This one is my own “find” (if it is indeed a real find; that’s up to you to decide). I begin with Paul’s reference to the veil of Moses. That’s the easy part. What we are looking for, however, is not scattered references to “Old Testament” passages but indications of lengthy passages that have been rewritten for a “New Covenant” context.
So we begin with Moses veil and Paul’s comparison of that with the blindness of the unsaved as well as the complementary comparison of both Moses and Christians taking on the glory of God.
What precedes Paul’s points about being changed into a glorious image is
- Paul’s refusal to visit the Corinthians and instead sending them a letter that made them grieve
- An appeal for mercy to the wrongdoer
- The image of the church as a procession of a divine epiphany that promised life and death [many translators have described a prisoner in a Roman triumphal procession but we will see that that image is incomplete and misleading]
- Comparison of letter and spirit: letter kills.
What precedes Moses having a shining face is
- God’s refusal to go with his people and their remorse
- Moses appeals to God for mercy for the wrongdoers
- God showing himself to Moses and making promises of both mercy and death
- The ten commandments repeated: the cause of the death of 3000
What follows Paul’s point about being transformed into God’s glory is a discussion of
- our earthly tabernacle and how we long to have it changed into a heavenly tabernacle, with tabernacle being a metaphor for body, of course.
What follows the description of Moses face shining with divine glory is
- the construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness.
That is:
| 2 Corinthians 2-5 | Exodus 32-40 |
| Paul’s refusal to visit the Corinthians and instead sending them a letter that made them grieve | God’s refusal to go with his people and their remorse |
| An appeal for mercy to the wrongdoer | Moses appeals to God for mercy for the wrongdoers |
| The image of the church as a procession of a divine epiphany that promised life and death | God showing himself to Moses and making promises of both mercy and death |
| Not administering the letter which kills, spirit gives life | Ten commandments engraved in stone by Moses |
| Christians transformed into glorious image of Christ | Moses face transformed by and into God’s glory |
| Our earthly tabernacle and how we long to have it changed into a heavenly tabernacle | The construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness |
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The details where the devils are. . . Continue reading “Once more — Paul’s Letter a Rewritten Scripture?”