Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 3:18

"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." — 2 Corinthians 3:18 (ASV)

But we all, with open face.—Better, And we all, with unveiled face.—The relation of this sentence to the preceding one is one of sequence, not contrast. It is therefore obviously important to maintain in English, as in Greek, the continuity of allusive thought by using the same words as in 2 Corinthians 3:14. “We,” says the Apostle, after the parenthesis of 2 Corinthians 3:17, “are free, and therefore we have no need to cover our faces, as slaves do before the presence of a great king.

There is no veil over our hearts, and therefore none over the eyes with which we exercise our faculty of spiritual vision. We are as Moses was when he stood before the Lord with the veil withdrawn.” If the Tallith was in use at this time in the synagogues of the Jews, there might also be a reference to the contrast between that ceremonial usage and the practice of Christian assemblies. (Compare to 1 Corinthians 11:7; but see Note on 2 Corinthians 3:15.)

Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.—The Greek participle that answers to the first five words belongs to a verb derived from the Greek word for “mirror” (identical in meaning, though not in form, with that of 1 Corinthians 13:12). The word is not common, and St. Paul obviously had some special reason for choosing it instead of the more familiar words “seeing,” “beholding,” or “gazing steadfastly;” accordingly, it is important to ascertain its meaning.

There is no doubt that the active voice signifies “to make a reflection in a mirror.” There is just as little doubt that the middle voice signifies “to look at oneself in a mirror.”

Thus Socrates advised drunkards and the young to “look at themselves in a mirror,” so that they might learn the disturbing effects of passion (Diog. Laert. ii. 33; iii. 39). This meaning, however, is inapplicable here. The writings of Philo—who in one passage (de Migr. Abrah. p. 403) uses the word in this sense concerning the priests who saw their faces in the polished brass of the lavers of purification—supply an instance of its use with a more appropriate meaning.

Paraphrasing the prayer of Moses in Exodus 33:18, Philo makes him say: “Let me not behold Your form (idea) mirrored (using the very word we find here) in any created thing, but in You, the very God” (2 Allegor. p. 79). And this is obviously the force of the word here.

The sequence of thought is, it is believed, this: St. Paul was about to contrast the veiled vision of Israel with the unveiled gaze of the disciples of Christ. However, he remembers what he had said in 1 Corinthians 13:12 about the limitation of our present knowledge. Therefore, instead of using the more common word that would convey the thought of fuller knowledge, he falls back upon the unusual word, which expresses exactly the same thought as that passage. “We behold the glory of the Lord, of the Jehovah of the Old Testament, but it is not yet face to face, but as mirrored in the person of Christ.”

The following words, however, show that the word suggested yet another thought to him. When we see the sun reflected in a polished mirror of brass or silver, the light illuminates us: we are, as it were, transfigured by it and reflect its brightness. While it cannot be proved that this meaning lies in the word itself—and it is perhaps hardly compatible with the other meaning we have assigned to it—it is perfectly conceivable that the word should suggest the fact, and that the fact be looked on as a parable.

Are changed into the same image.—Literally, are being transfigured into the same image. The verb is the same (metemorphôthè) as that used in the account of our Lord’s transfiguration in Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2. It may also be noted that it is used of the transformation (a metamorphosis more wondrous than any poet had dreamt of) of the Christian into the likeness of Christ in the nearly contemporary passage, Romans 12:2.

The thought is identical with that of Romans 8:29: “Conformed to the likeness” (or image) “of His Son.” We see God mirrored in Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), and as we gaze with our face unveiled on that mirror, a change comes over us.

The image of the old, evil Adam-nature (1 Corinthians 15:49) becomes less distinct, and the image of the new man, after the likeness of Christ, takes its place. We “faintly give back what we adore,” and humanity, in its measure and degree, becomes as it was meant to be at creation: like Christ, “the image of the invisible God.”

Human thought, we may well believe, has never pictured what we describe in simple terms as growth in grace—the stages of progressive sanctification—in language of nobler poetry.

From glory to glory.—This mode of expressing completeness is characteristic of St. Paul, as in Romans 1:17, “from faith to faith”; and 2 Corinthians 2:16, “of death to death.” The thought conveyed is not so much that of passing from one stage of glory to another, but rather the idea that this transfiguring process, which begins with glory, will also find its consummation in glory.

The glory hereafter will be the crown of the glory here. The beatific vision will be possible only for those who have been transfigured in this way. “We know that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

Even as by the Spirit of the Lord.—The Greek presents the words in a form that allows for three possible renderings:

1. That of the English version;
2. That in the margin, “as of the Lord the Spirit”;
3. As of the Lord of the Spirit.

The exceptional order in which the two words stand, which must be thought to have been adopted with a purpose, is in favour of (2) and (3) rather than (1). The fact that the writer had just dictated the words “the Lord is the Spirit” also favours (2) rather than (3).

The form of speech is accompanied by the same difficulties as before, but the leading thought is clear: “The process of transformation originates with the Lord (i.e., with Christ). It is with Him—not ‘after the flesh’ as a mere teacher and prophet (2 Corinthians 5:16), nor as the mere giver of another code of ethics, another ‘letter’ or writing, but as a spiritual power and presence, working upon our spirits.

“In the more technical language of developed theology, it is through the Holy Spirit that the Lord, the Christ, makes His presence manifest to our human spirit.” (Compare to Notes on John 14:22-26.)