In [2 Cor 3:18] we are told:
But we all,
with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of
the Lord.
In the Greek text of this above quoted verse of scripture, we
find the following important component phrases therein:
· Beholding as in a glass is represented by the Greek κατοπριζομενοι, which indicates ones looking
into a mirror or ones seeing reflected (as in a mirror). We thus
will see, as if looking into a mirror, the glory of the Lord reflected from us,
changing into the same image. This particularly is important in light of the
declaration of 2 Corinthians 4:4, regarding Christ being the image of God, as
well as in the light of Hebrews 1:3 (another scripture we will consider later).
The reason that this is occurring is because of the change indicated by the
Greek: την αυτην εικονα μεταμορφουμεθα.
· την αυτην is an attributive, intensive pronoun
that intensifies the noun that follows. It means the same.
· εικονα, the noun following, from εικων image
· μεταμορφουμεθα we are being transformed (into). This word indicates an inward and
outward transformation from one state to another, i.e., a metamorphosis.
In other words, we are being transformed, or changed, into
the very same image represented by Christ, whom we would mirror, who is himself
the image of God because he is so like the Father. As this occurs, looking at
ourselves in the mirror will be like looking at the Lord himself! This
very transformation from glory to glory will continue, until we reach
that “measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” mentioned by Paul in
Ephesians 4:13—conformed to his image.
D. Charles Pyle, I Have Said Ye Are Gods:
Concepts Conducive to the Early Christian Doctrine of Deification in Patristic
Literature and the Underlying Strata of the Greek New Testament (Revised and
Supplemented)
(North Charleston, S.C.: CreateSpace, 2018), 45-46
