2 Corinthians 3:14

But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) But their minds were blinded.—The Greek verb expresses strictly the callousness of a nerve that has become insensible, as in Mark 6:52; Mark 8:17; Romans 11:7. Here, as applied to the faculties of perception, “blinded” is, perhaps, a legitimate rendering.

Remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament . . .—The words are better translated: the same veil remaineth in the reading of the old covenant; the fact not being revealed (i.e., by the removal of the veil) that it (the old covenant) is being done away in Christ The figure is passing through a kind of dissolving change. There is still a veil between the hearers of the Law and its true meaning; but the veil is no longer on the face of the law-giver, but on their hearts; and the reason of this is that, the veil not being withdrawn, they do not see that the glory of the older covenant is done away by the brightness of the new. It is doing violence to the context to refer to the veil the words “is done away,” which through the whole passage is applied to the Law itself; and in 2Corinthians 3:16 a new and appropriate word is used for the withdrawal of the veil. It is, the Apostle says, because the veil of prejudice and tradition hinders them from seeing the truth that the Jews of his own time still think of the Law as permanent, instead of looking on it as passing through a process of extinction. The “Old Testament” is clearly used, not, as in the modern sense, for the whole volume of the Law—Prophets and Psalms—but specially for the law which was the basis of the covenant. The other, but less adequate, rendering would be, the veil remaineth . . . unwithdrawn, for it (the veil) is abolished in Christ. If there was any authority for giving an active force to the middle form of the verb, we might translate with a perfectly satisfactory meaning, the same veil remaineth . . . not revealing the fact that it is being done away in Christ; but unfortunately there is no such authority. The English, “which veil is done away,” fails to give, in any case, the true force of the Greek.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:12-18 It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech. The Old Testament believers had only cloudy and passing glimpses of that glorious Saviour, and unbelievers looked no further than to the outward institution. But the great precepts of the gospel, believe, love, obey, are truths stated as clearly as possible. And the whole doctrine of Christ crucified, is made as plain as human language can make it. Those who lived under the law, had a veil upon their hearts. This veil is taken away by the doctrines of the Bible about Christ. When any person is converted to God, then the veil of ignorance is taken away. The condition of those who enjoy and believe the gospel is happy, for the heart is set at liberty to run the ways of God's commandments. They have light, and with open face they behold the glory of the Lord. Christians should prize and improve these privileges. We should not rest contented without knowing the transforming power of the gospel, by the working of the Spirit, bringing us to seek to be like the temper and tendency of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and into union with Him. We behold Christ, as in the glass of his word; and as the reflection from a mirror causes the face to shine, the faces of Christians shine also.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But their minds were blinded - The word used here (πωρόω pōroō) means rather to harden; to make hard like stone; and then to make dull or stupid. It is applied to the heart, in Mark 6:52; Mark 8:17; to persons, in Romans 11:7; and to the eyes, in Job 17:7. Paul refers here to the fact that the understandings of the Jews were stupid, dull, and insensible, so that they did not see clearly the design and end of their own institutions. He states simply the fact; he does not refer to the cause of it. The fact that the Jews were thus stupid and dull is often affirmed in the New Testament.

For until this day ... - The sense of this is, that even to the time when Paul wrote, it was a characteristic of the great mass of the Jewish people, that they did not understand the true sense of their own Scriptures. They did not understand its doctrines in regard to the Messiah. A veil seems to be thrown over the Old Testament when they read it, as there was over the face of Moses, so that the glory of their own Scriptures is concealed from their view, as the glory of the face of Moses was hidden.

Of the Old Testament - Greek, "of the old covenant." See this word "testament," or covenant, explained in the notes on 1 Corinthians 11:25. This, I believe, is the only instance in which the Scriptures of the Jews are called the "Old Testament," or covenant, in the Bible. It was, of course, not a name which they used, or would use; but it is now with Christians the common appellation. No doubt can be entertained but that Paul uses the terms in the same manner in which we now do, and refers to all the inspired writings of the Jews.

