Biblion Bible Commentary
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A Veil over the Mind
2 Corinthians 3:12-15
12 Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech, · WEB
Moses covered his face so that an ending would not be watched, and the covering has since moved from his face to the minds of those reading about it.
Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech. The boldness is a consequence, and the word carries the sense of speaking openly with nothing withheld — which is the opposite of what the next clause describes.
And not as Moses, who put a veil on his face so that the children of Israel wouldn't look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away.
The stated reason for the veil is precise, and it is not modesty or protection. It was so that the end would not be observed. The glory was fading, and the covering kept the fading out of view.
That gives the earlier concession its edge. The brightness at Sinai was real enough to be unbearable 2 Corinthians 3:7, and it was also on its way out, and both facts were visible on one man's face. A veil is the only way to show the first without showing the second.
So Paul's boldness is a claim about permanence rather than confidence. A minister of something that does not fade has no ending to hide, and therefore nothing to gain by covering anything.
Verse 14 then moves the veil, and this is the turn in the argument: their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains.
It is the same veil, and it is no longer on a face. What was once cloth over Moses is now something over the understanding of people hearing Moses read aloud — the difficulty has relocated from the object to the observer.
And the condition under which it lifts is stated as a fact about Christ rather than about effort: because in Christ it passes away. The same verb used of the fading glory is now used of the veil itself. The covering is temporary in exactly the way the thing it covered was temporary.
Verse 15 restates it as a present condition and locates it deeper than the mind: when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Not a failure of information. Nobody in the sentence lacks the text — it is being read to them.
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