Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Paul asserts that he does not seek nor stand in need of the commendation of men, as the flattering pseudo-apostles were seeking it: since the fruit of his preaching sufficiently commends him.
Second, in verse 6, he gives the reason for this matter, namely that the Apostles and other ministers of the New Testament and of the Spirit have been adorned by God with greater honor and glory than Moses and the other ministers of the Old Testament and of the letter.
Third, in verse 13, he teaches that the Jews still have a veil over their heart in the reading of the Old Testament, so that they do not recognize Christ in it, but they will recognize Him, when this veil shall be taken away at the end of the world through Christ.
Vulgate Text: 2 Corinthians 3:1-18
1. Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or do we need (as some do) letters of commendation to you, or from you? 2. You are our epistle, written in our hearts, which is known and read by all men. 3. Being manifested that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God: not in tablets of stone, but in the fleshly tablets of the heart. 4. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God: 5. not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, 6. who also has made us fit ministers of the new Testament, not in the letter, but in the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. 7. Now if the ministration of death engraved with letters upon stones was in glory, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which is made void: 8. how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather in glory? 9. For if the ministration of condemnation is glory, much more does the ministry of justice abound in glory. 10. For even that which was glorious has not been glorified in this respect, by reason of the surpassing glory. 11. For if that which is done away is by glory, much more that which remains is in glory. 12. Having therefore such hope, we use much confidence: 13. and not as Moses put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel might not steadfastly look on his face, which is made void, 14. but their senses were dulled. For until this present day the very same veil in the reading of the old Testament remains not unveiled (because in Christ it is made void); 15. but even until this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. 16. But when one shall be converted to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. 17. Now the Lord is a Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18. But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Verse 1: Do We Begin Again to Commend Ourselves
1. Do we begin again to commend ourselves. — Because at the end of the preceding chapter the Apostle had seemed to praise himself and seek the favor of the Corinthians, he here removes from himself the suspicion of vainglory.
Do we need letters of commendation to you or from you? — "From," that is, by letters written by you, by which I might be commended in the eyes of others?
Verse 2: You Are Our Epistle
2. You are our epistle. — You, O Corinthians, converted by my labors, are to me as a letter of commendation read and understood by all, which I display in place of my commendation, to whomever I will; for as the work commends the workman, and the seal gives credit to the thing sealed: so you, as it were a letter of commendation sealed by you, commend me. For all know what you were before conversion, namely intemperate, addicted to gluttony, lust, and other vices and desires (for Corinth was a most renowned emporium, of all merchandise as also of vices). But now they see that through my preaching and Paul's you have wholly been changed into other men, temperate, chaste, gentle, humble, pious, almsgiving. Therefore this conversion of yours is my letter of commendation, that is, the public testimony and commendation of my preaching among all nations.
Again: "You are our epistle written in our hearts," as if to say: You who have been converted by me are indelibly inscribed and engraved on my soul. Note here: Paul wrote this epistle twice. First, in itself, when he implanted and inscribed in the mind of the Corinthians the faith and spirit of Christ. Second, he wrote and impressed the same in his own heart through his care and love for them. Third, you yourselves are also the epistle of Christ, in whose hearts, namely, by my ministry as by a pen, Christ has been inscribed, and Christ Himself has inscribed in them, through me and my preaching, His faith, hope, charity, and other goods, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, that is, the Holy Spirit and by His breath and inspiration, by which He has implanted the spirit of charity and the virtues in your minds. So Anselm and commonly the Greeks and Latins.
Verse 3: Written on Fleshly Tablets of the Heart
3. Written on fleshly tablets of the heart. — In Greek σαρκίναις, that is "fleshy," namely on a soft, pliable, docile heart, not on hard stone, like the law of Moses. He alludes to Jeremiah, chap. xxxi, verse 33. So Ambrose.
Note: The Apostle distinguishes these two, σάρκινος and σαρκικός: he calls σάρκινον "fleshy," consisting of flesh, that is, of the natural condition and tenderness of flesh; but σαρκικὸν he calls "carnal," which has the vices and corruptions of the flesh, as Rom. vii, 14: "But I am carnal (σαρκικός), sold under sin." 1 Cor. iii, 3: "Since there is among you zeal and strife, are you not carnal (σαρκικοί)?" Thus elsewhere he calls "carnal" desires. Yet other authors do not distinguish these. Hence Nazianzen calls the σαρκικά of Christ His incarnation and humanity.
