The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
King James Version KJV
1 Are we starting to recommend ourselves again? Or do we, like some, need letters of recommendation either to you or from you?
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Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.
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Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 You make it clear that you are a letter from the Messiah placed in our care, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on human hearts.
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Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 Such is the confidence we have through the Messiah toward God.
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And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 It is not that we are competent in ourselves to count anything as having come from us; on the contrary, our competence is from God.
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Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 He has even made us competent to be workers serving a New Covenant, the essence of which is not a written text but the Spirit. For the written text brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
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Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
7 Now if that which worked death, by means of a written text engraved on stone tablets, came with glory - such glory that the people of Isra'el could not stand to look at Moshe's face because of its brightness, even though that brightness was already fading away -
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But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 won't the working of the Spirit be accompanied by even greater glory?
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How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For if there was glory in what worked to declare people guilty, how much more must the glory abound in what works to declare people innocent!
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For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 In fact, by comparison with this greater glory, what was made glorious before has no glory now.
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For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
11 For if there was glory in what faded away, how much more glory must there be in what lasts.
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For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
12 Therefore, with a hope like this, we are very open -
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Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 unlike Moshe, who put a veil over his face, so that the people of Isra'el would not see the fading brightness come to an end.
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And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
14 What is more, their minds were made stonelike; for to this day the same veil remains over them when they read the Old Covenant; it has not been unveiled, because only by the Messiah is the veil taken away.
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But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
15 Yes, till today, whenever Moshe is read, a veil lies over their heart.
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But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
16 "But," says the Torah, "whenever someone turns to ADONAI, the veil is taken away."a
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Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now, "ADONAI" in this text means the Spirit. And where the Spirit of ADONAI is, there is freedom.
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Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by ADONAI the Spirit.
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But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The King James Version is in the public domain.