Which vail is done away in Christ - In the manifestation, or appearance of Jesus the Messiah, the veil is removed. The obscurity which rested on the prophecies and types of the former dispensation is withdrawn; and as the face of Moses could have been distinctly seen if the veil on his face had been removed, so it is in regard to the true meaning of the Old Testament by the coming of the Messiah. What was obscure is now made clear; and the prophecies are so completely fulfilled in him, that his coming has removed the covering, and shed a clear light over them all. Many of the prophecies, for example, until the Messiah actually appeared, appeared obscure, and almost contradictory. Those which spoke of him, for illustration, as man and as God; as suffering, and yet reigning; as dying, and yet as ever-living; as a mighty Prince, a conqueror, and a king, and yet as a man of sorrows; as humble, and yet glorious: all seemed difficult to be reconciled until they were seen to harmonize in Jesus of Nazareth. Then they were plain, and the veil was taken away. Christ is seen to answer all the previous descriptions of him in the Old Testament; and his coming casts a clear light on all which was before obscure.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14-18. Parenthetical: Of Christians in general. He resumes the subject of the ministry, 2Co 4:1.

minds—Greek, "mental perceptions"; "understandings."

blinded—rather, "hardened." The opposite to "looking steadfastly at the end" of the law (2Co 3:13). The veil on Moses' face is further typical of the veil that is on their hearts.

untaken away … which veil—rather, "the same veil … remaineth untaken away [literally, not unveiled], so that they do not see THAT it (not the veil as English Version, but 'THE Old Testament,' or covenant of legal ordinances) is done away (2Co 3:7, 11, 13) in Christ" or, as Bengel, "Because it is done away in Christ," that is, it is not done away save in Christ: the veil therefore remains untaken away from them, because they will not come to Christ, who does away, with the law as a mere letter. If they once saw that the law is done away in Him, the veil would be no longer on their hearts in reading it publicly in their synagogues (so "reading" means, Ac 15:21). I prefer the former.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Here the apostle expoundeth what he meant before by the mystical veil, viz. the blinding of the eyes of the Jews; of which we read often in the New Testament, Matthew 13:14 Mark 4:12 Luke 8:10 John 12:40 Acts 28:26 Romans 11:8: see the notes upon all those texts. And (saith the apostle) to this day the veil remaineth not taken away; that veil, which was signified by the veil with which Moses covered his face.

In the reading of the Old Testament, is, when the Old Testament is read: some part of which was wont to be read in the synagogues every sabbath day. But we shall meet with this in the next verse more fully. But (saith he) this

veil is done away in Christ. It is really taken away upon the coming of Christ; that is, the veil, that covered the face of Christ, is now truly, taken away upon his coming; the types are this filled in nim, as their complement and antitype; the prophecies are fulfilled in him, as he whom they concerned, and of whom the prophets spake. But the veil, that is drawn over men’s hearts, is not taken away, till they come to receive Jesus Christ as the end of the law for righteousness, to close with him, and to believe in him. God hath taken the veil off from Christ, by sending him personally to fulfil all righteousness; but Christ profiteth nothing particular souls, until they come to believe in him, then it is taken away from their souls, and not before. Which was the reason that it remained still upon the Jews, among whom he came, as among his own, but they received him not.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But their minds were blinded,.... This confirms the sense given of the foregoing verse, and shows, that not the Israelites only in Moses's time, but the Jews in the times of the Gospel, had their minds so blinded, that they could not behold the glory of the Gospel, nor Christ the end of the law; see Romans 11:7.

