truth'.  In this study we desire to draw attention to the necessity of right

division by referring to the teaching of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3

and 4, where he shows the distinction between law and gospel, and between Old

and New Covenants.  He speaks also of the activity of Satan, who does not

scruple to bandage the eyes of believers with truth that belongs to another

dispensation, if he may so prevent them from seeing the light of the glory of

Christ.  Scripture abounds with figures drawn from ordinary life, but we must

never lose sight of the fact that all the manners and customs that are

referred to on almost every page of Scripture are the manners and customs of

the East.

When seeking to show the distinction that exists between the Old

Covenant and the New, the apostle in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 makes continual

reference to the veil.  Those who know anything of Jewish customs will know

that the orthodox Jew covers his head with the talith (or veil) during

prayer.  Whether this custom is derived from the action of Moses recorded in

Exodus 34:33, we will not here debate; it is sufficient that the apostle

mentions them together.  In 2 Corinthians 3:13 he reminds his readers that

Moses 'put a veil over his face', and that Israel's 'thoughts' are to this

day 'blinded', for until this day the same veil remains untaken away in the

reading of the Old Covenant.

In this third chapter Paul draws some severe distinctions between the

Old and New Covenants.  The Old Covenant was engraven in stone; the New was

written in the fleshly tables of the heart (2 Cor. 3:3 and 7).  The Old is

the letter that killeth; the New the spirit that giveth life (2 Cor. 3:6).

The one is the ministration of death and condemnation; the other the

ministration of the spirit and righteousness (2 Cor. 3:7 -9).  The glory of

the one was transient; the glory of the other is abiding and excelling (2

Cor. 3:7,10,11,13).  Moses, the minister of the Old Covenant, veiled his

face; Paul, the minister of the New, used great boldness of speech, not as

Moses who put a veil over his face (2 Cor. 3:12,13).  The glory that shone

from the face of Moses transfigured no man; the glory that shines from the

face of Jesus Christ changes those who behold it from glory to glory (2 Cor.

3:18 and 4:6).

The Authorized Version robs the reader of the point of 2 Corinthians

3:18 by the translation 'open face', but it is restored by the Revised

Version which reads 'unveiled face':

'We all, with unveiled face beholding (margin) as in a mirror the glory

of the Lord, are transformed (transfigured) into the same image from

glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit'.

The contrast between veiled Israel under law and the unveiled believer

under grace is carried over into the opening words of 2 Corinthians 4

concerning the ministry of Paul himself:

'Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we

faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not

walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by

manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's

conscience in the sight of God' (2 Cor. 4:1,2).

Here we have a parallel with the 'great boldness of speech' which the

apostle placed in contrast with the veiling of the face of Moses, 'And not as

Moses' (2 Cor. 3:12,13).  If we have in 2 Corinthians 4:1,2 a parallel with