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2Co_3:14. Ἀλλʼ ἐπωρώθη κ . τ . λ .] This ἀλλά does not refer to the thought implied in the previous πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἀτενίσαι κ . τ . λ ., that the Jews did not contemplate the end of the Mosaic ministry, for this was made impossible to them, in fact, by Moses himself and according to his own intention. What Billroth imports into ἀλλά is therefore also unsuitable: “but instead there were hardened,” etc. Flatt, Rückert, de Wette, Hofmann (comp. also Olshausen) take the connection rightly, that over against the utterance treating of the holders of the apostolic office, 2Co_3:12 f., stands that which speaks of Israel. Accordingly ἀλλά is at, nevertheless.
ἐπωρώθη ] Paul does not here say by whom this certainly passive (in opposition to Theodoret) hardness of heart[170] has been caused. It may be conceived as produced by God (Romans 11 ff., comp. Joh_12:39 f.; Act_28:26) just as well as by the devil (2Co_4:4, comp. Mat_13:19), these two ways of regarding it not being contradictory to each other. The aorist denotes the hardness of heart which set in later after their intercourse with Moses, but in connection with the insight then rendered impossible to them. Πεπώρωται would have meant something else. On νοήματα , thoughts, the products of the ΝΟῦς , of the exercise of the theoretic and practical reason, which, through the hardness of heart, become inaccessible to, and insusceptible of, the perception of the divine, comp. on Php_4:7.
ἌΧΡΙ ΓᾺΡ Κ . Τ . Λ .] A proof, in accordance with experience, for what was just said ἘΠΩΡΏΘΗ Κ . Τ . Λ .
ΤῸ ΑὐΤῸ ΚΆΛΥΜΜΑ ἘΠῚ Κ . Τ . Λ .] The same veil is, of course, to be understood, not of material identity, but symbolically of the likeness of the spiritual hindrance. Without figure the meaning is: the same incapacity for recognising the end of the Mosaic ministry, which was produced among them then by the veil of Moses, remains with them to this day when the Old Covenant is read.
ἘΠῚ Τῇ ἈΝΑΓΝΏΣΕΙ ] Paul conceives the public reading of the O. T. every Sabbath (Act_15:21) as overlaid with the veil hindering knowledge; still we need not assume, with Wolf, Michaelis, Semler, and others, a reference to the èÇìÌÄéú (see Lakemacher, Obss. III. p. 209 ff.) with which the Jews veiled themselves at the reading of the law and at prayer, because otherwise Paul must have made the veil fall on the countenances of the Jews, and not on the public reading. But he has conceived to himself the matter so, that the public reading takes place under the veil enwrapping this act, so that in this reading the Jews remain shut out from insight into the new covenant. 2Co_3:13; 2Co_3:15 preclude us from abandoning the local signification of ἐπί , on. The explanation, “when there is public reading” (Hofmann), confuses the meaning with the sensuous, but in relation to the context appropriate, form of presenting it.
τῆς παλ . διαθήκης ] For when the law of Moses is publicly read, there is read the old covenant (comp. on 2Co_3:6) therein set forth. This is the contents of the public reading. Comp. 2Co_3:15 : ἀναγινώσκεται Μωϋσῆς . Ἡ παλ . διαθ . does not mean the books of the O. T., as is here usually suppose.
