Paul and Exodus 34

As I noted last week, Exodus 33 plays off the two concepts of knowledge and presence, and it seems that Paul had this chapter in mind as he wrote to the Corinthians, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6 ESV). With this summary statement, Paul brings the knowledge of an intimate communion with God together, using those key words “know” and “face,” just like Exodus 33. That Paul had Exodus in mind as he wrote to the Corinthians is further strengthened by the explicit references to Exodus 34 in 2 Corinthians 3. This reflection briefly walks through Paul’s argument in 2 Corinthians 3, especially as that chapter points us to Jesus.

In the first three verses of 2 Corinthians 3, Paul links the “counter-missionaries in Corinth,”[1] i.e. the super apostles who opposed Paul and questioned Paul’s credentials, with the ministry of Moses. Paul parallels the letters of recommendation written in ink, the super-apostles’ credentials, with that which was written on tablets of stone. This is clearly meant to reduce the esteem of his opponents in the eyes of the Corinthians by comparing them to a covenant that has been overcome by the new covenant. Consequently, Paul identifies his own “credentials” with the Spirit of the living God who has made the church in Corinth a kind of letter of recommendation. Paul then expands on this in vv4-6, speaking about his ministry in the light of the new covenant “of the Spirit” who “gives life” over against the dead letter of the law.

Then, in vv7-11, Paul pivots to a comparison of the glory of the new covenant over against the glory of the old, as symbolized in the shining skin of Moses’ face. He affirms that there is glory in the law of Moses, but that glory cannot compare with the glory of “the ministry of righteousness.” What’s interesting here is that Paul argues that Moses wore a veil at least in part to hide the diminishing radiance of his face. This is a good and necessary consequence of Exodus 34 (and our theology), for Moses did not possess anything within himself that would sustain the radiance of his face. Rather, his face was charged up, as it were, only in the presence of the glory of God. This is in contrast with the “permanent” glory of the new covenant, which has effected an eternal state of blessedness for those who are in Christ Jesus. After all, Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, possesses something within himself that sustains the radiant glory of his whole person, for he himself is the radiance of the image of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb 1:3). This was experienced visibly when Jesus’ whole person radiated with unveiled glory on the mount of transfiguration in a foretaste of his present glory at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

Paul then turns to a point of application in vv12-18 and also turns the veil imagery upon the people. Moses is still veiled to those apart from Christ, even when his words are proclaimed, i.e. the law is read. But Christ lifts the veil so that we are transformed by beholding the glorious Lord in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The goodness of God remains, then, in that the words of Jesus are words of eternal life, words that effect what they promise. But we should not forget that when the apostle John beheld in a vision the ascended Lord Jesus, he apprehended just how unsafe the Lord Jesus is. He is our good, not safe, God, who still speaks to us today through his Word and by the power of his life-giving Spirit.

The benefit of considering Paul’s use of Exodus 34 is that we are able to engage with divinely inspired reflection on the unity but also discontinuity between the covenant with Moses and the new covenant. Even in this polemical application of the covenant with Moses, Paul acknowledges the temporary, fading glory of God’s engagement with his people. Though the covenant with Moses is a dead letter in comparison with the life-giving word of Jesus Christ, there is a unity of the revelation of God’s glory, appropriate to the point in the history of redemption. Nevertheless, Christ ushers in a powerful new era that does away with veils, whether the one covering Moses’ face or the one blocking entrance into the Most Holy Place. For good reason, then, we give all glory and worship to Jesus Christ whose glory and power are unfading and undefiled, just as is the inheritance that we receive from him by faith.

[1] Paul Barnett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 161.