For until this day, to this very time,

remaineth the same veil untaken away; not the selfsame veil that was on Moses's face, but the veil of blindness, darkness, and ignorance, upon the hearts of the Jews:

in the reading of the Old Testament; the books of the Old Testament, which were used to be read in their synagogues every sabbath day; the true spiritual meaning of which, as they respect Christ and the Gospel dispensation, they understood not; of which darkness, the veil on the face of Moses was a type and emblem:

which veil is done away in Christ; can only be removed by Christ, by his Spirit and grace, and through the light of the Gospel of Christ, shining into the heart; and so dispel that blindness and ignorance which is in the understanding; whereby the books of the Old Testament are understood, and appear to agree exactly with the Gospel of Christ, in the books of the New Testament.

Geneva Study Bible

But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

2 Corinthians 3:14. Ἀλλʼ ἐπωρώθη κ.τ.λ.] This ἀλλά does not refer to the thought implied in the previous πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἀτενίσαι κ.τ.λ., that the Jews did not contemplate the end of the Mosaic ministry, for this was made impossible to them, in fact, by Moses himself and according to his own intention. What Billroth imports into ἀλλά is therefore also unsuitable: “but instead there were hardened,” etc. Flatt, Rückert, de Wette, Hofmann (comp. also Olshausen) take the connection rightly, that over against the utterance treating of the holders of the apostolic office, 2 Corinthians 3:12 f., stands that which speaks of Israel. Accordingly ἀλλά is at, nevertheless.

ἐπωρώθη] Paul does not here say by whom this certainly passive (in opposition to Theodoret) hardness of heart[170] has been caused. It may be conceived as produced by God (Romans 11 ff., comp. John 12:39 f.; Acts 28:26) just as well as by the devil (2 Corinthians 4:4, comp. Matthew 13:19), these two ways of regarding it not being contradictory to each other. The aorist denotes the hardness of heart which set in later after their intercourse with Moses, but in connection with the insight then rendered impossible to them. Πεπώρωται would have meant something else. On νοήματα, thoughts, the products of the ΝΟῦς, of the exercise of the theoretic and practical reason, which, through the hardness of heart, become inaccessible to, and insusceptible of, the perception of the divine, comp. on Php 4:7.

ἌΧΡΙ ΓᾺΡ Κ.Τ.Λ.] A proof, in accordance with experience, for what was just said ἘΠΩΡΏΘΗ Κ.Τ.Λ.

ΤῸ ΑὐΤῸ ΚΆΛΥΜΜΑ ἘΠῚ Κ.Τ.Λ.] The same veil is, of course, to be understood, not of material identity, but symbolically of the likeness of the spiritual hindrance. Without figure the meaning is: the same incapacity for recognising the end of the Mosaic ministry, which was produced among them then by the veil of Moses, remains with them to this day when the Old Covenant is read.

ἘΠῚ Τῇ ἈΝΑΓΝΏΣΕΙ] Paul conceives the public reading of the O. T. every Sabbath (Acts 15:21) as overlaid with the veil hindering knowledge; still we need not assume, with Wolf, Michaelis, Semler, and others, a reference to the טַלִּית (see Lakemacher, Obss. III. p. 209 ff.) with which the Jews veiled themselves at the reading of the law and at prayer, because otherwise Paul must have made the veil fall on the countenances of the Jews, and not on the public reading. But he has conceived to himself the matter so, that the public reading takes place under the veil enwrapping this act, so that in this reading the Jews remain shut out from insight into the new covenant. 2 Corinthians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 3:15 preclude us from abandoning the local signification of ἐπί, on. The explanation, “when there is public reading” (Hofmann), confuses the meaning with the sensuous, but in relation to the context appropriate, form of presenting it.

τῆς παλ. διαθήκης] For when the law of Moses is publicly read, there is read the old covenant (comp. on 2 Corinthians 3:6) therein set forth. This is the contents of the public reading. Comp. 2 Corinthians 3:15 : ἀναγινώσκεται Μωϋσῆς. Ἡ παλ. διαθ. does not mean the books of the O. T., as is here usually suppose.

ΜῊ ἈΝΑΚΑΛΥΠΤΌΜΕΝΟΝ, ὍΤΙ ἘΝ Χ. ΚΑΤΑΡΓΕῖΤΑΙ] These words in themselves admit of two explanations; the first refers the participle and ΚΑΤΑΡΓΕῖΤΑΙ to ΤῸ ΚΆΛΥΜΜΑ, and takes ὍΤΙ in the sense of because, as specifying the ground of the μὴ ἀνακαλ. (so most of the older expositors, and recently Fritzsche, Billroth, Schrader, Olshausen, de Wette, Neander, Hofmann, comp. Ewald): without being uncovered, because it is annihilated in Christ (the veil), but Christ is not preached to them. On ἈΝΑΚΑΛΎΠΤΕΙΝ ΚΆΛΥΜΜΑ, to uncover a veil, comp. LXX. Deuteronomy 22:29 : οὐκ ἀνακαλύψαι συγκάλυμμα τοῦ πατρός. But against this view (a) ΚΑΤΑΡΓΕῖΤΑΙ seems decisive, which, according to the context (see 2 Corinthians 3:11; 2 Corinthians 3:13), cannot apply to the taking away of the veil, but only to the abolition of the Mosaic ministry, or according to the connection of 2 Corinthians 3:14, to the abolition of the old covenant, which is the object of the Mosaic ministry (comp. also Romans 3:31; Ephesians 2:15); and hence Paul, 2 Corinthians 3:16, does not use ΚΑΤΑΡΓΕῖΤΑΙ of the removal of the veil, but ΠΕΡΙΑΙΡΕῖΤΑΙ, which signifies the same thing as ἈΝΑΚΑΛΎΠΤΕΤΑΙ. (b) If μὴ ἀνακαλυπτόμενον were to refer to τὸ αὐτὸ κάλυμμα, then κάλυμμα in the contrast introduced by ἀλλά in 2 Corinthians 3:15 would necessarily be the same veil, of which ΜῊ ἈΝΑΚΑΛΎΠΤ. would be here said, and Paul must therefore at 2 Corinthians 3:15 have written ΤῸ ΚΆΛΥΜΜΑ with the article. Hence the second method of explanation[171] is to be preferred, according to which the participle is taken absolutely, and ὅτι as that, while καταργεῖται is referred to the παλ. διαθήκη, thus: while it is not disclosed (unveiled),[172] it remains hidden from the Jews, that in Christ the old covenant is done away, that in Christ—in His appearance and in His work—the abolition of the Old Covenant takes place (Romans 10:4; Colossians 2:14). The whole is thus a more precise practical definition of the previous τὸ αὐτὸ κάλυμμα … μένει. This absolute appositional use of the neuter participle (to be regarded as accusative, though viewed by Hermann and others as nominative) is a current Greek idiom in impersonal phrases. See Hermann, ad Viger. p. 769; Bernhardy, p. 471; Krüger, § lvi. 9. 5; Maetzner, ad Antiph. p. 176. Hence Rückert is without reason in referring μὴ ἀνακαλύπτ. to τὸ κάλυμμα, and yet understanding ὅτι as that and καταργεῖται of the Old Covenant, whereby the unwarranted importation of a thought becomes necessary, namely, to this effect: “the same veil rests on the reading of the O. T. and is not uplifted, so that it (the people) might perceive that it (the O. T.) has its end in Christ.” Luther’s translation (comp. Erasmus, Beza, and Heumann) follows the reading ὅ,τι (Elzevir), which Scholz also has again taken up. This ὅ,τι would have to be explained as quippe quod (velamen), and would give from the nature of the veil (Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. ii. 1. 30) the information why it remains unlifted,—an interpretation, however, which would only be compatible with the first view given above, and even with that would be unnecessar.

καταργεῖται] present; for the fact, that in Christ the Old Covenant is abolished, is laid down in theoretical form as an article of faith, as a truth which remains veiled from the Jews so long as they are not converted to Christ (2 Corinthians 3:16).

[170] πωροῦσθαι means to be made hard (from the substantive πῶρος), not to be blinded, as Schleusner (Thes. IV. p. 541) and others, following the Fathers, and also Hofmann would take it, since there is no trace at all of the use among the Greeks of an adjective πωρός, blind, which the Etymol. Gud. and Suidas quote. The Greeks have πῆρος, blindness, and πήρος, blind, but not πωρός. And if the LXX. translate כָּהָה, Job 7:7, by πωροῦσθαι, and Zechariah 11:17 by ἐκτυφλοῦσθαι (to which Hofmann makes appeal), this proves nothing in favour of that explanation of πωροῦσθαι, since the LXX. very often, with exegetical freedom, render the same word differently according to the context. We may add that Hofmann irrelevantly compares Lucian, Amor. 46, where πηροί does not mean blind at all, but has its fundamental meaning maimed. The passage in Lucian means: “To whom are the glances of the eyes so blind (τυφλοί), and the thoughts of the understanding so lame (πηροί)?” Here πηροί is a figurative expression for weakness.

[171] So among the older commentators Castalio, and recently Kypke, Flatt, Osiander, Maier; comp. also Krummel, who, however, mentally supplies “by all teachers of the law.”

[172] Very naturally and suitably Paul chose the word ἀνακαλ., not ἀποκαλ. (in opposition to de Wette’s objection), since he has to do with the conception of a καλύμμα that remains. The veil remains, since it is not unveiled that, etc. In this way the explanatory expression is quite in keeping with the figure itself. Besides, ἀνακαλύπτειν was common enough in the sense of to make manifest, to make known (Tob 12:7; Tob 12:11; Polyb. iv. 85. 6).

2 Corinthians 3:14-18. Sad contrast which the procedure of the preachers of the gospel indicated in 2 Corinthians 3:12-13—so wholly different from the procedure of Moses—meets with in the hardening of Israel. How far off are they to this day from divine freedom! how altogether different, however (2 Corinthians 3:18), it is with us Christians!

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Corinthians 3:14. ἀλλʼ ἐπωρώθη τὰ νοήματα αὐτῶν: but their minds were blinded, sc., in reference to what they saw (cf. Romans 11:25); they took the brightness for an abiding glory (cf. Deuteronomy 29:4). πῶρος, which primarily means a kind of marble, came to mean, in medical writers, a hardening of the tissues; and hence we have πωρός, (1) to petrify, (2) to become insensible or obtuse, and so (3) it comes to be used of insensibility of the organs of vision, to blind. (See J. A. Robinson in Journal of Theological Studies, Oct., 1901, and cf. reff. above.)—ἄχρι γὰρ τῆς σήμερον ἡμέρας κ.f1τ.λ.: for until this very day at the reading of the Old Covenant the same veil remaineth unlifted (for it is only done away in Christ). (1) Some commentators take μὴ ἀνακαλυπτόμενον as a nominative absolute, and translate “the same veil remaineth, it not being revealed that it (sc., either the veil or the Old Covenant) is done away in Christ”. But the order of the words seems to force us to take the present participle with μένει—it having a merely explanatory force and being almost redundant. (2) Again both A.V. and R.V. (text), while translating the first part of the clause as we have done, render ὅ τι ἐν Χρ. καταργεῖται “which veil is done away in Christ”. But it seems indefensible thus to take ὅ τι as equivalent to ὅ. (3) Field arrives at yet another rendering by taking κάλυμμα per synecdochem for the thing veiled, which is here declared to be the fact that the Old Covenant is done away in Christ. He renders “the same mystery remaineth unrevealed, namely, that it is done away in Christ”. But it is a grave objection to this that τὸ κάλυμμα has to be taken in a sense different from that which it has all through the rest of the passage. (4) We prefer, therefore (with Schmiedel and Schnedermann), to read ὅ τι as ὅτι, for, and to regard the phrase ὅτι ἐν χρ. καταργεῖται. as parenthetical: “until this day the veil remains unlifted (for it is only in Christ that it is done away)”; i.e., the Jews do not recognise the vanishing away of the glory of the Law, which yet is going on before their eyes. How completely Judaism was dissociated in St. Paul’s mind from Christianity is plain from the striking phrase ἡ παλαιὰ διαθήκη (here only found; but cf. 2 Corinthians 3:6), by which he describes the religious system of his own early manhood, which had only been superseded by ἡ καινὴ διαθήκη thirty years before he wrote this letter. ἀνάγνωσις is (see reff.) the public reading of the Law in the synagogues; it seems, however, unnecessarily ingenious to see here, with Schmiedel, an allusion in τὸ κάλυμμα to the covers in which the Synagogue Rolls were preserved.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. But their minds were blinded] They neither obeyed the Law when it was given, nor would cease to obey it when it was superseded. The word rendered blinded properly signifies hardened, and is so translated in Mark 6:52; Mark 8:17; John 12:40; and in the margin of Romans 11:7 (where the text gives the same translation as here). See also Ephesians 4:18. The rendering blinded is justified by the fact that many cases of what is called cataract are attributable to the hardening of the crystalline lens of the eye into a chalky substance, a process for which the Greek word here used is a proper equivalent. Our version here follows Tyndale. Wiclif has but the wittis of hem ben astonied, and the Rhemish but their senses were dulled. For the word translated minds see note on ch. 2 Corinthians 2:11. Cf. Isaiah 6:9-10; Matthew 13:14, &c., and ch. 2 Corinthians 4:4. The word but implies that in consequence of the condition of the Israelites the Apostle’s plainness of speech was, to them at least, of no avail.

