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The primary sense is found in such a passage as:
"Do we then make void the law?" (Rom. 3: 31).
In such passages as "she is loosed from the law of her husband" and "Now we are
delivered from the law", the consequences of this abrogation are stated. The primary
meaning of katargeo is restored if the sentence is put in reverse:
"The law of her husband has been abrogated (by his death)" (Rom. 7: 2).
"That law which held us is abrogated, because we have died to it" (Rom. 7: 6).
The use of katargeo in I Corinthians should be studied as a preparation for its use
here in II Cor. 3::
"Whether there be prophecies, they SHALL FAIL."
"Whether there be knowledge, it SHALL VANISH AWAY."
"When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part SHALL BE DONE
AWAY."
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child:
but when I became a man, I PUT AWAY childish things" (I Cor. 13: 8-11).
Here the Apostle places in contrast Pentecostal gifts and love, illustrating the point by
the comparison between the thoughts and ways of infancy with those of a man, or
contrasting the perfect with the partial. This method he employs in II Cor. 3: and 4:,
but in this passage he contrasts the transient glory of the Old Covenant with the glory that
excelleth of the New Covenant, and finds an illustration in the fact that Moses veiled his
face to prevent Israel from perceiving that the glory received on Sinai was passing, in
contrast with the face of Jesus Christ, Whose glory abides.
The introduction of the figure of the veil at verse 13, like the mention of the tables of
stone in verse 3, leads to a development of the new idea. The presence of the word "veil"
in I Cor. 3: 14, 15 and 16 is evident, but it is itself veiled by the A.V. in verse 18, where
we read "open face", and in II Cor. 4: 3 where it is translated "hid".
To the more careful consideration of the "veil" in these passages and the true intention
of II Cor. 4: 3 and 4 we must devote ourselves in another study.