---
title: 2 Corinthians 3:14
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-corinthians-3-14/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-corinthians-3-14.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 2 Corinthians 3:14
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 2 Corinthians 3:14

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But their minds were closed. For to this day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant. It has not been lifted, because only in Christ can it be removed.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "But their minds were dulled. For to this present day, the same veil remains unlifted when the old covenant is read, because it is taken away only by means of Christ."

## JW Usage

JWs typically read this verse as describing first-century Jewish resistance to the gospel — the veil over Israel's reading of the Old Covenant scriptures. The implication that the New Covenant grants unmediated access to the Lord (developed in vv. 17-18) is generally not pressed against the Watchtower's own claim to be the indispensable interpretive channel.

## Protestant Usage

Paul's veil metaphor in 2 Corinthians 3 is structural, not merely historical. He contrasts the Old Covenant — where Moses veiled his face after meeting God (Exodus 34) and Israel's minds were dulled — with the New Covenant, where "the veil is taken away in Christ" (v. 14) and "we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image" (v. 18). The doorstep application is direct: any system that re-inserts a required human channel between the believer and Christ — an indispensable publishing arm without which scripture cannot be safely read — is reinstituting the veil in a different shape. Paul's New Covenant removes mediation; the believer beholds the Lord directly. Pair this with verse 17 ("where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom") and Hebrews 1:1-2 — the Son speaks definitively, the believer hears with unveiled face, and the bond between Christ and his people does not require institutional gating.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Deuteronomy 18 — A Prophet Like Moses, Singular and Eschatological](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/deuteronomy-18-prophet-like-moses.md) — Acts 3:22 — Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet [Eschatology]