2 Corinthians 3:12

Having therefore such a hope, we use boldness of speech, and are not as Moses who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look stedfastly on the end of that which was passing away.

Paul's argument in these verses might be paraphrased rather bluntly as, "Well, anyway, we do not have to put a veil over our face like Moses did. Our gospel is clear and plain." Dummelow's paraphrase is: "Since our hopes for the future of the gospel are so great, we speak frankly and boldly. We do not seek to conceal anything as Moses concealed his face with a veil."[24]

Was passing away ... is better rendered "was being done away" (English Revised Version margin), because in this marginal rendition there is implied the conscious purpose of God in "doing away" with the old covenant. That old covenant was not something passed away with time; Almighty God consciously abrogated it, on the basis that Israel had broken it (Hebrews 8:9).

Clines observed that "Concealment was not necessarily Moses' motive for the veil; Paul is probably thinking that it was God's providence that the Israelites never saw that the glory was fading."[25]

[24] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 931.

[25] David J. A. Clines, op. cit., p. 423.