All the promises of God: or, more literally, “as many as [are] the promises of God.” This is not the more usual way of saying “all.” The idea is that “no matter how many promises God has made, they are Yes in Christ” (New International Version).

Find their Yes in him: the pronoun him in this verse refers to Jesus Christ (verse 19), although Translator’s New Testament takes it to refer to God. In some languages it may not be possible to carry through the formal connection with the Yes–No statements in the previous verses. But the meaning is not essentially changed if one translates “For he is the one who fulfills all the promises of God.”

That is why we utter the Amen through him: the Greek is literally “this is why through him the Amen to God for glory through us.” The pronoun we in this verse includes the readers. “Through us” seems to mean “when we say the word ‘Amen’ [in community worship].” Through him may mean when his name is said. Barclay probably correctly captures the liturgical meaning of this verse: “That is why when to the glory of God we say ‘Amen’ we say it through him—‘through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ ”

The word Amen is well known in the church but may be considered ecclesiastical jargon in some languages. It was common practice in synagogue worship for the congregation to give assent to statements of praise to God. This was carried over into the early church. The meaning of the term is simply “It is true!” or “Indeed!” While the borrowed term “Amen” may be well known in many languages, the meaning understood by the average person is probably something like “the prayer is finished.” But since this is not the meaning of the biblical word, it is a good idea to look for a common language equivalent for this term rather than using the transliterated form.

To the glory of God is a fixed phrase used mostly in church circles. To give it its full meaning, one may say “so that God will be honored” (see also 4.15; 8.19).

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 .