2 Corinthians 3:12-18

THE MINISTRY OF THE NEW COVENANT IS (b) OPEN, NOT VEILED, AS WAS THAT OF THE OLD. The illustration from the O.T. which is used in these verses has been obscured for English readers by the faulty rendering of the A.V. in Exodus 34:33. It would appear from that rendering, viz., “ till Moses had done speaking with them he put a veil on his face,” that the object of the veil was to conceal from the people the Divine glory reflected in his face. But this is to misrepresent the original Hebrew, and is not the rendering given either by the LXX or by modern scholars. The R.V substitutes when for till in the verse just quoted, thus bringing out the point that the veil was used to conceal not the glory on the face of Moses, but its evanescence; it was fading even while he spoke, and this by his use of the veil he prevented the people from perceiving. When he “went in unto the Lord” again he took the veil off. The Apostle applies all this to the Israel of his day. Still a veil is between them and the Divine glory a veil “upon their hearts” which prevents them from seeing the transitoriness of the Old Covenant; yet, as it was of old, if they turn to the Lord, the veil is removed, and an open vision is granted. St. Paul is fond of such allegorisings of the history of the Exodus; cf., e.g., 1 Corinthians 10:2; Galatians 4:25.