the 'great boldness of speech', where have we in this chapter the parallel

with the veil over the face of Moses and over the hearts of Israel?  All can

see that we have it in verses 3 -6.  But once again the force of the passage

is veiled by the Authorized Version.  The words of the third verse, which

read, 'But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost', should

read as in the Revised Version, 'If our gospel be veiled'.  So far as Paul

was concerned the gospel was preached without reserve.  If there was a veil

over that gospel it was made by another, and the inference from the second

verse is that such would be largely the result of 'handling the Word of God

Before we go further, we must draw attention to the very strong

language used by the apostle in describing the transient character of the Old

Covenant and its glory.  He says that it is to be 'done away' and 'abolished'

(3:7,11 and 13).  That the language is strong, the following passages

'Who hath Abolished death' (2 Tim. 1:10).

'That the body of sin might be Destroyed' (Rom. 6:6).

'Make the promise of None Effect' (Gal. 3:17).

Speaking of these two covenants in Hebrews he says:

'For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place

have been sought for the second.  For finding fault with them, He

saith, etc.' (Heb. 8:7,8).

'He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second' (Heb.

Referring to the backward drift of the Galatians from grace to law,

from faith to works, from spirit to flesh, and from liberty to bondage, Paul

'But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how

turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire

again to be in bondage?' (Gal. 4:9).

These references we desire to bring to bear upon the words of 2

Corinthians 4:3, where, instead of speaking of the unsaved by the words,

'them that are lost', the apostle is referring to the Old Covenant that had

been abolished.  In effect, he says that the god of this age, by deceitful

handling of the Word of God, had fabricated a veil out of truth that belonged

to a past dispensation, and had so bandaged the eyes of the people with the

letter that killeth, that they could not see the glory that excelleth.

Taking these facts into consideration, the translation which we have been

compelled to accept is as follows:

'But if our gospel be veiled, it is veiled by those things which are

destroyed (i.e., the things of the Old Covenant that had been

abolished, as, for example, circumcision, which now severs from Christ

and from grace, Gal. 5:2 -4), by which the god of this age hath blinded

the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the

glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine upon them ...

the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ' (2 Cor. 4:3-6).

Satan would have us occupied rather with the transient glory of Moses,

than the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus