The NT epistle for the Sunday next before Lent is 2 Corinthians 3.12–4.2, in which Paul draws a comparison between Moses’ encounter with God in Ex 34 and our encounter with God in the person of Jesus, using the metaphor of the ‘veil being removed’. There are clear connections with the gospel passage, which is the Transfiguration according to Luke 9.28–36.
Paul’s argument has a clear logic to it, though the comparison with Moses/the ‘law’ (Torah) needs to be read in its Jewish context; Paul is a Jew, and is comparing the glory of the Torah with the even greater glory of the new covenant in Jesus—not simply dismissing the first in the light of the second. And he reads the symbol of the ‘veil’ theologically, and not in the way we might from Ex 34 on its own.
Come and join Ian and James as they explore these questions!
You can find the Grove booklet on The Hope of Seeing God here.
The video on the gospel reading for this week of the Transfiguration in Luke 9.28–36 can be found here.
You can read the written commentary about it here.
Apropos the introduction: here, in Uganda, we say tomorrow next – meaning the day after tomorrow. Just for fun.
How interesting! In English I gather it used to be ‘overmorrow’
Thanks chaps – too much for one sitting but well worth a second hearing…
My ears pricked up at James’ mention of 2 Cor 3:18 and I think he used the RSV’s …one degree of glory to another… which I prefer over the NIV’s …with ever increasing glory…
The former seems transformational whilst the latter seems progressive.
I believe in the Greek it is simply …from glory to glory…
Any comments?
James – as there was no ‘funny’ this time here’s one of mine for you
Q. Where in scripture did the first Robot Wars take place?
A. The City of AI (Joshua)
Splendid joke!! Thanks Ray.
2 Corinthians 3 is surely indicating not just a glory that is fading/coming to an end — but the covenant that was associated with it that is coming to an end.
A comment was made in the video that the passage is ‘not about supersessionism’ —but it is one of those slippery phrases? I would argue that the purpose of national/ethnic Israel and the Mosaic law is coming to an end — is that supersessionism?
The Faith and Order Commission of the CofE has produced a little book on the matter, called ‘God’s Unfailing Word,’ I think it’s rather good.
The video slid past 2 Corinthians 4: 4 — in the many gospel presentations I have heard I cannot remember a single time that this was cited as being the reason for the ‘veil’ of unbelief.
I think whenever Paul speaks of the ‘law’ he can be at his most enigmatic and I suggest it problematic in equating that with it the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law is clearly finished because it was embedded in the Mosaic covenant along with the temple, land, and priesthood.
So, I suggest we need to be careful when we talk about the ‘law’ not being ‘abolished’ or being ‘fulfilled’ etc. — as to which law we are speaking of. Otherwise all good stuff …
By a roundabout way we did get to “the glory “eventually.
This passage is replete with the sense of Glory.
What then do we understand by the word glory? What is transformative glory? How does it manifest itself in the saint?
Chrysostom in his Homilies gives masterful, edifying thoughts on this passage. /biblehub.com/commentaries/chrysostom/2_corinthians/3.htm
There are times when God gives glimpses of this glory in an unvailing
of this glory in and too his saints.
Example John “we beheld His glory” clearly not all who saw Jesus beheld His glory, this is truly a great testimony of Christ
Similarly Stephen in Acts 6:14 – 15;
For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. When he began to speak of
The God of glory “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham”,
The vail was then upon their eyes and they slew him.
The psalmist had one desire
Ps 27:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
Ps 17:15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
In speaking of beauty Chrysostom triggered a thought for me;
The practice of Islam covering their women completely;
Are they afraid of beauty? Is beauty a temptation to lust that they blame it for their own incontinent lust? If so, they are clearly not delivered from the power of sin by their religion, and have never seen “the beauty of holiness”.
Seeing the beauty of Holiness i.e. The glory, is a wonderful
thing to behold in the saints.
Perhaps this was what Wesley thought of as entire sanctification
in a saint? A holy beauty?
As a teen ager seeking God, I attended a Methodist Local Day conference.
Led by a Nationally known speaker. I was not feeling very enlightened or edified. At an interval I wandered off to the set tea.
I saw an elderly lady whom I vaguely knew, a rather plain woman
Who spoke with a stammer and thus was quite a quiet person who might be described a s a rather simple woman.
As she turned the Lord took the vail away and her face was radient with
To me, was a holy glory that I had never witnessed before.
I thought “I want what that lady has got!”
Consequently, I decided to visit her in her rather isolated home.
Thus began a regular Sunday visit to great benefit and blessing.
I never saw that same “beatification” again
until one time that I heard she was quite unwell
and confined to her bed , so midweek I visited her,
only to find her in a holy joy and gladness, though poorly.
I was profoundly impressed this was a lady so close to God
that she was immersed in Him, radiating Him;
she seemed to live “within the Vail”.
Would that we all might so be changed/transformed from glory to glory.
The ‘Feast of the Transfiguration,’ celebrated on August 6th, speaks to the theme of “theosis” or “i>”divinization” – i.e., participation in the Trinitarian life (2 Peter 1:4); the process of being transformed by the Holy Spirit leading to union with God.
This distinct feast day did not find its way into the Western liturgical calendar until the 1400s, whilst the Greek Church, the Antiochian Church, and the Armenian Church have celebrated it and its relationship to divinization since at least the fourth and fifth centuries. The concept of divinization has shaped and formed the Eastern Church’s ecclesiastical, liturgical, sacramental, mystical, devotional, and canonical life.
Anyone comparing St Aquinas’ wonderful hymns on the Eucharist with his theological treatises on this will understand that for him contemplation and intellectual study are both necessary and complimentary – one feeding the spirit; the other the mind.
The Gospels accounts of the Transfiguration are read during Lent in the West, the focus there being on the promised victory won by Christ after His agony and death. Jesus allows His glory to shine through His humanity to give hope to the Apostles. The Feast of the Transfiguration, on the other hand, reveals something more than hope and encouragement in trials and suffering. It also points forward, manifesting the divinization of human nature now made possible by the resurrection.
In the Collect in the Roman Liturgy for the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Church prays:
Christianity involves a process of sanctification – in Greek “hagiasmos” – “to make holy.” Only God is holy ( Isa 6:3 ). He is separate, distinct, other. As human beings we participate or share in the holiness of God through unity with Christ. The term “metamorphosis” means “a complete change of physical form or substance.” In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Spiritual metamorphosis is God’s greatest desire and delight for us.
With these insights, the East also sees a connection between the Transfiguration and the Eucharistic – but that’s a whole other matter, so to speak.
I’d like to comment …
Problem resolved … apologies!