1 A re we starting to commend ourselves again? Or we do not, like some, need written credentials or letters of recommendation to you or from you, ?

Do we begin again to recommend ourselves, except we need, as some, letters of recommendation unto you, or from you?

2 y ou yourselves are our letter of recommendation (our credentials), written in your hearts, to be known (perceived, recognized) and read by everybody.

our letter ye are, having been written in our hearts, known and read by all men,

3 Y ou show and make obvious that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, not written with ink but with Spirit of living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

manifested that ye are a letter of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in the tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart,

4 S uch is the reliance and confidence that we have through Christ toward and with reference to God.

and such trust we have through the Christ toward God,

5 N ot that we are fit (qualified and sufficient in ability) of ourselves to form personal judgments or to claim or count anything as coming from us, but our power and ability and sufficiency are from God.

not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency of God,

6 W ho has qualified us as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant, not of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code kills, but the Spirit makes alive.

who also made us sufficient ministrants of a new covenant, not of letter, but of spirit; for the letter doth kill, and the spirit doth make alive.

7 N ow if the dispensation of death engraved in letters on stone, was inaugurated with such glory and splendor that the Israelites were not able to look steadily at the face of Moses because of its brilliance, that was to fade and pass away,

and if the ministration of the death, in letters, engraved in stones, came in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look stedfastly to the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face -- which was being made useless,

8 W hy should not the dispensation of the Spirit '> ministry whose task it is to cause men to obtain and be governed by the Holy Spirit] be attended with much greater and more splendid glory?

how shall the ministration of the Spirit not be more in glory?

9 F or if the service that condemns had glory, how infinitely more abounding in splendor and glory must be the service that makes righteous!

for if the ministration of the condemnation glory, much more doth the ministration of the righteousness abound in glory;

10 I ndeed, in view of this fact, what once had splendor '> the glory of the Law in the face of Moses] has come to have no splendor at all, because of the overwhelming glory that exceeds and excels it '> the glory of the Gospel in the face of Jesus Christ].

for also even that which hath been glorious, hath not been glorious -- in this respect, because of the superior glory;

11 F or if that which was but passing and fading away came with splendor, how much more must that which remains and is permanent abide in glory and splendor!

for if that which is being made useless through glory, much more that which is remaining in glory.

12 S ince we have such hope (such joyful and confident expectation), we speak very freely and openly and fearlessly.

Having, then, such hope, we use much freedom of speech,

13 N or like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze upon the finish of the vanishing.

and not as Moses, who was putting a vail upon his own face, for the sons of Israel not stedfastly to look to the end of that which is being made useless,

14 I n fact, their minds were grown hard and calloused; for until this present day, when the Old Testament (the old covenant) is being read, that same veil still lies, not being lifted that in Christ it is made void and done away.

but their minds were hardened, for unto this day the same vail at the reading of the Old Covenant doth remain unwithdrawn -- which in Christ is being made useless --

15 Y es, down to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their minds and hearts.

but till to-day, when Moses is read, a vail upon their heart doth lie,

16 B ut whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is stripped off and taken away.

and whenever they may turn unto the Lord, the vail is taken away.

17 N ow the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).

And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord, there liberty;

18 A nd all of us, as with unveiled face, continued to behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; from the Lord the Spirit.

and we all, with unvailed face, the glory of the Lord beholding in a mirror, to the same image are being transformed, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.