---
title: "Abbott"
description: "Verse 1 Do we begin? must we begin? is it necessary? Verse 2 The meaning is, that the feelings of attachment and regard which subsisted between Paul and t"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/abbotts-illustrated-new-testament/2-corinthians/3"
---

**Verse 1**
*Do we begin?* must we begin? is it necessary?

**Verse 2**
The meaning is, that the feelings of attachment and regard which subsisted between Paul and the Corinthian church were universally known.

**Verse 3**
*The epistle of Christ ministered by us;* the work of Christ, performed by our instrumentality.--*Tables;* tablets.

**Verse 4**
*Such trust;* such confidence.--*Through Christ to God-ward;* in God through Christ.

**Verse 6**
*Not of the letter;* not of the written law, that is, of the Old Testament dispensation.--*Of the spirit;* off the gospel, which had yet been communicated thus far chiefly by direct spiritual influences, and not by written records.--*Killeth;* denounces death.

**Verse 7**
*The ministration of death;* the ministration of that covenant which denounced death.--*In stones;* referring to the two tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written.--*Was glorious;* in respect to the circumstances of its first promulgation. Allusion is here made to the account recorded in [Exodus 34:29](../../../kjv/exodus/34/29),[Exodus 34:30](../../../kjv/exodus/34/30).--*Was to be done away;* was temporary and transient.

**Verse 8**
*The ministration of the Spirit,* that is, of the gospel promulgated by the agency of the Spirit.

**Verse 10**
*No glory in this respect;* that is, in comparison with the glory of the new dispensation.

**Verse 13**
*Put a veil over his face;* symbolical of the mystery under which spiritual truth was veiled, in the old dispensation; so that the children of Israel could not understand the true end and design of these temporary ordinances, which were enjoined upon them.

**Verse 14**
*Which veil is done away;* which mystery is solved.

**Verse 16**
*When it shall turn;* that is, when the heart of the children of Israel shall turn.

**Verse 17**
*That Spirit;* the spirit spoken of in [2 Corinthians 3:6](../../../kjv/2-corinthians/3/6),--namely, the spiritual dispensation. The Lord is the foundation and support of it.--*Liberty;* freedom from the darkness and bondage in which the soul had often been enveloped under the old dispensation.

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