For: the transition word used here links the following verses closely to 4.17-18. But if no new paragraph break is used here, it may be possible in some languages to leave it untranslated, as in Revised English Bible and Contemporary English Version.

We: on the first person plural pronouns, see the comments on 4.16.

If the earthly tent we live in is literally “if the house of our earthly tent.” The word if does not indicate doubt as to the reality of death, but rather the uncertainty of when this will happen. Good News Translation makes this meaning clear by saying “when” rather than “if” (so also God’s New Covenant). Some languages may need to say “whenever it happens that….” Of course it is possible that Paul wrote if with the thought in mind that he might still be alive when Christ returned (see 1 Thes 4.13-17).

The figurative use of tent points to the fact that life on earth is not permanent. In some languages it may be necessary to translate tent as “temporary dwelling.” Good News Translation makes explicit that the earthly tent is a metaphor for “our body here on earth.” A different structure that may be more easily adaptable as a model for other languages may be Contemporary English Version, which makes a separate sentence of this: “Our bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth.”

Destroyed: most likely Paul is thinking of the moment of death, but perhaps the present suffering that leads to the ruin of the physical body is more the point of meaning. The Greek verb here is used of dismantling a tent. Some translations preserve the imagery of taking down a tent: Martin, “dismantled”; New Jerusalem Bible, “folded up.” Since the verb in this case is passive, some languages may use the verb “to die” actively in this context. Or it may be possible to talk about the earthly tent coming to an end.

We have a building from God: the present tense is used in Greek (“we have”). Paul is so certain of this future reality that he speaks of it as a present reality. Some English translations maintain the present tense, while others, like Good News Translation, use a future tense: “God will have a house.” In other languages it will be more natural to turn the sentence around and say “God will give us a house…” or, where the habitual form is appropriate in such a context, “God gives us houses….”

Although the words for building and house in this verse are not identical, they are used synonymously, and there is no reason for translators to be concerned if different terms cannot be found in the receptor language.

A house not made with hands: this expression points to the spiritual nature of the house. Good News Translation says “a home which he [God] himself has made.” Some other possible models are “human beings did not build this house” or “it was not people who erected this structure, but God did it.”

Eternal in the heavens: the word eternal here links this image to the discussion in 4.18, where the same term is used. And the words in the heavens contrasts with earthly earlier in this verse.

The structure of Revised Standard Version in this verse is rather complex, and it may be unwise to try to imitate it in the receptor language. It will probably have to be broken down into shorter, simpler sentences in many languages. One possibility is as follows: “For we know that our bodies here on earth are like tents. And if they die, God will give us a house in his place, which is not made by human beings. Rather it is made by God himself, and it will last forever.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .