Even if Paul’s opponents were to grant that he had not accepted financial help from the Corinthians, Paul still had to counter the suspicion, or perhaps the accusation, that he had put into his own pocket the collection money that Titus and his companions had collected from Corinth (verses 17-18). One model says “so you know that I did not ask you for anything at all.”

But granting: literally, “Let it be so.” Barrett translates “All right.” Paul is saying, “OK, we have come to this point of agreement, that I didn’t burden you, but then you will say that I tricked you.” Good News Translation captures the force of the Greek with the words “You will agree, then.”

Burden: the verb used here is different from the one in 11.9 and 12.13, 14. This is, in fact, the only occurrence of this verb in the New Testament. Possibly it is a bit stronger than the verb so translated earlier. The idea may be “to weigh down.” But most English versions make no distinction between the two verbs.

You say: the Greek does not contain the words you say. It is not clear whether the Corinthians themselves or the “superapostles” were making these accusations against Paul, but Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation seem justified in inserting some phrase such as you say or “someone will say.” Since the charge had probably already been made, the future tense of Good News Translation (“someone will say”) seems less satisfactory than the present tense of Revised Standard Version (so also Revised English Bible, God’s New Covenant). Translator’s New Testament attempts to solve the problem by adding “you think….” By failing to insert a phrase such as “you say” or “you think,” a translation may give the impression that Paul himself is actually claiming that he tricked the Corinthians, as New Jerusalem Bible seems to do: “All right, then; I did not make myself a burden to you, but, trickster that I am, I caught you by trickery.”

I was crafty … and got the better of you by guile: literally “but being crafty, with deceit I took you.” The words translated crafty and guile are very similar in meaning. The first occurs only here in all the New Testament, but a related word is found in 4.2 and 11.3 which is translated “cunning.” It focuses on intelligence used for evil purposes. The second term entails trickery or deceit. The verb “to take” in this context means “to catch” or “to trap” in a figurative sense. The sense is “I got the better of you by roundabout means” (God’s New Covenant).

A good model translation that captures the imagined dialogue Paul has with the Corinthians is that by Danker (page 202), although it contains certain idioms that may not be easy for second language speakers of English. It reads “Very well, ‘You didn’t freeload,’ you will say to me. But in the same breath, ‘Ah, but you were clever and took advantage of us in our naivete.’ ”

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 .