The masculine plural pronouns, nouns, and participle in verse 13 may refer to males only (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation), or they may include women as well as men. To allow for the latter possibility, Revised English Bible says “Such people,” and New Revised Standard Version says “such boasters.” The reference is to the superapostles of 11.5.

False apostles are people who claim to be apostles but really are not. In some languages one may translate the idea here by saying “such people are not apostles at all, even though they claim to be.” See comments on the heading for this section.

Deceitful workmen: Paul considers these “false apostles” to be deceitful. Pretending to seek the spiritual well-being of the Corinthian Christians, they really seek their own well-being. Perhaps Paul intends a criticism by calling them workmen, that is, they take money from the Corinthians for what they do while Paul did not (11.7-9). Revised English Bible renders this “confidence tricksters,” where New English Bible has “crooked in all their practices.” In some languages these two words may be better rendered by a verbal expression such as “they work at fooling people” or “they deceive people in their work.”

Disguising themselves: the idea of disguise will be translated in some languages as “trying to make themselves look like…” or “they trick people into thinking they are….”

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 .