John Gill Commentary


John Gill Commentary
"and [are] not as Moses, [who] put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look stedfastly on the end of that which was passing away:" — 2 Corinthians 3:13 (ASV)
And not as Moses, who put a veil over his face
This he did, because there was such a glory upon his face when he came down from the mount, that the Israelites could not bear to look upon him; and also to take off that dread of him which was upon them, for they were afraid to come nigh him; and that so they might be able to hearken and attend to the words of the law, he delivered to them: the account of Moses's putting on this veil is in (Exodus 34:33) where Onkelos renders it as (ypa tyb) , "the house of the face", or a "mask": and Jarchi on the place says it was a "garment", which he put before his face; and both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem call it (ardwo) , "a linen cloth".
Now this veil upon his face had a mystery in it; it was an emblem of the Gospel being veiled under the law, and of the darkness and obscurity of the law in the business of life and salvation; and also of the future blindness of the Jews, when the glory of the Gospel should break forth in the times of Christ and his apostles; and which was such,
that the children of Israel ,
the Jews, as in the times of Moses, so in the times of Christ and his apostles,
could not steadfastly look to ;
not upon the face of Moses, whose face was veiled; not that they might not look, but because they could not bear to look upon him; but they could not look
to the end of that which is abolished ;
that is, to Christ, who is the end of the law, which is abrogated by him: to him they could not look, nor could they see him to be the fulfilling end of the law for righteousness; which being fulfilled, is done away by him; and this because of the blindness of their hearts, of which blindness the veil on Moses' face was typical: though the Alexandrian copy and the Vulgate Latin version read, "to the face of him which is abolished".