2 Corinthians 3:16-18

"All of us, with our unveiled faces reflecting God's glory like mirrors, are being transformed into the image that we reflect."

In verses 12-14 Paul says that followers of Christ: "are very bold, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor. But their minds were hardened; for to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away." In Exodus 34:29-35 we read that Moses put a veil on to cover his face because it shone so from being in the presence of God that the people were afraid.

Thus Paul's statement is doubly offensive to a Jewish reader, because it misrepresents the reason why Moses wore a veil and it refers to the covenant with God that was secured through Moses as "the old covenant." The Christian phrase "the Old Testament" comes from this passage and carries with it to this day the meaning that the revelation to the Israelites has been replaced by the revelation in Jesus Christ.

Paul makes this point explicitly earlier in the third chapter, where he asserts on behalf of the church: "our sufficiency is from God, who has qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life." (3:5-6) Here is the idea of the "New Testament," which is not written at this point but is present in the Spirit of Christian faith and witness.

Paul does not expect that his letters will be part of scripture at some later date. He is writing to the church at Corinth because there are controversies that he hopes to resolve.

Paul's critique of Jewish scripture and law is unfair, but it was effective in defining the church's witness. Today, however, after centuries in which Christians have persecuted Jews, we cannot tolerate the polemic of the past against Jewish faith and practice. Instead, we need to remember that Jesus read what Paul called "the old covenant" as scripture and that Jesus was shaped by Jewish faith and practice. Furthermore, Jesus must have respected Jewish law, even though he criticized hypocrisy in enforcing it, because his disciples as apostles leading the church in Jerusalem were keeping the commandments of the Law of Moses.

Grace and peace...Bob