believeth.” Calvin, however, wrote, “I am rather of opinion, that, as he had to do with lifeless declaimers, who endeavored to obtain applause through mere prating, and as he saw, that the ears of the Corinthians were captivated with such glitter, he was desirous to show them what was the chief excellence of the gospel, and what was the chief praise of its ministers.” Hughes noted that Jewish Theosophists took this in an unwarranted direction by claiming that the contrast is between the rational exegesis of Scripture and the higher, mystical, hidden meanings accessible only to the spiritual elite. Calvin also criticized Origen (and, by extension, Philo and the Alexandrian school) who interpreted “letter” as “literal” and “spirit” as “allegorical” and used this verse to promote allegorical interpretations of scripture that had little to do with the original meanings.
21“Moses
bare not a spirit, but letters; but we have been entrusted with the
giving of a Spirit.” ~Chrysostom
“Paul maketh a comparison
between the law and the gospel; and calleth the law the letter,
because it was but letters graven in two tables of cold stone: for
the law doth but kill, and damn the consciences, as long as there is
no lust in the heart to do that which the law commandeth.
Contrariwise, he calleth the gospel the administration of the Spirit
and of righteousness or justifying. For when Christ is preached, and
the promises which God hath made in Christ are believed, the Spirit
entereth the heart, and looseth the heart, and giveth lust to do the
law, and maketh the law a lively thing in the heart.” ~William
Tyndale, as quoted by Philip Hughes
Among English versions,
Geneva, NKJV, RSV, NASB, NIV, ESV, NET, and NLT all capitalized
“Spirit,” but KJV, ASV, and RV did not. Chrysostom, Jerome,
Augustine, Theodoret, Theophylact, and Tyndale all interpreted it as
the Holy Spirit, but Calvin and Hughes suggested that the “spirit”
here should be lower-case, referring to man’s spirit being
sincere. Note, however, that the Holy Spirit is referenced by the
same term in the previous verse, and in Romans, it is the Holy
Spirit which is set in opposition to the letter of the law.
AWhen
a translation adds words not in the Greek text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics or greyed-out text, I
put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a
wording which is different from all the other translations, I
underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my
opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Greek
word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original text,
I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word
which is in the original text, I insert an X. I also place an X at
the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English
translation is singular. I occasionally use colors to help the
reader see correlations between the various editions and versions
when there are more than two different translations of a given word.
NAW is my translation. My original chart includes annotated copies
of the NKJV, NASB, NIV, and ESV, but I erase them from the online
edition so as not to infringe on their copyrights.
BThis Greek New Testament is the 1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church. As published by E-Sword in 2016. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine majority text of the GNT and the Textus Receptus are very similar. The Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, and UBS editions, however, are a slightly-different family of GNTs developed in the modern era, focusing on the few manuscripts which are older than the Byzantine manuscripts. Even so, the practical differences in the text between these two editing philosophies are minimal.
C1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published by E-Sword in 2019.
DRheims New Testament first published by the English College at Rheims, A.D. 1582, Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword in 2016.
EJames Murdock, A Literal Translation from the Syriac Peshito Version, 1851, Robert Carter & Brothers, New York. Scanned and transcribed by Gary Cernava and published electronically by Janet Magierra at http://www.lightofword.org and published on E-Sword in 2023.
FThis Greek root gets a wide range of English translation in Brenton’s translation of the Greek Old Testament: “commit, delay, affect, pool, rise up against, appoint, stand, establish, celebrate, set, cause, frame, order, make,” and it is no less wide among the English versions of the GNT: “stand with, demonstrate, bring out, serve, show, commend, prove, approve, tell how important, write commendations for, make, really would be, consist, hold together, stand, form.” This opening phrase is repeated almost word-for-word in 6:4. In fact, over half of the occurrences of this verb in the GNT are in 2 Corinthians alone, indicating another line of argumentation against the accusations of apostolic usurpers: 2 Cor. 4:2 “...by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God... 5:12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart… 6:4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses... 7:11 ...ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves... In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter... 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise... 10:18 For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth… 12:11 ... for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
GThis is the reading of 19 Greek texts (including the three oldest-known, dating as early as the year 200) and thus of the critical editions and of the 1904 Patriarchal text. The majority of Greek manuscripts (the oldest being the 5th century Alexandrinus, and thus the Textus Receptus and the Spyridon Greek Orthodox edition) read with the synonymous word ει. It makes no difference in meaning, as you can see that the KJV, following the Textus Receptus, reads “or,” and the NASB & NIV, following contemporary critical editions also read “or.”
HThis is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts, the oldest dating back to the 6th century, and therefore of the Textus Receptus, Greek Orthodox editions, and the ancient Peshitta version. This word is omitted in 12 Greek manuscripts, including the five oldest-known Greek manuscripts (the earliest of which dates to the year 200), thus is the reading of the contemporary critical editions, the Vulgate, and the post-19th-century English versions, but it makes no difference in meaning, since the word occurs earlier in the sentence as well, making it obvious that the same is meant here, whether or not it is explicitly stated. This adjective occurs nowhere else in the whole Greek Bible, but is obviously related to the infinitive above it.
IThis 2nd person plural pronoun is emphatic, for the verb is already spelled in the 2nd person plural. Vulgate and Peshitta preserved this emphasis, as did the English NIV, NET, ESV, and NLT, but unfortunately, Geneva, KJV, & NASB did not.
