And not as Moses, which put a veil over his
face
This he did, because there was such a glory upon his face when he
came down from the mount, that the Israelites could not bear to
look upon him; and also to take off that dread of him which was
upon them, for they were afraid to come nigh him; and that so
they might be able to hearken and attend to the words of the law,
he delivered to them: the account of Moses's putting on this veil
is in ( Exodus 34:33
) where Onkelos renders it by (ypa tyb) , "the house of the face", or a "mask": and
Jarchi on the place says it was a "garment", which he put before
his face; and both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem call it
(ardwo) , "a linen cloth":
now this veil upon his face had a mystery in it; it was an emblem
of the Gospel being veiled under the law, and of the darkness and
obscurity of the law in the business of life and salvation; and
also of the future blindness of the Jews, when the glory of the
Gospel should break forth in the times of Christ and his
apostles; and which was such,
that the children of Israel,
the Jews, as in the times of Moses, so in the times of Christ and
his apostles,
could not steadfastly look to;
not upon the face of Moses, whose face was veiled; not that they
might not look, but because they could not bear to look upon him;
but they could not look
to the end of that which is abolished;
that is, to Christ, who is the end of the law, which is abrogated
by him: to him they could not look, nor could they see him to be
the fulfilling end of the law for righteousness; which being
fulfilled, is done away by him; and this because of the blindness
of their hearts, of which blindness the veil on Moses' face was
typical: though the Alexandrian copy and the Vulgate Latin
version read, "to the face of him which is abolished".