Verse 4: Such Confidence We Have Through Christ
4. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. — For "confidence," in Greek it is πεποίθησις, which is a persuasion with confidence of mind and trust, by which the mind raises itself and reaches out toward some arduous good which it desires, as if it were certain to attain it. Such is the confidence which is suggested to the Saints by the Holy Spirit for the working of miracles, or heroic works of virtue, which God is wont to require and to send beforehand, not only in the one performing, but also in the one receiving the miracle or other gift of God, as a fitting disposition, and to bestow and inspire it first, so that the soul, by expanding and raising itself through this confidence, may become capable of that miracle or gift; as if to say: This persuasion and confidence, namely, that you are our epistle written with the Spirit of the living God, we have through the grace of Christ before God, namely, hoping in God and confidently trusting that He, as He has begun, so will continue to write through and complete this epistle by His Spirit. Hence secondly, "confidence," that is trust, we have toward God, because we confidently glory in God concerning this epistle of God and ours, and concerning the dignity and fruit of our ministry above the ministry of Moses and of other ministers of the Old Testament. So Anselm, and it is clear from what follows.
Verse 5: Not That We Are Sufficient of Ourselves
5. Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves. — "Anything," namely of good, which looks to and is ordered toward faith, grace, merit, and eternal salvation, so that one may be fit as a minister of the New Testament, as preceded. But if no one can of himself think such a thing, then much less can he do it. So the Council of Orange, canon 7, and St. Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, chap. ii.
Hence first, against the Semipelagians, Augustine teaches there, and from him the Scholastics, that the will to believe, and every beginning and desire of faith and salvation, is not from free will, but from prevenient grace. Hence Beza falsely here charges the Scholastics, as though they hereby teach that we have the beginning of good from ourselves, but weak and insufficient: for all teach that the beginning of a good and holy life, of thought, action, and salvation is supernatural, and arises from God's grace, not from nature or from the goodness of our wills.
Second, Calvin falsely thinks from this passage that in free will there are no powers which it can exert in works of grace; but that all sufficiency, that is, all powers and all effort and action are of grace: for the Apostle only says that free will is of itself insufficient, not that it has no powers at all: just as therefore a weak man has feeble powers, but insufficient ones, for walking; yet sufficient, if someone raises, helps and sustains him, and so gives a beginning and assistance to motion and walking: so also free will is of itself weak and feeble for good works; but sufficient, if it be aroused, strengthened, and helped by prevenient grace.
You will say: "Sufficiency" here can be taken for virtue, powers, and potency, with Theophylact and the Syriac. I reply: This too is true; for the power and forces of free will for a supernatural and gracious work, because it is supernatural, pleasing to God, and worthy and meritorious of eternal life, are not from free will, but from arousing and cooperating grace: which once obtained, free will is sufficient to believe freely, to love, and to perform any supernatural thing. For free will has natural powers in every work, so as to produce a free work; therefore two causes here concur for the same work: one natural, namely free will; the second supernatural, namely grace; and to each its own effect responds: to grace responds the fact that it is a work of supernatural virtue; but to free will, that it is free and human: see Canon 15.
Thus a very weak man is not only insufficient but powerless to walk, because to walk is beyond his powers; but he becomes powerful, if some other strength be added to him from a companion or elsewhere, and then by his own powers (though weak) he flows together at the same time with the powers of his companion or of the strength added to him into motion and walking: but in such a way that the added strength must precede him and as it were initiate his walking, and all force and energy for walking here and now is in the added strength. For that the weak man should attempt and walk beyond his own powers, this he has not from himself or his own powers, as is clear, but from the added strength: yet that being added, he himself with his own powers strives at the same time to walk, and in walking he does what he can, and effects and produces effort and motion responding to and commensurate with his own powers. Just so in like manner free will cooperates with arousing grace, and to its supernatural influx into a supernatural work it offers a natural concurrence, commensurate with itself and the powers of its nature.
