808.—THE MINISTRATION WRITTEN AND ENGRAVED IN STONES. 2 COR. 3:7.
Did Paul, in 2 Cor. 3:1–13, speaking of the law written and engraved in stones, refer to the Ten Commandment law, or the law written on the stones of the altar, referred to in Deut. 27:6–8; and Joshua 8:31? J. F. S. Ans.—Moses does not say “law” in this connection. He speaks of a ministration, written and engraved in stones. What was written and engraved in stones?—The only thing we have any account of which was so treated was the decalogue in its ten precepts. We may be sure it was not the law referred to in Deut. 27:6–8 or in Joshua 8:30–32; for this was not written and engraved, mark the expression, in stones. The most that could be said of the law of Moses on that occasion, was that it was written on the stones, or on the plaster with which the stones were covered. Deut. 27:2, 4. But if it was the precepts of the decalogue that was engraved on the stones (2 Cor. 3:7), was it not done away?—No, for the record says, “which glory” was done away; and he is speaking about “ministration.” The sentence is, according to the grammatical construction, elliptical. Expressed in full it would be, But if the ministration of that which was engraved in stones, was glorious, etc., which glory was to be done away, or obscured, by the greater glory of the ministration of the Spirit, spoken of in the following verses. And what is a ministration?—It is the service by which the thing spoken of is put in practice, or carried out. The ministration, in this case, was the whole system of services and ordinances introduced and established by Moses. This was “glorious;” but its glory was eclipsed by the greater glory of the ministration of the Spirit, introduced and maintained by Christ and the apostles.