JThis compound of the Greek participle for “written” and the preposition “in” (which also occurs in the next verse), only appears in four other verses in the Greek Bible: Exod. 36:21; 1 Macc. 13:40; Dan. 12:1; Luke 10:20. This emphasis on the writing being “in” the hearts is intensified by the addition of the independent pronoun εν which follows this verb, so the NIV and ESV translation “on” does not seem appropriate. Murdock’s rendering of the same pronoun (b-) in the Peshitta as “on,” while not an inaccurate translation possibility for the Syriac text, should have been “in,” along with the Peshitta translations of Etheridge and of Lamsa, given the context of the Greek original.
KCf. 2 Cor. 7:3 & Philip. 1:7 for other instances of this phrase indicating dearness.
LThe Vulgate and Geneva interpreted this NFS participle with a relative pronoun “which is known,” which is a fair translation, making clear that it is a relative adjective phrase modifying the nominative feminine singular “letter.” The ESV’s addition of the English infinitive “to be” is inappropriate because this Greek participle is Perfect tense, referring to the past and present, whereas adding the infinitive throws the action into the future in English.
MCf. 1:13. Calvin differed from most commentators by preferring “acknowledged” over “read,” noting: “If we render it acknowledged, there will be an implied contrast between an epistle that is sure and of unquestionable authority, and such as are counterfeit.” But counterfeiting is not the subject of this passage, and the metaphor of a letter fits better with “reading.”
NThere is not actually a conjunction here in the Peshitta (nor is there one in the Greek). Lamsa’s translation of the Peshitta does not include a conjunction here.
O“Men” is plural in Greek, but singular in the Peshitta, thus Lamsa’s “all men” is erroneous as a translation of the Peshitta.
PThis adjectival participle modifies “y’all,” serving as a predicate nominative in parallel with the same construction in verse 2, “...y’all are our letter … y’all are being manifested that y’all are Christ’s letter…” The next two participles “ministered” and “inscribed” are also adjectival but are nominative feminine singular, modifying “letter,” but since “y’all” are the “letter,” they are all describing the same subject.
QIt is strange that the KJV and NKJV notate “ye/you are” as added words, because “y’all are” is clearly in all the Greek manuscripts and in the Textus Receptus.
RThe NET and ESV suggest that this word “minister/serve/attend to” could mean, in the context of a letter “delivered” as by a postal carrier. The NET’s notes cite Arndt & Gingrich’s lexicon (BDAG) as their source for this translation, but Arndt & Gingrich didn’t actually cite “delivered” as a meaning of this verb in their lexicon. In fact, this Geek verb is not used in this way in any of the other 36 times it occurs in the Greek Bible, and Arndt & Gingrich did not find a single instance of this meaning in all the early Greek Christian literature either, so, as plausible as it may be, it needs to be considered nothing more than conjecture unless true corroboration can be found for this meaning. In the LXX of Esther 8:10, it is a different verb βιβλιαφόρων which is used to describe letter-delivery-men.
S“...‘written in…’ that is, ye cannot slide out of it… again we need no letters… for we carry about the epistle in our hearts.” ~Chrysostom
TThis plural form is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts, including all the oldest-known, and therefore of all the traditional Greek Orthodox and contemporary critical GNT editions. Curiously, the Textus Receptus, Vulgate, and Peshitta all followed 13 manuscripts (the oldest dating to the 9th century) which read singular (“heart”).
UThis is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts, the oldest dating to the 5th century, and therefore is the reading of the Textus Receptus and Greek Orthodox editions or the Greek New Testament (GNT). The three oldest-known Greek manuscripts (P46, B, and C) plus a half-dozen others put the preceding phrase two words later in the verse, but this doesn’t affect the meaning of the verse.
VProtestant
Commentators from Calvin to Hughes noted that the KJV “able
ministers” was a bad translation influenced by the Vulgate and
Wycliffe’s English translation of the Vulgate, reflecting Roman
Catholic theology of natural ability within mankind to respond to
God and to do good apart from God’s work of regeneration. Calvin
wrote, “Paul, on the other hand, declares that man is in want, not
merely of sufficiency of himself (αὐτάρκειαν)
but also of competency (ἱκανότητα)...
He could not, therefore, more effectually strip man bare of every
thing good.”
This verb is Aorist. Hughes noted, “The past
tense implies significantly that Paul, unlike his rivals in Corinth,
could actually point back to a definite occasion when God called him
to the office of an apostle… Acts 9:3ff.; 26:16-18; 22:14f.”
WThis is the reading of a dozen Greek manuscripts, the oldest dated to the 9th century (although it is also found in a correction to P46, which is older, but the date of the correction is uncertain), and this is the spelling used by contemporary critical editions of the GNT. The majority of Greek manuscripts, including most of the oldest-known ones (P46, א, A, C, and D) read without the doubled ν at the end. The Vaticanus Greek manuscript (dated at 4th century) reads αποκτεινει, which is the reading followed by the St. Spyrion Greek Orthodox edition and the Textus Receptus. However, these are all just different ways of spelling the same word; all of these spellings are considered to denote the Present Active Indicative 3rd person singular form, so there is no difference in meaning.