1:12a

I suffer as I do: The clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as I suffer as I do is literally “I am suffering these things.” The phrase “these things” refers to the difficulties that Paul experienced when he was in prison.

1:12b

I am not ashamed: Paul leaves implicit what he is ashamed of. You may need to make this explicit and say, “Yet I am not ashamed of being in prison for Christ’s sake.” The word that Paul used here for I am not ashamed is the same Greek word that he used in Romans 1:16.

1:12c

for I know whom I have believed: Verse parts 1:12c and 1:12d contain two reasons why Paul was not ashamed of being in prison. The first reason (1:12c) that he was not ashamed was because he believed/trusted in Jesus Christ and he knew that Jesus was God.

1:12d

and I am convinced that He is able to guard…for that day: This is the second reason Paul was not ashamed. Paul was not free to travel about and preach. But he was convinced that Christ would ensure that the good news would continue to be proclaimed until the day Christ returns.

for that day: This refers to the day when Christ will return and judge all people.

Some ways to translate this phrase are “until the judgment day” or “until Christ returns.”

what I have entrusted to Him: There are two translation issues you must address before you can translate this verse.

Issue 1: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as what I have entrusted to Him is literally “my deposit.” In Greek, it is not clear in what sense the deposit was Paul’s. There are two possibilities:

(1) It was Paul’s deposit because Christ entrusted the deposit to Paul. For example, Good News Translation says:

what he has entrusted to me.

See also Revised Standard Version, NET Bible, Revised English Bible, God’s Word, Contemporary English Version, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, New Century Version.

(2) It was Paul’s deposit because Paul entrusted the deposit to Christ. For example, the New Living Translation (2004 Revision) says:

what I have entrusted to him.

See also Berean Standard Bible, New International Version (2011 Revision), New Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, King James Version, New Jerusalem Bible.

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1) for the following reason. The same word for “deposit” that appears here also appears in 1:14 and in 1 Timothy 6:20. In these other two contexts, the word clearly means something that God had entrusted to Timothy. For this reason, the versions listed under interpretation (1) above interpret “my deposit” here as something that the Lord had entrusted to Paul.

However, interpretation (2) also has strong support among the major English translations. If the major language version in your area follows interpretation (2), then you may prefer to choose it. If so, you could say,

I am convinced that Christ is able to keep safe what I have entrusted to him until the day he returns.

Whichever interpretation you choose to follow, it is recommended that you write a footnote to explain the alternative interpretation.

Issue 2: The second issue is what the deposit refers to. If you do not need to make this explicit, you can follow the Good News Translation and say:

I am sure that he is able to keep safe until that Day what he has entrusted to me.

If you need to make explicit what the deposit is, read below.

(1) If you follow interpretation (1) above, then the deposit was probably the gospel itself, which was what Paul preached and taught. (Perhaps the deposit also included the people who had believed as a result of Paul’s preaching the gospel. Paul believed that God had told him to care for these people. He was sure that even after he died, true believers would continue to preach the gospel message to others and God would protect the people who had believed.) If you follow this interpretation, you could say:

I am convinced that Christ is able to keep safe the gospel message until the day he returns.

(2) If you follow interpretation (2), then the deposit was probably Paul’s life or his service to Christ. If you follow this interpretation you could say:

I am convinced that Christ is able to protect my service/life that I have given to him until the day he returns.

© 2003 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.