SUMMARY
In an interpretation of events after the golden calf incident, PaulThe Apostle Paul, originally known as Saul of Tarsus, was the author of several New Testament letters and the founder of many Christian communities. More explains that the very attempt to define apostolic ministry in terms of letters of recommendation—using MosesProphet who led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land and received the law at Sinai. More as a standard—misunderstands not only Moses’ ministry, but also the Spirit’s ministry of the new covenantBecause Israel had broken the old covenant, the prophet Jeremiah declared that God would establish a new covenant, one that would be written on the heart. The New Testament is often referred to as the New Covenant because Jesus came to fulfill the law and... More. There is no way around the condemnation and death that results from sin; rather, the Spirit justifies and gives life in the midst of it so we can seek what abides eternally rather than capacities and powers that will ultimately come to an end.
ANALYSIS
Alluding to events that took place after the golden calf incident (see Exodus 32-34), Paul contrasts Moses’ ministry with the ministry of the Spirit. He uses a kal va-chomer argument, indicated by his phrase “how much more,” which introduces something new in light of what people already know. In such an argument, the new thing introduced does not obliterate what has come before it; rather, the two are held in tension. Thus, in this passage, Paul is not saying that the Spirit’s ministry somehow negates Moses’ ministry, or that the MessiahThe Messiah was the one who, it was believed, would come to free the people of Israel from bondage and exile. In Jewish thought the Messiah is the anticipated one who will come, as prophesied by Isaiah. In Christian thought Jesus of Nazareth is identified... More somehow obliterates the ten commandments given to Moses. In fact, although many in the history of Christian theology and biblical interpretation have interpreted this passage in light of Paul’s contrast between the law’s “old written code” and “new life in the Spirit” (Romans 7:6), Paul’s argument with the Corinthians does not center on the law or circumcisionCircumcision is an act of cutting off part of a male (or female) sex organ for religious or health reasons. In the Bible circumcision was performed on males to indicate inclusion into the Jewish religious community. Some church calendars commemorate January 1 as the Circumcision... More, as it does in Galatians and in Romans. The law is not even mentioned in 2 Corinthians.
Rather, what is at issue in this letter is that the Corinthians, and the apostles influencing them, are obsessed with the powers and capacities that come with spiritual gifts, and how they might use these not only to compare and measure one another’s gifts (as discussed in 1 Corinthians), but also to compare and measure the gifts their apostles display (2 Corinthians 10:12). In these evaluations, it appears that Moses’ vision of God, and the prowess it gave him, was used as a standard (Exodus 34:29-35)—their assumption probably being that apostles of the Messiah could access this kind of prowess through their experience of the Spirit.
To counter these ideas about Moses and the Messiah, Paul begins this passage with the striking contrast between, on the one hand, Moses’ shining face after his vision of God and, on the other, the tablets of stone that God commanded Moses to write after the golden calf incident (Exodus 34:27-28). Recall that the original tablets, written with the “finger of God,” were broken (Exodus 31:18). Then, using the kal va-chomer phrase—“how much more”— he compares Moses’ ministry and the Spirit’s ministry with three sets of contrasts.
The first is between death and the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:7-8). Note that this contrast is not between death and life, as we would expect. Although Spirit brings life out of death, life in the Spirit does not immune one from the death that is a consequence of sin—and even, as Paul will make clear later in the letter, from death in this life. Thus, in view of his next contrast dealing with condemnation and justification (or righteousness, dikaiosunē), we can say that, for Paul, it is not that the latter supersedes the former, completely abolishing it (at least in this life). Rather, it is precisely in the midst of death and condemnation, that the Spirit creates life and righteousness (2 Corinthians 3:9). His final contrast is between two types of glory. For this, he uses language he used in 1 Corinthians to discuss spiritual gifts and “the still more excellent way” of faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 12:1-13:13) in a comparison between a glory experienced in part (meros) and a far surpassing glory (hyperballō) and, in a similar vein, between what is “set aside” (katargeō) and what “abides” (menō) (2 Corinthians 3:10-11; cf. 1 Corinthians 13:10-13).
Paul’s point in these contrasts, which explicate his earlier line that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6), is that the very attempt to use spiritual gifts and the prowess they endow as a means to compare and measure people is problematic — especially when they are used to establish hierarchies between people in which some have dominance over others (2 Corinthians 11:20). In fact, Paul appears to be comparing the Corinthians with the people who constructed the golden calf. Their “calf” appears to be the metaphorical gold “letters” (grammata, Exodus 39:30) they want to put on their apostles’ heads based on whether or not they can attain the kind of vision that Moses had. In doing so, they have completely missed the point of the relationship between Moses’ ministry and the Spirit’s ministry. The Spirit neither immunes us from the death and condemnation that is the result of sin, nor does the Spirit give us power to escape our finitude as creatures. Of course, we may be given distinct gifts, even spectacular ones, to serve the common good—as Moses was the great liberator of Israel and lawgiver and which the Corinthians themselves had experienced with their own combination of gifts (1 Corinthians 12). But the point of those gifts is not their passing finite glory, which ultimately will be “set aside,” but rather what “abides” eternally—like faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13).
RELATED PASSAGES
Exodus 32:1-33:21 — The Golden Calf Incident and Moses’ Three Petitions
Exodus 34:1-9 — Moses Makes New Tablets
Exodus 34:10-28 — The Covenant Renewed
Exodus 34:29-35 — The Shining Face of Moses
1 Corinthians 12:1-31 — Gifts in the Body of Christ
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 — Faith, Hope, and Love Abides, but the Greatest is Love
Romans 7:4-13 — The Law and New Life in the Spirit
Romans 8:1-4 — The Spirit and the Just Requirement of the Law