{N}3,{/}2 In the majority of the ancient text the following is read: "the letter is written in {C}our{/} heart, but everyone can read it". A bit later in verse 3, Paul says that the letter is written on hearts of flesh - and it meant the Corinthians. Some manuscripts have a distinct text for verse 2: the letter is written {C}in your {/}hearts. Anyway, Paul manifests that he does not need any other recommendation than the apostolic work performed in the people that he has evangelized: they can all be aware of it.

{N}3,{/}7 We have translated this paragraph with a certain liberty. The text says in a precise way: "7 If the ministry of the Law carved on stones which brought death has been in glory till the point that the sons of Israel could not fix the face of Moses -such was the glory of his face, though fleeting- 8 how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be! 9 If the ministry of condemnation is glory, how much more will be in glory the ministry of the spirit? 10 In comparison of this overabundant glory, what has been glorified has not been glorified. 11 If what is fleeting (passed) through glory, how much more what endures (will be) in glory.

{N}3,{/}16 Paul clearly understood that if Jesus celebrated the New Covenant, the other one was now {C}obsolete{/}, and the letter to the Hebrews will say: "soon to disappear" (Heb 8,13).
When the old covenant and the new one face each other, one must respect the different points of view. In one sense the covenant of the Sinai is irrevocable (Rom 11,29): the people of Israel keeps being the people of the divine revelation, with an irreplaceable mission in the history and the salvation of the world, as much so today as yesterday, there our roots are found, and the Church has never accepted putting the Old Testament below the New. However, when one tries to interpret this revelation, to discover the guiding lines and to see its prolongation throughout time, the veil is put in front of the eyes of those who have not turned to Christ (3,15). Revelation will say that the book is sealed and only Christ can open its seals (Rev 5). In this sense this covenant is cancelled, or more exactly surpassed, and everything that one wants to construct starting from the past history of Israel without having reconsidered that history in the light of Christ is condemned to failure.
From another point of view, Jeremiah insists on the interior aspect of the New Covenant, which is the fruit of an encounter with God who forgives sin and which is celebrated from person to person. It is placed then on a different plane from that of the covenant sealed at Sinai with a specific people and based on a law and a particular worship. This does not mean that the New Covenant is a purely interior reality that only is of interest to individuals and does not have any link to history. Jeremiah spoke about new times, and if Jesus inaugurates the New Covenant, this signifies that with his sacrifice, one time in history has given way to another; it is there where the rupture is situated, or the most decisive step in the human adventure. It is right to speak about the era of the scripture, the age of steam or of electricity or of the Internet or of the planetary culture ... but one must always count the years before and after Christ.
No one has shared the reality of the Gospel just because of living after Christ, and it is not enough to belong to the Church in order to experience the riches of this New Covenant. Paul, on his part, is amazed by the transformation that the Spirit causes in those who have been given to Christ. Even when some of his readers only follow his charismatic journey from afar, the experience of the Spirit that acts within the community has influenced many in their conversion.

{N}3,{/}18 The text can be translated: we are transformed in this image {C}by the action of the Lord-spirit, {/}or even, {C}by the action of the Spirit of the Lord{/}. The first is more probable: Paul is taking back his sentence in verse 17: "The Lord is spirit", but he gives a new meaning to {C}spirit{/}. In verse 17 Christ was the symbol of a new way of communicating with God, not the attachment to a letter, but a spirit. Here, the spirit is like the Lord's own character, just as John said: God is spirit (Jn 4,24), and he who is spirit can only blow and distribute the Spirit and the spirits.

{N}12,{/}9 The text says: "the (or my) great strength is fulfilled (or: reaches its perfection) in weakness."

{N}13,{/}4 Perhaps we should translate: "but we will be well alive with him with regard to you, by the strength of God".