remaineth the same vail untaken away] Most modern commentators, and some ancient ones, e.g. Chrysostom, take the words rendered untaken away with what follows, and translate the same veil remaineth at the reading of the old covenant, it not being discovered that it is done away in Christ. The reasons for this rendering are (1) that it is not the veil but the old covenant with its glories which is ‘done away in Christ,’ (2) that St Paul uses another word in the original to signify the taking away of the veil, and (3) that the hardness of the hearts of the Israelites, and not the doing away of the veil in Christ, is the reason the veil is not removed. This hardness of heart prevented them (1) from seeing that the Mosaic was a temporary covenant, and (2) that it was rendered unnecessary by the coming of Christ. See Acts 6:11; Acts 6:13; Acts 7:57; Acts 13:45; Acts 14:2; Acts 21:20-21, &c.; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16. The word here translated ‘untaken away’ is translated ‘open,’ i.e. ‘unveiled’ in 2 Corinthians 3:18.

in the reading of the old testament] The words old covenant (see note on 2 Corinthians 3:6) refer, as 2 Corinthians 3:15 shews, not to the books we now include in the Old Testament, but to the books of Moses. It could hardly be said that to the prophets the abrogation of the Old Testament in Christ was a thing unknown. See Jeremiah 31:31 above cited. For the regular reading of the books of the Law in the synagogue, see Acts 13:15; Acts 15:21. The prophets were also read, as we learn from the former passage (and also Acts 15:27) and Luke 4:17.

