Passage

2 Corinthians 3.3

Book: 2 Corinthians · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"1. Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you? 2. Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men;"

"3. being made manifest that ye are an 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 tables that are hearts of flesh."

"4. And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward: 5. not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;" (2 Corinthians 3:1-5, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"1. Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as do some, letters of commendation to you or from you? 2. You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;"

"3. being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh."

"4. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God; 5. not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;" (2 Corinthians 3:1-5, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"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. Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:"

"3. 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. 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;" (2 Corinthians 3:1-5, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"1. Do we begin again to recommend ourselves, except we need, as some, letters of recommendation unto you, or from you? 2. our letter ye are, having been written in our hearts, known and read by all men,"

"3. manifested that ye are a letter of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in the tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart,"

"4. and such trust we have through the Christ toward God, 5. not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency [is] of God," (2 Corinthians 3:1-5, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: TBD
Audience: TBD
Location: TBD
Time period: TBD

Theological reading

Patristic / early-church-father exegesis, to be added.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

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Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.