Spend and be spent: Paul continues to use terms related to money (see “lay up” in verse 14). Two closely related verbs are used here, but the second is more intense in meaning and is passive in form; literally “be spent out,” that is, spent until nothing is left. Revised English Bible attempts to reflect the intensive nature of the second verb by adding “to the limit.” In many languages it will be impossible to retain the biblical image of Paul himself being “spent,” using the same term as used for spending money. The idea of “being spent” for someone may have to be translated “to give oneself” or “to commit oneself.” Contemporary English Version translates “I will gladly give all that I have and all that I am.”

The word souls here refers to the whole person. So it will be more natural in most languages to translate “for you” or “for your lives.”

The more … the less: many languages require clarification of the comparisons here. More or less than what or whom? While there is a comparison between the way Paul loves the Corinthians and the way they love him, the first term may be translated in an absolute sense. Many versions translate the more as “too much.” The word used here is, in fact, the same as in 10.8, where Revised Standard Version renders it “too much.” It is also translated “abundant” (2.4), “excessive” (2.7), and “all the more” (7.15). One version says “If I love you beyond limit like that, will you love me so little?”

Am I to be loved the less: the Greek has no explicit agent for the verb be loved. Good News Translation correctly makes explicit that the Corinthians are the agent.

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 .

As the note in TEV indicates, some manuscripts have the plural (literally “such terrible deaths”), while others have the singular. It is difficult to decide which reading is more likely to have been original, though the meaning is basically the same in either case.

Other differences occur in the Greek manuscripts of this verse. Some omit the words and he will deliver us. Other manuscripts read “he delivers us” (King James Version, Reina-Valera revisada) instead of he will deliver us. This provides a neat past, present, and future use of the same verb, but most scholars prefer the reading followed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Some languages must distinguish between the near future and the distant future; here Paul seems to be referring to the near future. The verb translated deliver may also be rendered “preserve” or “rescue.” This same term is found in 2 Tim 4.17 in the sense of being rescued from the jaws of a lion. The word used here is not the one usually translated “save” in English. Some languages may say something like “snatched us from the jaws of death,” or “pulled us out of the way of death,” or “turned us from the road of death.”

We have set our hope: this English expression represents a single verb in Greek that has the same root as the noun in verse 7. In a number of languages it will be rendered something like “we have placed our hearts [on him],” or the whole phrase may read “we trust him [God] to rescue us from the dangers to come.”

That he will deliver us again: these words express the content of the hope or the object of the verb to hope (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation). Some Greek manuscripts, however, omit the word that. Translations that follow the manuscripts without the word that begin a new sentence with this clause: “and he will deliver us again, he on whom our hope is fixed. Yes, he will continue to deliver us” (Revised English Bible). The Greek text, as represented by Revised English Bible, does not state explicitly what the content of the hope is. Nor does the Greek state explicitly the grammatical object of the verb deliver in this case. It is, however, easily supplied from the first verb in this verse. This may be done by repeating “deliver us from death” or by adding a different expression synonymous with death or destruction. Other languages may say “prevent us from dying” or “keep us alive.”

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 .

This verse is the answer to the question in the second half of the previous verse. The implicit answer is made explicit in Revised English Bible, “No, you are the letter we need.” Paul does not need a written letter from human authorities to establish his apostolic authority. The existence of the Christian community at Corinth, the result of Paul’s missionary activity there, is proof enough that Paul is a genuine apostle.

The language in this verse is figurative language. Some translators may need to say “You are like a letter which recommends us” and “you are like a letter written on our hearts.” The passive idea contained in written may have to be made active by saying something like “which you have written” or using the impersonal “which someone wrote.” But probably Paul is thinking of the Holy Spirit as the author of the figurative letter of recommendation, as in verse 3.

You yourselves are: in Greek the verb form already contains the pronoun, “you are.” However, an explicit pronoun is added by the writer, providing emphasis to the statement, as seen in Revised Standard Version‘s You yourselves are. Some translations say simply “you are” (Revised English Bible, New American Bible), but many translations correctly add the pronoun yourselves (Bible en français courant, New International Version). So in languages having emphatic forms of the pronoun, it should probably be used here.

Some good Greek manuscripts read written on your hearts (so Revised Standard Version, NRSV footnote), but the editors of the UBS Greek New Testament regard the better reading to be “written on our hearts” (so Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New American Bible). “Our hearts” seems to fit the context better (see also 7.3). Languages differ as to whether to use the singular or plural of “heart” in such a context. In some cases the use of the plural will be understood to mean that each person had more than one heart. If this is the case, then the singular should obviously be used.

As has been noted above on 1.8, it is not clear here whether the first person plural pronoun our is an epistolary plural and refers to Paul alone (so Moffatt, An American Translation, and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), or whether it really does include his associates also. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente translates all of the first person plural pronouns in 3.1-6 with first person singular pronouns.

Read by all men is a literal translation. Since the context seems to include both men and women, it may be better in most languages to use a word such as “everyone” (Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible) or “everybody” (New International Version). The passive verbs read and known may be easily transformed into active forms, since the agent is specifically mentioned in the text: “so that everyone may read and know….”

For some translators the model provided by Knox for this verse may prove helpful: “Why, you yourselves are the letters [of recommendation] we carry about with us, written in our hearts for all to recognize and to read.”

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 .

So: the transition word used here is a rather strong one linking the following declaration to what has just been said. It is rendered “thus” (Anchor Bible), “no wonder…!” (Revised English Bible), “that is why…” (New Jerusalem Bible), and “hence” (Moffatt). It is probably not wise to leave it untranslated as in Contemporary English Version and New American Bible.

We do not lose heart: this is linked to 4.1, where the same verb is used, but it is also linked in thought to the previous verse: the apostles are encouraged by the extension of God’s grace. It is not clear whether all of the first person plural pronouns in this section include the readers, or whether the readers are included only in verse 10. If the pronouns are exclusive, neither is it clear whether Paul includes his companions or only himself (so Moffatt).

The second part of this verse is similar in thought to 3.18.

Outer nature: this refers to the physical part of human existence. Paul does not use this expression elsewhere, but in Rom 6.6 he does talk about “the old person” with much the same sense (likewise Col 3.9 and Eph 4.22). Some possible translation models here are “our body [or, bodies]” (New American Bible, Contemporary English Version), “the physical part of us” (Barclay), and “the outward part of our nature” (Knox).

Wasting away: the verb used here may be rendered “is gradually decaying” (Good News Translation), “wearing out,” or “gradually dying” (Contemporary English Version).

Inner nature: the reference is to the nonphysical, spiritual part of one’s being and stands in contrast with the outer nature. The same expression is translated by Revised Standard Version as “my inmost self” in Rom 7.22 and may be seen as practically synonymous with the “new creature” in 5.17 and Gal 6.15. It has been translated here as “we ourselves” (Contemporary English Version), “our inner being” (New American Bible), “our spirit inside us” (New Century Version), and “our inner life” (Knox).

Being renewed: this verb stands in contrast with wasting away and has been rendered “is refreshed” (Knox), “receives fresh strength” (Phillips), “are being made stronger” (Contemporary English Version).

Note that New International Version uses the adverbs “outwardly” and “inwardly” to translate the two difficult terms in this verse, and that New American Bible reverses the order of the two contrasting parts, speaking first of renewal “even though our body is being destroyed.”

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 .