---
title: "2 Corinthians 3 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/2-corinthians/3/
description: "He needs no commendatory letters. The glory of the ministry of the New… 2 Corinthians 3 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# 2 Corinthians 3

2 Corinthians 3 is chapter 3 of 13 in the Second Letter to the Corinthians. Here are all 18 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> He needs no commendatory letters. The glory of the ministry of the New Testament.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## 2 Corinthians 3 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Must we begin again to commend ourselves? Or are we in need (as some are) of epistles of commendation for you, or from you?
2. You are our Epistle, written in our hearts, which is known and read by all men.
3. It has been made manifest that you are the Epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and written down, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, and not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart.
4. And we have such faith, through Christ, toward God.
5. It is not that we are adequate to think anything of ourselves, as if anything was from us. But our adequacy is from God.
6. And he has made us suitable ministers of the New Testament, not in the letter, but in the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7. But if the ministration of death, engraved with letters upon stones, was in glory, (so much so that the sons of Israel were not able to gaze intently upon the face of Moses, because of the glory of his countenance) even though this ministration was ineffective,
8. how could the ministration of the Spirit not be in greater glory?
9. For if the ministration of condemnation is with glory, so much more is the ministration of justice abundant in glory.
10. And neither was it glorified by means of an excellent glory, though it was made illustrious in its own way.
11. For if even what was temporary has its glory, then what is lasting has an even greater glory.
12. Therefore, having such a hope, we act with much confidence,
13. and not as Moses did, in placing a veil over his face, so that the sons of Israel would not gaze intently at his face. This was ineffective,
14. for their minds were obtuse. And, even until this present day, the very same veil, in the readings from the Old Testament, remains not taken away (though, in Christ, it is taken away).
15. But even until today, when Moses is read, a veil is still set over their hearts.
16. But when they will have been converted to the Lord, then the veil shall be taken away.
17. Now the Spirit is Lord. And wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18. Yet truly, all of us, as we gaze upon the unveiled glory of the face of the Lord, are transfigured into the same image, from one glory to another. And this is done by the Spirit of the Lord.

## 2 Corinthians 3 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Incipimus iterum nosmetipsos commendare? aut numquid egemus (sicut quidam) commendatitiis epistolis ad vos, aut ex vobis?
2. Epistola nostra vos estis, scripta in cordibus nostris, quæ scitur, et legitur ab omnibus hominibus:
3. manifestati quod epistola estis Christi, ministrata a nobis, et scripta non atramento, sed Spiritu Dei vivi: non in tabulis lapideis, sed in tabulis cordis carnalibus.
4. Fiduciam autem talem habemus per Christum ad Deum:
5. non quod sufficientes simus cogitare aliquid a nobis, quasi ex nobis: sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est:
6. qui et idoneos nos fecit ministros novi testamenti: non littera, sed Spiritu: littera enim occidit, Spiritus autem vivificat.
7. Quod si ministratio mortis litteris deformata in lapidibus fuit in gloria, ita ut non possent intendere filii Israël in faciem Moysi propter gloriam vultus ejus, quæ evacuatur:
8. quomodo non magis ministratio Spiritus erit in gloria?
9. Nam si ministratio damnationis gloria est: multo magis abundat ministerium justitiæ in gloria.
10. Nam nec glorificatum est, quod claruit in hac parte, propter excellentem gloriam.
11. Si enim quod evacuatur, per gloriam est: multo magis quod manet, in gloria est.
12. Habentes igitur talem spem, multa fiducia utimur:
13. et non sicut Moyses ponebat velamen super faciem suam, ut non intenderent filii Israël in faciem ejus, quod evacuatur,
14. sed obtusi sunt sensus eorum. Usque in hodiernum enim diem, idipsum velamen in lectione veteris testamenti manet non revelatum (quoniam in Christo evacuatur),
15. sed usque in hodiernum diem, cum legitur Moyses, velamen positum est super cor eorum.
16. Cum autem conversus fuerit ad Dominum, auferetur velamen.
17. Dominus autem Spiritus est: ubi autem Spiritus Domini, ibi libertas.
18. Nos vero omnes, revelata facie gloriam Domini speculantes, in eamdem imaginem transformamur a claritate in claritatem, tamquam a Domini Spiritu.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 700: The Name, Titles, and Symbols of the Holy Spirit ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 859: The Church Is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 702: God's Spirit and Word in the Time of the Promises ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1094: The Holy Spirit and the Church in the Liturgy ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 74: The Transmission of Divine Revelation ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 693: The Name, Titles, and Symbols of the Holy Spirit ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## The saints

- “Place your mind before the mirror of eternity; place your soul in the brilliance of glory; place your heart in the figure of the divine substance, and transform your whole being into the image of the Godhead itself through contemplation.” — St. Clare of Assisi, Letter to Agnes of Prague, 3, 1238 (On this theme: verse 18)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 6: “The letter” … Not rightly understood, and taken without the spirit.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Wed, Jun 9, 2027 (computed): Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, 2 Corinthians 3:4-11
- Thu, Jun 10, 2027 (computed): Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, 2 Corinthians 3:15—4:1, 3-6

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).