¹ 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 are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: ³ Since as you 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 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: ⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; ⁶ Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. ⁷ But if the ministration of death, written+ and engraven in stones, was glorious+ , so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly see the face+ of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: ⁸ How will not the ministration of the spirit be rather+ glorious? ⁹ For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. ¹⁰ For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels. ¹¹ For if that which is done away was glorious+ , much more that which remains is glorious+ . ¹² Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: ¹³ And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: ¹⁴ But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. ¹⁵ But even to this day, when Moses is read, the vail is on+ their heart. ¹⁶ Nevertheless when it will turn to the Lord, the vail will be taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸ 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.