The Spirit and the Veil (2 Cor 3:17)
The age-old
problem of the apparent identification of Jesus and the Spirit in v. 17a for
the doctrine of the Trinity can now be seen to be a creation in large measure
of the interpretation of this statement apart form, or in contrast to Exod. 34
in 3:16 to which it is directly related. But within
the argument of 2 Cor 3:12-18, verse 17a most easily explains the thought of v.
16, where the Lord (kυριος) to whom one turns is the Lord as experienced by
Moses in the tent of meeting. There is no indication that in developing the
typology of v. 16 in v. 17 Paul has substituted Christ for YHWH. For as Furnish
has pointed out, κυριος in Paul “generally means Christ, except when
the apostle is quoting Scripture or working closely with a scriptural text.”
(II Corinthians, p. 211. Paul’s use of Exod. 34:34 in 3:16 takes
precedence for determining its meaning over his proper statement in 3:14d)
Although adapted for his purposes, this is certainly the case in Paul’s use of
Exod. 34:34 in 3:16, in which in both texts κυριος occurs
without the article. Indeed, the logic of Paul’s argument requires that the
“Lord” in view in 3:16 be YHWH to make the link between Paul’s ministry and the
eschatological promises apparent. Moreover, in Paul’s only use of επιστρεφω in 1
Thess. 1:9, he speaks of returning “to God” (προς τον θεον), so that in v. 16
as a reference to “returning to YHWH” is itself not foreign to Paul’s thought,
even as a Christian. Although Paul often uses ο κυριος to refer
to Jesus, in this context the article before κυριος in v. 17a
is not a sudden, unprepared reference to “the Lord Jesus,” but a natural
reference to the Lord of v. 16. For the definite article in reference to Lord
or God is “sometimes missing” in the NT, “especially after prepositions,” since
the omission of definite articles after prepositions is still common in Koine
Greek. Yet, when this is the case, as in 3:16, it is then supplied in
the following reference, just as we find in John 3:2.
Paul’s use
of the article in 3:17 is thus anaphoric. Moreover, as Furnish has pointed out,
Paul nowhere else directly identifies Jesus and the Spirit, whereas he often
speaks of the “Spirit of God” s found in the LXX and in the second half of 3:17
itself. The “is” (εστιν) of 3:17a is thus better rendered “means” as an
indication that Paul is here interpreting Moses’ paradigmatic experience in
terms of the experience now being realized in the new covenant of Christ.
Paul is not
identifying Christ and the Spirit, but making it clear that Moses’ experience
of YHWH in the tent of meeting is equivalent to the current experience of
the Spirit in Paul’s ministry, even as Paul could refer in 3:3 to the
Spirit unleashed in his ministry as the “Spirit of the living God. (Scott J.
Hafemann, Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel: The Letter/Spirit Contrast
and the Argument from Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3 [Peabody, Mass.:
Hendrickson Publishers, 1995], 396-99)
The
conceptual link between 3:13-17 and 18 is clear. It is the Spirit which removes
the “veil” on the “faces” of those within the new covenant, so that, like Moses
in Exod. 34:34-35, they too may encounter the glory of God. (Ibid., 409)