Bengel's Gnomen

2 Corinthians 3:14. Ἀλλʼ ἐπωρώθη, but were hardened) but is opposed to the phrase to look stedfastly.—τὸ αὐτὸ) the same, as in the time of Moses.—ἐπὶ, upon) i.e. when they read, and although they read.—ἀναγνώσει, reading) public, frequent, perpetual. Paul makes a limitation. The veil is not now on the face of Moses, or on his writings; but on the reading, while they read Moses, and that too in such a way as not to admit Christ; it is also upon their heart, 2 Corinthians 3:15.—μένει, μὴ ἀνακαλυπτόμενον) remains lying upon them, so that it is not indeed taken away [so that the veil is not even lifted off].—ὅτι, because it is not done away, save in Christ. [But Engl. Ver. “which veil is done away in Christ.”]—This is a statement introductory to the things which follow.—καταργεῖται, is abolished [done away]) the Old Testament; comp. 2 Corinthians 3:7; 2 Corinthians 3:11; 2 Corinthians 3:13. He does not say, has been abolished, but is being abolished in respect of those, that are about “to turn to the Lord.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Their minds. This word is rendered" devices" in 2 Corinthians 2:11; "minds" in 2 Corinthians 3:14 and 2 Cor 4:4; and "thought" in 2 Corinthians 10:5. It means that their powers of reason were, so to speak, petrified. Were blinded; rather, were hardened. The verb cannot mean" to blind." By whom were their minds hardened? It would be equally correct to say by themselves (Hebrews 3:8), or by Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4), or by God (Romans 11:7, 8). The same veil. Of course the meaning is "a veil of which the veil of Moses is an exact type." The veil which prevented them from seeing the evanescence of the light which shone on the face of Moses was symbolically identical with that which prevented them also from seeing the transitory character of his Law. It had been as it were taken from his face and laid on their hearts (see Acts 13:27-29; Romans 11.). Many commentators have seen in this verse a reference to the Jewish custom of covering the head with the tallith, a four-cornered veil, when they were in the synagogues. But this is doubtful, since the tallith did not cover the eyes. More probably his metaphor may have been suggested by Isaiah 25:7, "And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast ever all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." Untaken away. There are two other ways of rendering this verse:

(1) "For until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remaineth unlifted; which veil is done away in Christ," as in the Revised Version; or

(2) "The same veil remaineth, it not being revealed that it is done away in Christ," as it is taken by Chrysostom and many others, and in the margin of the Revised Version. The latter seems to be the better view. It is not the veil, but the old covenant, which is being done away in Christ. To the Jews that truth still remained under a veil. The present tense, "is in course of annulment," might naturally be used until the utter abrogation of even the possible fulfilment of the Mosaic Law at the fall of Jerusalem. In the reading of the old testament; rather, the old covenant. There is no allusion to the Old Testament as a book, but the phrase is equivalent to "Moses is read" in the next verse. (On this obduracy of the Jews, see Romans 11:7, 8, 25.) 2 Corinthians 3:14

Vincent's Word Studies

Minds (νοήματα)

Originally, things which proceed out of the mind. Compare hearts and minds, Philippians 4:7, and devices, 2 Corinthians 2:11. Hence, derivatively, the minds themselves. The word occurs but once outside of this epistle, Philippians 4:7. Some render here thoughts. So Rev., in margin.

Were blinded (ἐπωρώθη)

See on the kindred noun πώρωσις hardening, Mark 3:5. Rev., correctly, were hardened.

The same veil (τὸ αὐτὸ κάλυμμα)

The expression their minds were hardened is carried out figuratively. There is a veil over their minds when the law is read, as there was over Moses' face. They cannot yet recognize the end of the Mosaic ministry.

Untaken away (μὴ ἀνακαλυπτόμενον)

Rev., admirably - giving the force of ἀνά up-unlifted. But both A.V. and Rev. construe unlifted with veil: the same veil remaineth untaken away (unlifted). This is objectionable, because καταργεῖται is done away is used throughout the chapter of the glory of the Mosaic ministry, while another word is employed in 2 Corinthians 3:16 of the taking away of the veil. Further, the reading of the best texts is ὅτι that or because, and not ὅ τι which. Because is not true to the fact, since the veil remains unlifted, not because it is done away in Christ, but because of the hardness of their hearts. It is better, therefore, to take μὴ ἀνακαλυπτόμενον unlifted, as a nominative absolute, and to render, it not being revealed that it (the veil) is being done away in Christ. This falls in naturally with the drift of the whole passage. The veil remains on their hearts, since it is not revealed to them that the Mosaic economy is done away in Christ.