anger

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The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).

  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be warm inside”
  • Mende: “have a cut heart”
  • Mískito: “have a split heart”
  • Tzotzil: “have a hot heart”
  • Mossi: “a swollen heart”
  • Western Kanjobal: “fire of the viscera”
  • San Blas Kuna: “pain in the heart”
  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “not with good eye”
  • Chichewa: “have a burning heart” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) (see also anger burned in him)
  • Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)

In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)

See also God’s anger and angry.

complete verse (2 Corinthians 12:20)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 12:20:

  • Uma: “For I am nervous/uneasy, lest [lit., don’t-don’t] when I come visit you I will find you not like I desire. And so also you, I will not be like you desire. Lest [don’t-don’t] I find you when you are arguing and jealous of one another, angry at each other and each putting themselves forward, disparaging one another, slandering one another, and all with high hearts [i.e., haughty]. Lest [don’t-don’t] I find you not united/at-peace, relatives.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “I am troubled perhaps when I arrive there I may not like/be pleased with your conduct, then perhaps you also will not like/be pleased with me because of what I do to you. I am troubled perhaps some of you are opposing each other/have dissentions and are jealous; perhaps some of you are easily angry, and are stingy, you don’t think about your companions but only think about yourselves; perhaps some of you slander your companions and tell tales/gossip and boast and there is trouble/fighting among you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “My breath is troubled because perhaps when I come there I will see among you some behaviour which I will not like. And if that is the case, then there will be that which I will do which you also will not like, because it will be necessary for me to rebuke you for that behavior. Perhaps there is someone there who is fighting against his companion; perhaps someone there is jealous; someone easily gets angry; someone is selfish; perhaps there is someone there who uses dirty talk and he insults his companions. Perhaps there is someone who is a gossip; perhaps there is someone there who is proud and perhaps there is no agreement among you believers.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “I fear that when I arrive there, I will come-upon you doing what I don’t like to see. And if that happens, neither will you like what I will do to you. I am worried that I will come-upon those-who-are-quarrelling and rioting/disturbing, or there will be envy, anger, jealousy, and those who have proud thoughts. Or there will be someone speaking-evil of his companion and gossiping.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Oh dear, I am really worried that when I go there again to you, I will observe what will not please me there. Well if it’s like that there will also be something that won’t please you which I will come out with, for I will pronounce judgment upon you. Maybe what I’ll find you doing is quarrelling, envying-one-another, being-angry-with-one-another, fighting for your own way/ideas, slandering your fellow men, talking-behind-each-other’s-back, boasting, and trouble in-which there is no harmony.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Because I fear that when I have arrived there to see you, perhaps I will find that you do not walk good. You might be quarreling, or be jealous. Or there will be those who have anger. Or there will be those who are hunting good for only themselves. Or there will be those who are gossips. Or there will be those who make insults. Or there will be those who are proud. Or there will be those who make wars. Then the way you want me to speak to you will not happen, rather I will be angry with you because I will reprimand you in what you are doing.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on 2 Corinthians 12:20

Paul is afraid that the Corinthians will be fighting among themselves over rival claims of authority regarding Paul and the “superapostles.”

I may … find you not what I wish … you may find me not what you wish: literally “not as I wish I find you and I be found by you not as you wish.” This rather awkward construction has been rendered in one language as “your way of acting will not please me and my way of acting will not please you.”

The list of evils that Paul fears he will find is like similar lists elsewhere. The first four items in this verse are found in the same order in Gal 5.20. They are all four fairly common words indicating strife, jealousy, fierce indignation, and factiousness. The one translated jealousy may be used in a positive sense (as in 7.7 and 9.2), but here it is clearly negative. Most of the remaining words occur only once or twice in the New Testament.

Quarreling: fighting primarily in the sense of dissension and arguing; jealousy: not in terms of a lover’s attitude toward a rival, but the desire to have what belongs to someone else; anger: more in the sense of outbursts of rage (Good News Translation “hot tempers”); selfishness: working for one’s own interests, including creation of factions; slander: evil speech about others; gossip: spreading false rumors; conceit: arrogance and wrongful pride; disorder: used of political and social disturbances. Disorder occurs five times and has to do with instability or “acting like a mob” (Contemporary English Version). Compare 1 Cor 14.33, where it is translated “confusion.”

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 .