Morally, from this passage we learn in every good work to acknowledge our infirmity, and to attribute all its goodness and dignity to the grace of Christ. So St. Gregory, book XXII of the Morals, chap. xix: "Let no one," he says, "esteem himself of any virtue even when he can do something bravely: because if divine protection forsakes him, he will suddenly be cast down powerless in the very place where he boasts himself to stand strongly." And St. Augustine, book II Against Julian, chap. viii, praises this saying of St. Cyprian, by which he refutes the Pelagians, saying: "They (the Pelagians) trust in their own virtue and cry out: The perfection of virtue is from ourselves; but you (O Cyprian) cry back: No one is strong by his own powers, but is safe by God's indulgence and mercy." The Psalmist sings the same, Ps. lviii: "My strength, he says, I will keep to you," that is, I will lay up my strength with you safely as in a place of custody, hoping that not by my own but by your powers I shall always be superior to my enemies, because you are the fount of all virtue and strength, as St. Augustine there says. Hence Cassiodorus expounds thus: "My strength I will guard through you;" but Genebrardus thus: "My strength I will refer to you," and will give it to you as received. In this Pharaoh, king of Egypt, sinned, saying, Ezekiel xxix, 3: "Mine is the river (the Nile, defending, hedging, and guarding Egypt), and I made myself (so powerful a king of Egypt);" and therefore he heard from God, verse 5: "I will cast you forth: I have given you to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky to be devoured."
Again, from this passage of Paul we learn to pray to God assiduously, that He may direct our thoughts and send pious and holy ones. For these are the fount and beginning of all good works. Concerning which the Church thus prays: "Grant unto us, we beseech You, O Lord, ever the spirit graciously of thinking the things that are right, and of doing them: that we who without You cannot exist, may be able to live according to You." Finally, learnedly and piously St. Bernard, sermon 32 on the Canticle: "'Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as of ourselves' (understand: of good), 'but our sufficiency is from God.' When therefore we turn evils in our heart, the thought is ours; if good, it is God's word: the former our heart speaks, the latter it hears. 'I will hear,' he says, 'what the Lord God will speak in me, for He shall speak peace unto His people.' And so peace, justice, piety God speaks in us: nor do we think such things from ourselves, but we hear them in ourselves. As for murders, adulteries, thefts, blasphemies, and the like, they go forth from the heart, nor do we hear them but say them;" or certainly the devil sends and suggests them to us.
Verse 6: Who Has Made Us Fit Ministers of the New Testament
6. Who has also made us fit. — In Greek ἱκάνωσεν, made us sufficient, as our translator renders in the preceding verse. The Syriac: made us worthy ministers of the New Testament.
Not in the letter, but in the spirit. — Not by law, but by grace, as if to say: I am a minister of the New Testament, not in such a way as to bring forth the tablets of the Law and Covenant and its words and voices, as Moses did in the Old Testament; but that through my words God may send forth His Spirit and holy impulses to you. So Ambrose, Anselm, Chrysostom. See Augustine, book On the Spirit and the Letter, vol. III. Hence the Greek has it more clearly, διακόνους καινῆς διαθήκης, οὐ γράμματος, ἀλλὰ πνεύματος, He made us ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit.
