But if the ministry of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 3:7 Go To 2 Corinthians 3
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
If the ministration of death . . . was glorious. If the ministration and promulgation of the old law, which threatened and brought death and condemnation, were glorious, i.e, accompanied by thundering and the sound of the heavenly trumpet, by an earth-quake and the splendour of Moses" countenance: if the old law, engraven on tables of stone, was so gloriously promulgated, how much more glorious is the Gospel?
Paul here calls the old law the attendant and lictor of death, because it could indeed slay them that broke it but not give life to them that kept it. From this we may gather that S. Paul is writing against the false apostles, and that they were Jews who were endeavouring to blend the old and the new law. He therefore silences the Jews by depreciating the old law as the law of condemnation, and by extolling himself and his fellow-apostles as the ministers of the evangelical law of righteousness and the life of the Spirit. Cf. in this connection chaps. x. and xi.
