Satan

The Greek that is typically transliterated in English as “Satan” is transliterated in Kipsigis as “Setani.” This is interesting because it is not only a transliteration that approximates the Greek sound but it is also an existing Kipsigis word with the meaning of “ugly” and “sneaking.” (Source: Earl Anderson in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 85ff. )

In Morelos Nahuatl it is translated as “envious one” (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.) and in Tibetan: bdud (བདུད།), lit. “chief devil” (except in Rev. 20:2, where it is transliterated) (source: gSungrab website ).

See also devil.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Satan .

messenger

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “messenger” in English is translated in Noongar as moort yana-waangki or “person walk-talk” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

complete verse (2 Corinthians 12:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 12:7:

  • Uma: “So, because all my visions were so good [lit., no kidding their goodness], God gave me a kind of suffering, so that I would not be so high-hearted/arrogant. This suffering was/is like a thorn that keeps poking me, and like a messenger from the King of Evil-ones that continually tortures me.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “And in order that I don’t boast too much because God has given me many wonderful visions, therefore a very painful sickness was caused to come to me by him. This sickness is like a servant of demons that beats me so that I cannot boast.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “God has given to me a very painful sickness so that I may not boast about those very good things that I saw in Heaven. And as for this sickness, Satan uses it to torment me and by means of this, I cannot become puffed up.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Since God didn’t want me to become proud (lit. make-high my thoughts) because of the extremely amazing-things that were shown to me, he permitted that Satanas send what can-be-compared to a splinter that continually hardships-me.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But, so that I would not become a boastful person because of these amazing things that God has shown me, and so that my congenital evil desires would be defeated, God allowed that I be hardshipped by a messenger of Satanas, he being like a thorn embedded im my body, which like frequently hurts/beats me.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Those words which I heard were supremely beautiful. But God did not want me to be proud because of them. Therefore he started a pain in me, it was like a thorn jabbed in me by the devil.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 2 Corinthians 12:7

By the abundance of revelations: these words may connect with the end of verse 6 and indicate why others would think highly of Paul (so New Jerusalem Bible; see comments on 12.6), or they may indicate the reason that Paul might be tempted to be puffed up with pride (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Revised English Bible). The Greek syntax at the beginning of verse 7 is extremely difficult; either scribes copied incorrectly or else Paul wrote garbled Greek here. The general sense, however, seems clear, depending on whether one begins a new sentence at the beginning of verse 7 or after the first five Greek words in verse 7, as in New Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and the other translations and Greek texts mentioned in verse 6.

A thorn was given me in the flesh: most interpreters agree that the implicit agent of the verb was given is probably God. Whether God or Satan is understood as the agent, Paul at least believes that God permitted it, as in the case of Job in the Old Testament. Good News Translation translates this as “I was given a painful physical ailment.” Indeed, scholars have proposed all sorts of physical ailments on the slightest of biblical evidence: some kind of eye disease, malaria, epilepsy, severe headaches, defective speech, and so forth. Yet the word flesh does not necessarily refer here to the physical body. It may be a synonym for “physical existence in general.” Understanding flesh in this way, other interpreters have suggested that the thorn referred to Paul’s opponents. See Num 33.55 in the Septuagint, where Israel’s enemies are described as “thorns” in the eyes of the Israelites. Because of the uncertainty regarding the identity of Paul’s thorn in the flesh, translators who choose to be as specific as Good News Translation may wish to have a note such as the following:
• The Greek is literally “a thorn in the flesh was given me.” While many scholars think this refers to a physical problem, Paul may have been referring to persecutions and opposition from his opponents.

A messenger of Satan: on Satan see 2.11 and 11.14. The word translated messenger may also be rendered “angel” (Anchor Bible, New American Bible, Knox, and Contemporary English Version). In 11.15 Paul speaks of Satan’s “ministers.”

To harass is literally “to strike with a closed fist.” But the verb is obviously used more figuratively here. So it may legitimately be translated “abuse” or “torment.” Some scholars feel that the persistence indicated by the present tense should be made evident in translation by saying something to show continuous action; for example, “to torment me continually” or “to keep on harassing me.”

Some manuscripts omit the words to keep me from being too elated at the end of this verse (see New International Version). The editors of the UBS Greek New Testament think it likely that a scribe omitted these words as an unnecessary repetition from the beginning of the verse, and so it is better to retain them.

Because of the complexities of this verse, it will probably require considerable restructuring in the receptor language. Here is a possible model:

• But I must not become too proud about the wonderful things that God has shown me. That is why he gave me a very difficult problem to deal with. It was as if a person with a message from Satan intended to beat me and keep me from being too proud.

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 .