For the letter kills. — First, Chrysostom, and Ambrose, Augustine in book III On Christian Doctrine, chap. iv, explain thus, as if to say: The letter of the law convicts, and the punishment of death condemns those who do not obey this letter, that is, the law's precepts of justice and charity: for this letter of the law dictates, and so decrees: "Whoever violates the law, let him die the death," Lev. xx, and elsewhere. Second, the same Augustine there: "the letter kills," namely, if you abuse it in bare words, with the true sense of Scripture neglected, leading to errors, as the heretics and Jews do. Third, the same in chap. v and vi: "the letter kills," if things said metaphorically be taken as they sound to the letter. Fourth, the same in the same place: "the letter kills," if those things which in the Old Law are spoken as types of the new law be understood only as to be observed to the letter. And in this sense are to be explained Origen, book III Against Celsus; Didymus, book III On the Holy Spirit, and other ancients, when they say that the letter, that is the literal sense of the law, kills; but the spirit, that is the spiritual and allegorical, gives life. Namely because Christians are no longer permitted to observe to the letter the ceremonies and rites prescribed by the old Law under penalty of death; but they must do that which those ceremonies allegorically signified, in order to attain the life of grace and glory. Fifth, the same Augustine, book On the Spirit and the Letter, chap. iv and following: "the letter" both of the new Law and of the old, "kills," if it be separated from the spirit; but the reason it is here said only of the old Law that "the law kills" is because Moses, when he gave the Law, gave nothing but the letter; but Christ together with the Law gave the Spirit. Hence Augustine here teaches that the Law cannot be fulfilled by the powers of nature alone, but for this the grace of Christ is required. Sixth, Augustine in the same place, and Anselm here: "the letter kills," by occasion: for occasionally the Law sharpens and incites concupiscence and sin, which kills the soul. This sense and the first are most especially literal.
Conversely, the Spirit gives life. — First, because the Spirit of grace and charity gives supernatural life to the soul. Second, because He impels and instills motion and agility for good works and for fulfilling the Law. Third, because He directs to eternal life, which the Law promises to those who keep it. The ministers of this life and Spirit, sent by Christ, were the Apostles.
Verse 7: If the Ministration of Death Was in Glory
7. If the ministration of death and damnation (that is, if the ministry and promulgation of the old Law threatening and inflicting death and damnation) was in glory (or as the Syriac translates in verse 9, was glory, that is, very glorious; namely with thunder, heavenly trumpet, the earthquake of Mount Sinai, the splendor of Moses' face, the old Law was gloriously and magnificently promulgated, and) engraven. — In Greek ἐντετυπωμένη, impressed and inscribed on tablets of stone, Exodus xix, 20 and xxxiv.
Note: Paul here calls the old Law the minister of death and as it were its lictor; because it was its part to kill the guilty, but not to give life to those who obeyed. From these things it is sufficiently clear that Paul writes this against the pseudo-apostles, and that they were Jews, and wished to introduce Judaism and mix it with Christianity. For this reason Paul here so depresses and stings the Jews, and so calls both the old Law and Moses ministers of death and damnation: but himself and the Apostles, and the Evangelical Law, he calls ministers of justice, of the spirit, and of life. The same will be more apparent in chapters x and xi, where in open battle he attacks these Jewish detractors of his.
So that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance. — Note: In Exodus xxxiv, 29 and following, when God was about to give Moses and the Jews the tablets of the Law written by Himself, and was conversing with Moses about this matter on Mount Sinai, like a most radiant sun He breathed upon Moses His glory, that is, the rays of His light, so brilliantly that the Jews could not look upon the face of Moses as upon another sun, but were forced to turn their faces from him. Hence Moses, in order to be able to speak with them, veiled his face and glory with a veil. Whence Exodus xxxiv, 29, it is said: "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he held the two tablets of the testimony, and he did not know that his face was horned from his communion with the speech of the Lord." Note here that "horned" is taken metaphorically; for Moses did not have horns on his forehead, as painters depict for him, but his face was so bright that it vibrated rays of light and as it were emitted horns. See what was said at Exodus xxxiv, 29.
Which is made void. — "Which," namely the glory, was to be taken away from Moses: for these rays and this splendor, like life itself, abandoned Moses as he was dying, to signify that the old Law would cease, and that its glory, with the coming of the new, would die away.
Verse 8: How Shall Not the Ministration of the Spirit Be Rather in Glory
8. How shall not the ministration of the Spirit (and of justice, that is, the ministry and promulgation of the Evangelical Law, bringing the Spirit and justice) be rather in glory? — So Chrysostom, Ambrose, Anselm. This glory of the new Law is manifest in the mighty wind and in the diverse and fiery tongues which at Pentecost, when the new Law was promulgated, made the Apostles glorious to all nations, Acts ii. Again in the gift of tongues, of prophecy, and others, which formerly Christians received visibly in baptism, as is clear from 1 Cor. xiv, 26, as now invisibly they receive the graces, virtues, and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 10: That Which Was Glorified, by Reason of the Surpassing Glory
10. For even that which was glorified has not been glorified in this respect. — "For" by a Hebraism here is assertive, not causal, according to Canons 24 and 25, as if to say: And so the glory of Moses on Sinai is not to be called glory in this respect, namely if it be compared with the glory of the Apostolic office, on account of its surpassing glory, by which it far excels Moses. So Chrysostom. As Theodoret says, the light of a lamp shines at night, but at midday is obscured by the sun: so the glory of Moses has been obscured by Christ. For this is what "on account of the surpassing glory" signifies, namely of Christ and His New Testament.
Note here: For "propter" (on account of), in Greek it is ἕνεκεν, which Beza wrongly translates as "as regards." Maldonatus better translates "in respect of," so that ἕνεκεν may correspond to the Hebrew "neged," that is, "before," "in regard to," as if to say: The old Law shone, but only in part, if you regard and compare its glory with the glory of the new Law: for that was small and obscure, but this is excellent and illustrious. Properly ἕνεκεν signifies cause: hence our translator best translates "on account of," in accordance with the sense given.
Verse 11: That Which Remains Is in Glory
11. For if that which is done away (namely Moses and the law that was to be done away and abolished through Christ), is by glory (is in glory, is glorious): much more that which remains (namely the new Law of Christ), is in glory.
Verse 12: Having Therefore Such Hope
12. Having therefore such hope. — That the Lord through us, the Apostles, may pour forth the spirit of grace, and will so glorify us hereafter beyond Moses, as He has done up to now. So Chrysostom.
We use much confidence, — we confidently evangelize, with liberty, candidly, openly. So Chrysostom. For the Greek παρρησία some translate as confidence, others as liberty, others as openness: for it signifies all these, and all of them suit this passage.
Verse 13: And Not as Moses Put a Veil
13. And not as Moses put a veil. — As if to say: Moses veiled his face; we, on the contrary, do not veil the face of Christ, but propose Him to all with great liberty. Note: In Exodus xxxiv, 33, it is said of Moses: "And when his words were ended (that is, the precepts which he had heard from the Lord on Sinai, as preceded), he put a veil over his face." From which passage it is gathered that Moses promulgated the precepts of God to the people in his first conversation with face open and radiant, on account of the majesty, reverence, and testimony of the Law; but after that first promulgation, thereafter when he spoke with the people, he veiled his face, so that opportunity might be given for freer conversation; but when he entered the tabernacle, of which chap. xxxiii, 8, to converse with the Lord, he removed the veil.
The Apostle here in verses 14, 15, 16 gives the allegorical cause of this veiling. For to the Jews the Old Testament is covered with a veil, so that they do not see its inner light of the New Testament and Christ contained in it: this veil Christ has taken away from us in the new Law, and will take away at the end of the age from the Jews who are to be converted to the faith.
Tropologically Gregory, part III of the Pastoral, chap. v: It is necessary, he says, that the preacher (like Moses) adapt himself to his hearers: for lofty matters ought to be covered before many hearers, and scarcely opened to a few.
That the children of Israel might not steadfastly look on his face. — "On his face." Thus the Latins now read constantly: otherwise it could appear that "face" had crept in here for "end": for the Greek here, the Syriac, and the older Latins also, like Ambrose, read εἰς τέλος, "unto the end," that is Christ, mystically signified through Moses' revealed and splendid face, as Ambrose and Theodoret explain. Others, however, more literally: "unto the end," they say, that is, unto the perfection and consummation of the splendor of his face, namely Moses'; or "unto the end," that is, the extremity, or the outermost surface of Moses' face the children of Israel could not look. Hence our translator more clearly translates, "unto his face." Third, otherwise Theophylact: The unlearned Israelites, he says, could not see that the Law had an end and was to be abrogated. But this is mystical; therefore the second is the literal sense.
Which is made void. — As if to say: Which splendor of Moses was to be abolished; or which face of Moses, namely so glorious, was to be abolished. For the Greek τοῦ καταργουμένου can be referred both to πρόσωπον, that is the face, and to κάλυμμα, that is the veil; but our translator has more aptly referred it to κάλυμμα, the veil, not to the face: for thus he should have translated "which" (feminine), not "which" (neuter), as if to say: "Which," namely Moses' veil, was to be abolished through Christ: for of the unveiling of this veil through the light and law of the New Testament he treats in what follows. So Anselm, Ambrose, Theophylact.
Note with Theodoret: The splendor of Moses' face, like the sun, signified the brightness and glory of Christ and of the new Law; but the veil signified the shadow, the gross ceremonies, and the obscurity of the Law of Moses. The Jews could not see Moses' face except veiled, because in their unbelief they cling to their shadows and ceremonies, and are blinded from the light of the Gospel. Hence he adds:
Verse 14: But Their Senses Were Dulled
14. But their senses were dulled, — that is, as the Greek has it, ἐπωρώθη, they were hardened, that is, they were callous, the Jews' eyes were blinded by the splendor of Moses' countenance, and allegorically they were blinded by the splendor of the Gospel. For the phrase "but they were dulled" refers to and is opposed both literally and allegorically to that which he said: "That they might not steadfastly look upon his face," namely Moses'.
For until this present day the very same veil remains in the reading of the old Testament. — The Apostle here continues the allegorical sense and cause of Moses' veil and of his splendor, by which the Jews' eyes were struck back and as it were dulled and blinded, as if to say: Moses and the Old Testament are to this day veiled to the Jews, so that they do not understand, see, or recognize Christ signified in that testament through so many figures, prophecies, ceremonies and sacrifices. Again, the Old Testament is veiled to them, because they read it, but do not understand, nor do they perceive its meaning, end, scope, light and splendor, which is Christ, as if they had the eyes of their mind dulled and blunted, as formerly they had the eyes of the body dulled when they tried to look upon Moses' shining face.
Because in Christ it is made void. — As if to say: Through the grace and faith of Christ this veil is made void and taken away, so that we may clearly understand and see the Old Testament and Christ signified in it.
Verse 15: When Moses Is Read, the Veil Is Upon Their Heart
15. But even until this day, when Moses is read (by the Jews in the Synagogue) — the Law and the Old Testament.
The veil is placed over their heart. — This veil is the obstinate and gross and stubborn adherence by which the Jews cling tooth and nail to the carnal sacrifices and rites of the old Law, and so are blinded, so that they do not see Christ foreshadowed through those rites. This therefore is the veil of the Jews: for the veil of the Law is its very obscurity and shadow.
Verse 17: Now the Lord Is a Spirit
17. Now the Lord is a Spirit. — First, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not body, but spirit; so that "spirit" may be taken essentially, and be common to the whole most holy Trinity. So St. Ambrose. Second, it can be taken notionally for the Holy Spirit: hence the Greek has the article τὸ πνεῦμα, as if to say: That Spirit; and the Roman Bible and others write "Spiritus" with a capital S, as if a proper name. For the Jews acknowledge one God and Lord, but deny several persons, and that the Holy Spirit is God, as if to say: When the Jews, with this veil of the Law removed, shall have been converted to the Lord, so as to believe in the Most Holy Trinity, and accordingly that the Holy Spirit is Lord and God: then they will serve this God and Lord not by the letter, by gross and bodily ceremonies, but by the spirit; for this Lord to whom they shall be converted is Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will give them the law of spirit and liberty, that with spiritual eyes and senses they may see Christ veiled and hidden in the Law, and may adore and worship Him in spirit and in truth. For this is what Christ says, John iv, 23: "The hour is coming, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks such to adore Him. God is a Spirit, and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth." Which passage St. Athanasius to Serapion explains thus: It is necessary, he says, to adore the Father in truth, that is, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, as if to say: It is necessary to adore the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But this is mystical.
Hence note literally: Christ said these things against the Samaritans and the Jews. For the Samaritans worshipped God with a false and self-fabricated worship, and so worshipped God together with idols, and consequently were worshipping not the true God, but a false and fictitious one, inasmuch as he would be a partner of idols. The Jews indeed worshipped the true God, but with certain bodily signs, which were shadows of things to come. To both of these Christ opposes the Christians, who instead of bodily signs, in spirit; instead of shadows, falsity, and ignorance, in truth, worship God, who is incorporeal and the most pure Spirit. Therefore "Spirit" there signifies the spiritual worship of faith, hope, charity, and the other virtues, by which God is worshipped not through shadows, but in truth, that is, most truly, most rightly, and most properly. Wherefore the Sacraments of the new Law and the ceremonies, since they are not shadows of the old Law but ornaments and aids of the spirit, pertain to the spirit. Thus Theophylact, Theodoret, and Chrysostom explain this passage, who from it prove against Macedonius that the Holy Spirit is God.
You will say: The same Spirit is presently called "the Spirit of the Lord;" how then is He the Lord? I reply: He is the Lord, because He is God; He is of the Lord, because He proceeds from the Father and the Son, as if to say: He is the Spirit of the Lord Father and of the Lord Son.
But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. — For St. Augustine, book XV On the Trinity, chap. viii. And the word "liberty," in Greek is not παρρησία, as before, but ἐλευθερία, that is, spontaneous, ingenuous, free; whence note: "liberty" here is opposed not to the obligation of human or even divine law, as the heretics would have it, but partly to the veil of Moses, that is, the obscurity and grossness of the old law; partly to the letter, that is, the servile compulsion, fear and torpor of the law, of which He spoke at verse 6: "He has made us fit ministers of the new Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit;" and consequently this liberty is twofold.
The first, as Chrysostom says, is of the intellect, and it is the clear knowledge of the mystery of the Trinity, of the Incarnation, etc., which were obscure to the Jews: likewise, of true religion and divine worship, which the Jews thought consisted in the slaying of bulls and rams, whereas God wills to be worshipped and adored in spirit and in truth, John iv, 23. Here observe: just as the grossness, dullness, obscuration, and ignorance of the intellect, by which the mind is held bound as it were in darkness, chains and prison, is rightly called servitude and a servile condition; so on the contrary, illumination, clarity and clear knowledge of the intellect is rightly called liberty, because the mind, freed from ignorance, errors and gross appearances of things, freely devotes itself and is intent upon truth, upon God and upon divine and spiritual things. Whence Aristotle, Plutarch, Seneca and others said that only the wise are free.
The second liberty, as St. Augustine teaches, is of the affection, and it is the love of justice, not the fear of vengeance, namely that we may fulfill the law of our own accord and freely from the love of virtue, not from dread of punishment. For this liberty and spirit of love belonging to Christians is opposed to the servitude and servile fear of the Jews. This is clear from what precedes and follows here.
Therefore as impiously as ignorantly and absurdly, three hundred years ago the Beghards, and now the Schwenckfeldians and Libertines, from this passage and from verse 6, reject the written word of God as a killing letter, and wish to be governed by the internal spirit alone dictating to us. Secondly, they hold that a holy and perfect man is free from the law, and does not sin even by fornicating. Thirdly, hence others everywhere wrongly abolish human laws. See Bellarmine, book IV On Justification, chapters III and IV; Bellioninus, in the fifteen books which he wrote On the Liberty of Christ. Augustine excellently, in his book On Continence, chapter III: "We are not," he says, "under the law commanding indeed the good, yet not giving it; but we are under grace, which, by making us love what the law commands, can give commands to the free." See the same in On the Spirit and the Letter, chapter X, and On Nature and Grace, chapter LVII.
Verse 18: We Are Transformed from Clarity to Clarity
But we with unveiled face (namely of Christ incarnate and of the mysteries of faith) beholding the glory of the Lord (the glorious divinity and grace, and the work of our redemption foreshadowed in Moses and the Old Testament). — "He said 'beholding from a mirror,' not from a watchtower," that is, seeing through a mirror, not looking out from a watchtower, says St. Augustine, book XV On the Trinity, chapter VIII. And this is clear from the Greek: for in Greek it is κατοπτριζόμενα, that is, as it were gazing in a mirror. Erasmus indeed renders it: an enlightened will, namely, that with the veil of the law of Moses removed, with a clear and spontaneous will we may walk according to the law of God.