ΜῊ ἈΝΑΚΑΛΥΠΤΌΜΕΝΟΝ , ὍΤΙ ἘΝ Χ . ΚΑΤΑΡΓΕῖΤΑΙ ] These words in themselves admit of two explanations; the first refers the participle and ΚΑΤΑΡΓΕῖΤΑΙ to ΤῸ ΚΆΛΥΜΜΑ , and takes ὍΤΙ in the sense of because, as specifying the ground of the μὴ ἀνακαλ . (so most of the older expositors, and recently Fritzsche, Billroth, Schrader, Olshausen, de Wette, Neander, Hofmann, comp. Ewald): without being uncovered, because it is annihilated in Christ (the veil), but Christ is not preached to them. On ἈΝΑΚΑΛΎΠΤΕΙΝ ΚΆΛΥΜΜΑ , to uncover a veil, comp. LXX. Deu_22:29 : οὐκ ἀνακαλύψαι συγκάλυμμα τοῦ πατρός . But against this view (a) ΚΑΤΑΡΓΕῖΤΑΙ seems decisive, which, according to the context (see 2Co_3:11; 2Co_3:13), cannot apply to the taking away of the veil, but only to the abolition of the Mosaic ministry, or according to the connection of 2Co_3:14, to the abolition of the old covenant, which is the object of the Mosaic ministry (comp. also Rom_3:31; Eph_2:15); and hence Paul, 2Co_3:16, does not use ΚΑΤΑΡΓΕῖΤΑΙ of the removal of the veil, but ΠΕΡΙΑΙΡΕῖΤΑΙ , which signifies the same thing as ἈΝΑΚΑΛΎΠΤΕΤΑΙ . (b) If μὴ ἀνακαλυπτόμενον were to refer to τὸ αὐτὸ κάλυμμα , then κάλυμμα in the contrast introduced by ἀλλά in 2Co_3:15 would necessarily be the same veil, of which ΜῊ ἈΝΑΚΑΛΎΠΤ . would be here said, and Paul must therefore at 2Co_3:15 have written ΤῸ ΚΆΛΥΜΜΑ with the article. Hence the second method of explanation[171] is to be preferred, according to which the participle is taken absolutely, and ὅτι as that, while καταργεῖται is referred to the παλ . διαθήκη , thus: while it is not disclosed (unveiled),[172] it remains hidden from the Jews, that in Christ the old covenant is done away, that in Christ—in His appearance and in His work—the abolition of the Old Covenant takes place (Rom_10:4; Col_2:14). The whole is thus a more precise practical definition of the previous τὸ αὐτὸ κάλυμμα … μένει . This absolute appositional use of the neuter participle (to be regarded as accusative, though viewed by Hermann and others as nominative) is a current Greek idiom in impersonal phrases. See Hermann, ad Viger. p. 769; Bernhardy, p. 471; Krüger, § lvi. 9. 5; Maetzner, ad Antiph. p. 176. Hence Rückert is without reason in referring μὴ ἀνακαλύπτ . to τὸ κάλυμμα , and yet understanding ὅτι as that and καταργεῖται of the Old Covenant, whereby the unwarranted importation of a thought becomes necessary, namely, to this effect: “the same veil rests on the reading of the O. T. and is not uplifted, so that it (the people) might perceive that it (the O. T.) has its end in Christ.” Luther’s translation (comp. Erasmus, Beza, and Heumann) follows the reading ὅ , τι (Elzevir), which Scholz also has again taken up. This ὅ , τι would have to be explained as quippe quod (velamen), and would give from the nature of the veil (Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. ii. 1. 30) the information why it remains unlifted,—an interpretation, however, which would only be compatible with the first view given above, and even with that would be unnecessar.
καταργεῖται ] present; for the fact, that in Christ the Old Covenant is abolished, is laid down in theoretical form as an article of faith, as a truth which remains veiled from the Jews so long as they are not converted to Christ (2Co_3:16).
[170] πωροῦσθαι means to be made hard (from the substantive πῶρος ), not to be blinded, as Schleusner (Thes. IV. p. 541) and others, following the Fathers, and also Hofmann would take it, since there is no trace at all of the use among the Greeks of an adjective πωρός , blind, which the Etymol. Gud. and Suidas quote. The Greeks have πῆρος , blindness, and πήρος , blind, but not πωρός . And if the LXX. translate ëÌÈäÈä , Job_7:7, by πωροῦσθαι , and Zec_11:17 by ἐκτυφλοῦσθαι (to which Hofmann makes appeal), this proves nothing in favour of that explanation of πωροῦσθαι , since the LXX. very often, with exegetical freedom, render the same word differently according to the context. We may add that Hofmann irrelevantly compares Lucian, Amor. 46, where πηροί does not mean blind at all, but has its fundamental meaning maimed. The passage in Lucian means: “To whom are the glances of the eyes so blind ( τυφλοί ), and the thoughts of the understanding so lame ( πηροί )?” Here πηροί is a figurative expression for weakness.
[171] So among the older commentators Castalio, and recently Kypke, Flatt, Osiander, Maier; comp. also Krummel, who, however, mentally supplies “by all teachers of the law.”
[172] Very naturally and suitably Paul chose the word ἀνακαλ ., not ἀποκαλ . (in opposition to de Wette’s objection), since he has to do with the conception of a καλύμμα that remains. The veil remains, since it is not unveiled that, etc. In this way the explanatory expression is quite in keeping with the figure itself. Besides, ἀνακαλύπτειν was common enough in the sense of to make manifest, to make known (Tob_12:7; Tob_12:11; Polyb. iv. 85. 6).