The Expositor's Bible: The Second Epistle to the CorinthiansDenney, James
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Denney, James
Bible. Corinthians, 2nd -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
question, and in point of fact combines both renderings.[34] His
illustration of the polished silver lying in the sunshine, and sending
back the rays which strike it, is in favour of the change; but when he
writes, "We not only _look upon_ the glory of God, but also catch thence
a kind of radiance," he may fairly be claimed for the other side. There
are two reasons also which seem to me to have great weight in favour of
the old rendering: first, the expression "with unveiled face," which, as
Meyer remarks, is naturally of a piece with "beholding"; and, second, an
unequivocal example of the middle voice of κατοπτρίζομαι in the sense of
"seeing," while no unequivocal example can be produced for "reflecting."
This example is found in Philo i. 107 (_Leg. Alleg._, iii. 33), where
Moses prays to God: "Show not Thyself to me through heaven or earth, or
water or air, or anything at all that comes into being; nor let me see
Thy form mirrored in any other thing than in Thee, even in God" (Μηδὲ
κατοπτρισαίμην ἐν ἄλλῳ τινὶ τὴν σὴν ἰδέαν ἢ ἐν σοὶ τῷ Θεῷ). This seems
to me decisive, and there is the less reason to reject it on other than
linguistic grounds, when we consider that the idea of "reflecting," if
it is given up in κατοπτριζόμενοι, is conserved in μεταμορφούμεθα. The
transformation has the reflection of Christ's glory for its effect, not
for its cause; but the reflection, eventually, is there.
Assuming, then, that "beholding as in a glass" is the right
interpretation of this hard word, let us go on to what the Apostle
says. "We all" probably means "all Christians," and not only "all
Christian teachers." If there is a comparison implied, it is between
the two dispensations, and the experiences open to those who lived
under them, not between the mediator of the old and the heralds of the
new. Under the old covenant one only saw the glory; now the beatific
vision is open to all. We all behold it "with unveiled face." There is
nothing on Christ's part that leads to disguise, and nothing on ours
that comes between us and Him. The darkness is past, the true light
already shines, and Christian souls cannot look on it too fixedly, or
drink it in to excess. But what is meant by "the glory of the Lord" on
which we gaze with face unveiled?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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