Note: the Apostle here calls a mirror the word of God clothed in flesh and made visible, which is set forth in the Gospel and the Church to be beheld, and is opposed to the veiled Moses. Whence in the next chapter it is called the image of God: for Christ, as God, is the Word and the mirror of the Father; as man, He is the mirror of the Deity and of His grace and glory; and consequently the Gospel of Christ is nothing other than the mirror of the glory of God, and that the most clear and most luminous. Hence St. Augustine calls his maxims, gathered from the Gospel and Sacred Scripture concerning the life and morals of Christians, the Mirror, which is extant in volume III of Augustine's works.
Secondly, by this mirror may be understood faith, through which as through a mirror, but enigmatic and obscure, we contemplate God and divine things, concerning which mirror I have spoken at I Corinthians XIII, 12.
We are transformed into the same image. — "We are transformed," not essentially, as though our essence were transformed into the divine essence, or into its ideal being, which it had before being created, in God from eternity: concerning which St. John says in chapter I: "What was made, in Him was life." For this is the error of Almaric and other Fanatics, whom Gerson refutes in two letters written against Ruysbroeck, and Ruysbroeck himself, in his book On True Contemplation. But we are transformed accidentally, namely so that, as though through the reflection of the rays of Christ's light as of a mirror upon us, we are made luminous by the light of the faith and grace of Christ (for this is what κατοπτριζόμενα signifies), and so we are made as it were mirrors emitting the divine radiance, and as certain suns illuminating others, as Chrysostom and Theophylact say; nay, we are made as it were gods, partakers of the divine nature, as St. Peter says; "whom," as Paul says, Romans VIII, "(God) foreknew and predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son." He alludes to Moses, who, gazing upon God and conversing with Him, received from God reflected rays of light, as I have said at verse 7; for Moses did not see God in Himself, but in a glorious body assumed, as in a mirror. Tertullian, book V Against Marcion, for "we are transformed," reads "we are transfigured": as though Paul were alluding to Christ's Transfiguration on Mount Thabor, by which Christ, gleaming with His own glory and light, sprinkled and as it were transfigured Moses, Elijah and the Apostles with the same.
For in like manner we, through the Gospel, the faith and grace of Christ, are transformed and transfigured, while through it we are made partakers of divine truth, splendor and glory, so that we sprinkle and communicate the same to others, and at length reflect the same back to God Himself, from whom it first flowed.
The whole life of Christ, says St. Augustine, through the man whom He bore on earth, was the discipline and mirror of morals. See him in the book On True Religion, chapter XVI, volume I. How wise are they who constantly gaze upon this mirror, and strive to conform their morals to it, and so are transformed into other men, heavenly, angelic and divine!
From clarity to clarity, — "from the clarity" of Christ "into the clarity" that is ours, so that we may be made bright and luminous in wisdom and grace after the manner of Christ. Secondly, "from the clarity" of faith "into the clarity" of sight and vision. Thirdly, according to Anselm, "from the clarity" of creation "into the clarity" of justification. Fourthly and best, as I have said at Romans I, 17, "from clarity to clarity," that is, more clearly day by day and more clearly, even to the clarity of the beatific vision. So Ambrose. Furthermore Maldonatus, in his manuscript Notes, explains it thus, as if to say: Advancing "from clarity," that is from the glory of the Old Testament, "into clarity," that is the glory of the New. In like manner he said at Romans I, 17: "From faith to faith."
As by the Spirit of the Lord, — that is, and that through the Spirit of the Lord. The word "as" is redundant by a Hebraism; or rather, with Chrysostom and Ambrose, it signifies the fitting and worthy cause of so great a transformation, as if to say: "As," that is, as it befits the Spirit of God to transform us. St. Basil, in his book On the Holy Spirit, and Chrysostom here read, "as by the Lord the Spirit"; for so the Greek ἀπὸ Κυρίου Πνεύματος can be rendered. Whence hence against Macedonius they prove that the Holy Spirit is God, and that He removes the veil and gives understanding of the Scriptures. Finally Tertullian, book V Against Marcion, chapter XI, reads, "as by the Lord of spirits."