NOTES for Co2 3:12-18

Speaking of believing Jews who read Holy Scripture, Paul mentions a veil that prevents them from seeing the true meaning of the text, just as the veil once placed over Moses' face prevented those around him from seeing it. What does he mean?

Of course, reading this passage through today's eyes, we first of all pay attention to the difference between the traditions connected with Jewish and Christian interpretation of the same Old Testament texts. But in the apostle's time it was still too early to speak of some special Christian tradition. There were already, perhaps, some stories about the Savior's death and resurrection, quite possibly even written down, but a Christian corpus of sacred texts did not yet exist. Nor was there a special, developed Christian tradition of interpreting the Torah or the prophetic books; too little time had passed for such interpretations to appear. The point, plainly, is something else.

And here one recalls the evangelist's words that Jesus Himself, after the resurrection, during one of His meetings with the disciples, opened their minds to the perception of Scripture. In this case, the point was hardly some mysterious exegesis available only to the "initiated."

Rather, the matter lay elsewhere, in the very essence of what one may call the understanding of any text, especially a sacred and God-inspired text. In fact, to understand any text, one must first reconstruct the system of meanings that the author created when writing his text. A text, at least a literary text, is a system of meanings clothed in words. Meanings cannot simply be copied the way we copy letters; they can only be recreated by walking with the author the path he walked as he created his text.

But what if there was more than one author? What if God inspired him, if He revealed the meanings and the author only embodied them in words? Then it follows that the path must be walked not only with the human author, but also with God, who inspired him. To understand the Bible, one must understand God. And no one can teach this understanding better than the Savior. More than that: some foundational things only the Savior Himself can teach. Otherwise there is a veil. Otherwise something remains hidden forever.

This is what the apostle means when he says that only God's breath, the breath of the Kingdom, frees a person and gives him the fullness of understanding of Holy Scripture as the word of God. God is free from all human limitations, and only in His freedom can one understand His word.