Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks
3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? [2C 5:12] Or surely we do not need, as some do, iggrot of haskama (letters of approval, commendation) to you or from you? [Ac 18:27; Ro 16:1]
2 You are our iggeret, written on our levavot, being known and being read by kol Bnei Adam.[1C 9:2]
3 And you show that you are an iggeret from Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, prepared by us, having been written not with ink but with the Ruach Hakodesh of the Elohim Chayyim, not on luchot of stone [SHEMOT 24:12; 31:18; 32:15,16; 34:1; DEVARIM 9:10,11] but on luchot of lev basar. [ MISHLE 3:3; 7:3; YIRMEYAH 31:33; YECHEZKEL 11:19; 36:26]
4 Such is the bitachon (confidence) that we have through Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach toward Hashem.
5 Not that we are competent from ourselves to claim anything as of ourselves, but our competence is from Hashem, [2C 2:16]
6 Who also made us competent as klei kodesh mesharetim (ministers) of a Brit Chadasha [SHEMOT 24:8; YIRMEYAH 31:31; 32:40; 2C 11:25; MJ 8:8-13]‖not of chumra (not of strict adherence to the letter of the law, legalism), but of the Ruach Hakodesh: for the chumra (letter of the law) kills, but the Ruach Hakodesh gives Chayyim (life). [Yn 6:63; Ro 7:6].
7 Now if the sherut of mavet chiseled in letters engraved on luchot of stone came with kavod (glory), so that the Bnei Yisroel were not able to gaze into the face of Moshe Rabbeinu because of P’NI MOSHE KI KARON ("face of Moshe Rabbeinu that he was radiant" SHEMOT 34:35) because of the kavod (glory) of his face, the kavod (glory) which is fading, [SHEMOT 34:29-34; YESHAYAH 42:21]
8 Then how much more will the avodas kodesh ministry of the Ruach Hakodesh come in kavod (glory)?
9 For if there was kavod in the sherut of harsha’ah (condemnation) [DEVARIM 27:26], how much more abounds in kavod the sherut of tzedek [DANIEL 9:24].[Ro 1:17;3:21]
10 For indeed what once had kavod has lost its kavod [SHEMOT 34:29-30] on account of the surpassing kavod (glory).
11 For if the thing which now is fading away came with kavod (glory), much more has that which remains come in kavod.
12 Since, then, we have such a tikvah (hope), we act with much boldness.
13 And we are not as Moshe Rabbeinu, who was putting HAMMASVEH Al PANAV ("the veil over his face" SHEMOT 34:33, 35) so that the Bnei Yisroel might not see the end of the fading kavod.
14 But their minds were hardened; [Ro 11:25] for until the present day the same veil remains unlifted at the Kri’at HaSefer Torah (the reading of Torah in shul), because the veil is taken away in Moshiach.
15 But even today, whenever Moshe [Rabbeinu] is being read, a veil lies on their levavot.
16 But whenever one turns to Adoneinu HAMMASVEH is taken away. [SHEMOT 34:34; YESHAYAH 25:7; Ro 11:23-26]
17 Now Adoneinu is HaRuach and where HaRuach Adoneinu is, there is cherut (freedom). [YESHAYAH 61:1,2; Yn 7:39; 8:32,36; Ro 8:2; Ga 5:1,13]
18 Now all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the kavod of Adoneinu [SHEMOT 16:7; 24:17] as if reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same demut from kavod to kavod, even as from HaAdon, HaRuach.
4 Therefore, since it is by the chesed of Hashem that we have this sherut, this kehunah, [2C 3:16] we are undaunted. [TEHILLIM 18:45; YESHAYAH 40:31]
2 But we renounced the hidden things of bushah (shame), not going about with remiyah (deceit) nor falsifying the dvar Hashem. Rather by the manifestation of HaEmes we present ourselves to every man’s matzpun in the sight of Hashem. [2C 2:17; 1Th 2:5]
3 But if indeed our Besuras HaGeulah is nistar (hidden), it is nistar among the ones perishing, [2C 1:18]
4 In whose case the g-d of the Olam Hazeh (Ep 2:2) blinded the minds of the ones without emunah, so the illumination of the Besuras HaGeulah of the kavod of Moshiach, who is the demut of Hashem, [Co 1:15; MJ 1:3] would not shine on them.
5 For we preach not ourselves but Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Adoneinu Yehoshua and ourselves as your avadim (servants) for Yehoshua’s sake. [2C 1:24]
6 Because Hashem is the One who said,"Let Ohr shine out of choshech" [BERESHIS 1:3; YESHAYAH 9:2] who shone in our levavot for an illumination of the da’as of the kavod of Hashem in the face of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua. [2C 3:18]
7 Now we have this otzar (treasure) in earthen vessels [2C 5:1] that the excellence of the ko’ach may be of Hashem and not of us. [IYOV 4:19; YESHAYAH 64:8; SHOFETIM 7:2]
8 Being oppressed on every side [2C 1:8; 7;5] but not being crushed, being perplexed but not in ye’ush (despair, atzvut),
9 Being persecuted but not forsaken, being cast down but not destroyed, [TEHILLIM 37:24; MISHLE 24:16]
10 Always bearing about the dying of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach in my basar that also the Chayyim of Moshiach in geviyyateinu might be manifested. [BERESHIS 47:18; TEHILLIM 16:9-10; IYOV 19:25-27; YESHAYAH 53:11]
11 For always we, the ones living, are being given over to mavet because of Moshiach [Ro 8:36; 1C 15:31] that also the Chayyim of Moshiach may be manifested in our mortal basar.
12 So then Mavet works in us but Chayyim in you.
13 And having the same Ruach Hakodesh of emunah that is in accordance with the Kitvei Hakodesh, HE’EMANITI KI ADABER ("I believed, therefore I speak " TEHILLIM 116:10), we both believed and therefore we speak,
14 Having da’as that the One who made to stand up alive Adoneinu Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua will make us also with Yehoshua stand up alive and will present us with you. [Ro 8:11; 1C 6:14; 15:15,20]
15 For all things are because of you [2C 1:3-6] that the Chen v’Chesed Hashem, having increased through the many, may increase the hodayah (thanksgiving) to the kavod of Hashem. [1:6]
16 Therefore we are undaunted and do not lose chozek (strength). For, indeed, even if our outward man is becoming old and atrophied, yet our inward man is yom yom being renewed. [Ep 3:16; Ps 18:45; 103:5; Isa 40:31]
17 For our present momentary tzoros is preparing us for an eternal weight of kavod (glory) utterly beyond measure, [TEHILLIM 30:5; Ro 8:17-18]
18 For while we are not looking at the visible things but the invisible; [Co 1:16; MJ 11:1,3] for the things visible are zemanniyim (temporary) but the things invisible are for l’olamim.
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International