Chapter 3

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone, 3 revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts. 4 Now we have such confidence in God through Christ. 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But if the ministry that produced death—carved in letters on stone tablets—came with glory, so that the Israelites could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face⁠ (a glory which was made ineffective), 8 how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness excel in glory! 10 For indeed, what had been glorious now has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it. 11 For if what was made ineffective came with glory, how much more has what remains come in glory! 12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we behave with great boldness, 13 and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from staring at the result of the glory that was made ineffective. 14 But their minds were closed. For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read. It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 But until this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds, 16 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.⁠ 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another,⁠ which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare 2 Corinthians 3:18 and Gospel of Philip 6:11

New Testament · Nag Hammadi

Summary

The Gospel of Philip connects seeing Jesus with becoming like him, reshaping Paul's language from 2 Corinthians. In Philip, seeing is more than recognizing someone else, and changes who the person is, connecting knowledge of Jesus with sharing his life.

Passages

2 Corinthians 3:18

New Testament

14 But their minds were closed. For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read. It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 But until this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds, 16 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Corinthians

Gospel of Philip 6:11

Nag Hammadi

It is not possible that anyone could see something that has been decreed unless he becomes like it. This is not the way it is with the man who dwells in the world. He sees the sun without becoming the sun, and he sees the sky, and the earth, and everything else without becoming them. This is the way it is with truth, however: You have seen some things there, and you have become them. You have seen the Spirit, and have become Spirit. You have seen Christ, and have become Christ. You have seen the [Father, and you] will become Father. Consequently, [here] you see all things, and you do not [see yourself]. You, however, will see yourself in [that place], because you will [become] what you see.

180–250 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Philip

References

“... ministry, including his baptism and transfiguration. At the latter event, Christ makes his disciples great in order for them to see him in his great- ness. In other words they get to see his real flesh by becoming like him. The connection between incarnation, ritual practice and transfiguration is apparent. Similarly, as John McGuckin puts it, “for Cyril the manner of the incarnation is analogous to the manner of the sanctification and transfig- uration of Christ’s disciples.” In terms closely resembling the Gospel of Philip, Cyril vividly describes the deifying transformation of believers into the likeness of Christ: That we are transformed spiritually and brought to a holy and utterly good life is ex- plained by Paul when he says: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). Through him we are also reborn, for we no longer contain a corruptible seed, but that which is sown by the word of the living God who endures forever. As in Cyril’s thought, the process of becoming like Christ in the Gospel of Philip is also accomplished through ritual (baptism, chrismation, and Eu- charist). The goal is for each individual to go from being like the first Adam – after the fall – to becoming a Christ, a second prelapsarian Adam. ...”

Hugo Lundhaug, “Begotten, Not Made, to Arise in This Flesh: The Post-Nicene Soteriology of the Gospel of Philip,” in Beyond the Gnostic Gospels: Studies Building on the Work of Elaine Pagels, ed. Eduard Iricinschi, Lance Jenott, Nicola Denzey Lewis, and Philippa Townsend (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), 268.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

2 Corinthians13 chapters

Compare 2 Corinthians 3:18 and Gospel of Philip 6:11

Summary

Passages

2 Corinthians 3:18

Gospel of Philip 6:11

References

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