Deep desire translates a vivid Greek word meaning “waiting or watching with outstretched head,” indicating an intense desire or eager expectation to catch sight of someone or something (cf. Rom 8.19). Since deep desire and hope are bound together by one article, New English Bible takes the two nouns as a reference to one event, and so translates “I passionately hope.” Only rarely can one translate deep desire literally. In some languages it is possible to speak of “great desire,” and one may often use a verbal expression such as “I desire very much.” If desire and hope are seen as being essentially a single expression of emotion, one may translate “I hope with all my heart.”
I shall never fail in my duty is a straightforward rendering of the literal “in nothing shall I be ashamed” (King James Version). Jerusalem Bible brings out the apostle’s confidence by rendering “I shall never have to admit defeat.” Any failure to stand firm in loyalty to Christ would, for Paul, be “shame.” A literal translation of “in nothing shall I be ashamed” my present serious difficulties in some languages, since “ashamed” may suggest certain connotations which would not fit this particular context. Accordingly, I shall never fail in my duty provides a more satisfactory basis for a dynamic equivalence of the Greek expression. However, it may be more satisfactory to express the goal of Paul’s desire and hope in a positive rather that a negative way, for example, “that I shall always do what I should,” or “… do what is right for me.” If the negative expression I shall never fail in my duty is transformed into a positive expression “shall always do what I should,” the following conjunction but should be changed to “and.”
At all times, and especially right now, is more vivid than a more literal “as always, so now” (Moffatt “that now as ever”). And especially right now seems to imply that the time of crisis is very near. I shall be full of courage translates a prepositional phrase, “with all boldness.” The dominant idea is boldness or confidence in speaking openly; hence New English Bible has “shall speak so boldly” (cf. 2 Cor 3.12; Eph 6.19; 1 Thes 2.2). Rarely can one translate literally I shall be full of courage. One can often say “I shall be very courageous,” but in some instances a translator may find it more useful to retain the figure of speech suggested by the Greek text, that is, “I shall speak up boldly,” or “I shall speak without fear of anyone.”
The literal meaning of the phrase rendered with my whole being is “in my body.” A number of other translations understand the expression in the same sense as Good News Translation (New English Bible “in my person”; Moffatt “in my own person”; Phillips “the way I live”). It refers to the apostle’s total person, which was always at the Lord’s disposal (1 Cor 6.19-20), whether in life or in death (Rom 14.8). It may be rendered as “in everything that I do,” “by means of all that I do,” or even “in everything that I say and do.”
I shall bring honor to Christ is a restructuring of a passive construction, “Christ will be magnified.” Some translators retain the original Greek form on the ground that Paul deliberately shrinks from making himself the primary agent. But a literal translation of the sentence structure is rather clumsy in most languages. I shall bring honor to Christ is essentially a causative construction; that is, Paul will cause people to honor Christ. It may be useful to restructure the clause in a way that will indicate this fact clearly, for example, “I shall cause people to honor Christ.” In some languages “to honor” may be expressed as “to recognize as great.” Therefore the entire expression may be translated as “I shall cause people to recognize Christ as being great.”
Whether I live or die is rather loosely attached to what immediately precedes. The connection may be expressed in some languages as “it makes no difference whether I continue to live or whether I die.” In other cases one may express the connection by “I shall cause people to honor Christ, either by what I do as I continue to live, or by my dying,” or “… by my being killed.”
Quoted with permission from Luo, I-Jin. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .