p. 4 | Abolished in 2 Cor. 3 by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 16, 1873

Abolished in 2 Cor. 3.

By Uriah Smith

Does 2 Cor. 3 teach that the fourth commandment of the decalogue has been done away or abolished, as some contend? No. Those who refer to this chapter in proof of such a position, confound the law with the ministration of the law; the same as if a person should confound the Constitution of the United States with the regulations which govern the executive branch of the government.

Paul indeed testifies in that chapter that something has been done away; but what is it? Let us see. Verse 7: “But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away.” Verse 11: “For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.” Verses 13, 14: “And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished; but their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.”

These are all the verses which contain the words, “done away,” or “abolished;” and to what are they applied? In the first verse quoted, we are told definitely that it was a certain “glory” which was to be done away; in the second, it is “that,” unspecified, which is done away; in the third, it is “that,” unspecified, which is abolished; in the fourth, the object is again specified, namely, “the vail” which is done away in Christ.

Looking at these verses again, we inquire, What glory does Paul refer to in verse 7, which was to be done away? The preceding sentence states plainly that it was the glory of Moses’ countenance. On what occasion and under what circumstances was this glory manifested? Ex. 34:29–35 answers: When Moses came forth from the immediate presence of Jehovah, from whose hand he had just received the tables of the ten commandments, some of the surpassing glory in which he had been enveloped still lingered upon his countenance; and Aaron and the children of Israel were afraid to approach him because of the shining of his face. Therefore he put a vail over his face while he talked with them. Here are both the glory and the vail which were to be done away.

Thus was the Mosaic dispensation established. It was a dispensation or ministration of glory. Paul proves this by the fact that when it was ordained the face of Moses reflected so much of its glory that the children of Israel were unable to look upon it. But this glory was to be done away. Why? and how? Because a new dispensation was to succeed that of Moses, and the glory of this latter dispensation was to overpower and eclipse that of the former, as the light of the rising sun obscures the moon and stars. This was the dispensation of Christ, or the ministration of the gospel.

The chapter before us is a vivid contrasting of these two dispensations, the Mosaic and the Christian; and the glory of the former was to be done away by the surpassing glory of the latter. Before the magic of these few facts, the supposed difficulty of this chapter instantly disappears.

That which was done away is plainly declared in the first instance, verse 7, to be the glory of that dispensation, as exhibited in the countenance of Moses. But it may be suggested that glory is a supplied word, and hence that the relative, which, may refer to some other antecedent, and may mean the law. We reply, The relation of words to each other is much more clearly shown in the Greek language, in many instances, than in the English. In the case before us, that which our translators have rendered by the sentence, “Which glory was to be done away,” is in the Greek simply the definite article and a participle; and this participle agrees in gender, number, and case, with the word glory which stands before it; and there is no other word in all the verse with which it can agree. This point is thus settled with absolute certainty. Our translators have given it the rendering they have, in a very laudable attempt to approach the definiteness of the Greek.

Paul next uses the expression, done away, in verse 11: “If that which is done away was glorious.” Here he evidently refers to the same thing. Then he says, verse 13, that Moses put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not look to the end of that which is abolished. What is abolished? That which was covered by the vail. Was that the law? No. The vail was not thrown over the tables of stone which Moses held in his hands, but over his face, to hide the glory of his countenance. Paul adds in the next verse that this vail is taken away in Christ.

The Jew is still looking at the vailed glory of the former dispensation. But when he receives the illuminating Spirit of Christ, and sees the surpassing excellence of the ministration of the Spirit, Moses’ vail and Moses’ glory alike disappear, and he beholds only the exceeding glory of the present.

But is not the law called the ministration of death? and has not that given place to the gospel or the ministration of the Spirit? The law is brought in only by allusion, in the language, “written and engraven in stones.” That dispensation is called the ministration of death, because under it the death penalty was visited without mercy upon every open violation of the moral law. And the ministration is said to be written and engraven in stones, because it was a ministration of that which was engraven in stones. Strictly speaking, we know that there was no ministration engraven in the stones; only the ten commandments were there; but connected with those commandments, under the former dispensation, there was a ministration or service ordained by Moses.

This is one of those elliptical modes of expression so common in the writings of Paul. For instance, he says of those who partake unworthily of the Lord’s supper, that they eat and drink damnation to themselves. 1 Cor. 11:29. Not that they literally do that, but the sin they commit in so doing will lead to that. Again he says, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you.” Heb. 13:17. What was to be unprofitable? Not simply to have those who bore rule over them give up their account with grief; but it would be unprofitable for them to take such a course as to cause those who watch for their souls to give up their account of them with grief. So Paul says, elliptically, the ministration written and engraven in stones, instead of the ministration connected with that which was written and engraven in stones.

Dr. Bloomfield considers this verse (2 Cor. 3:7) elliptical. In his Greek Testament with English notes, he says on this passage: “I have, in Recens. Synop., shown that the sense of the verse is this: ‘If the ministry or office of promulgating a covenant which, in the letter (when written on tables of stone), brought nothing but death with it, was glorious,’ &c.”

The word “ministration” is the same as is rendered “ministry” in the first verse of the following chapter: “Therefore seeing we have received this ministry.” It means the service of a minister. It is certain, therefore, that the language of Paul in verse 7 is elliptical; for there was nothing pertaining to the service of a minister engraved on the tables; but there was a law there in reference to which a minister could perform service; and the ministry connected with it was, under that dispensation, glorious, “so that,” says Paul, “the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold,” what? The tables in Moses’ hands? No; but, “the face of Moses,” the minister who performed the service.

In all this we find no abolition of the law. The law is that to which the ministry of both dispensations relates. Under the former dispensation, this law was written on tables of stone, and the ministry then connected with it was a ministration of death. Under the latter, the same law is written in the heart of the believer, Jer. 31:31–33; Heb. 8:10; and the ministration connected with it is one of mercy. Paul, in 2 Cor. 3, contrasts these ministrations. The dispensation of Moses gives place to that of Christ. The glory of the former is done away by the glory of the latter. But God’s great moral rule of right, the constitution of his government then as now, and now as then, goes through all dispensations and all time, unchanged and unchangeable. U. S.