The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “witness” in English is translated as “truly have seen” in Highland Popoluca, as “telling the truth regarding something” (Eastern Highland Otomi), as “know something” in Lalana Chinantec, as “verily know something to be the truth” in San Mateo del Mar Huave, as “we ourselves saw this,” in Desano, as “tell the truth about something” in Eastern Highland Otomi, as “know something is true because of seeing it” in Teutila Cuicatec. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
complete verse (2 Corinthians 13:1)
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 13:1:
- Uma: “This will be the third time I am coming to visit you. Remember the words of the Holy Book that say: ‘If there is a person who is accused of wrong, there must be two or three people as witnesses, so that the matter is certain.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “This is the third time now that I come to visit you. If there is someone who accuses his companion of doing bad, we (incl.) should follow the command in the holy-book that there should be two or three (people who) witness that his accusing is true then he will be listened to.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “This will be my third time to visit you there. If there’s a person who wants me to settle a case and he has an accusation against his fellow believer, it’s necessary that we observe the Law in the written word of God which says, ‘If you have an accusation against your companions it’s necessary that it be witnessed to by three, and if not then two, people.’ During my second visit to you, you were behaving badly before, I told you, I said, ‘If you don’t abandon that evil behavior I will punish you when I return.’ And I will say it again now to you, and to anybody who is behaving badly. When I come, nobody who is behaving bad,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “This will be my third visit to you. Remember what God caused-to-be-written which says, ‘If someone files-charges-against his companion, it is necessary that there be two or more who confirm the truth of it.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “Well supposing I can make it, this will now be the third time I will go to you. And if it’s necessary for me to pronounce judgment on anyone there, of course what will be followed is, what is written in that word of God which says, ‘ (incl.) all legal-conflicts (lit. things-to-be-fixed-up), it’s necessary to prove the truth by two or three witnesses.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “It is the third time that I will go to visit you. If there should be someone who wants to accuse his fellow believer, then it is necessary that there be two or three witnesses to confirm the truth of that word.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Translation commentary on 2 Corinthians 13:1
The third time: see 12.14 and 13.2. The first visit was when Paul founded the church in Corinth (see Acts 18.1-18), and the second was the painful visit mentioned in 2.1.
I am coming to you: the verb tense may have to be altered in some languages. In order to show that the visit is yet in the future at the time of writing, several English versions have “this will be my third visit” or something similar.
The English words charge, sustained, evidence, and witnesses all evoke the image of a civil law court. But Paul is thinking more in terms of the religious requirements of the Old Testament, where civil and religious affairs were less distinct than in most cultures today. The statement that Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses indicates that Paul intends to follow the teachings of Deut 19.15. Though Paul does not state that he is referring to the teaching of the Old Testament, it is clear that he is; some translations such as Good News Translation and New American Bible place quotation marks around these words. Good News Translation and Revised English Bible further add the words “as the scripture says.” God’s New Covenant adds the words “so we read” and uses bold type to highlight the quotation from the Old Testament, but God’s New Covenant does not indicate where this is read.
As in 10.17, some translations use italics to indicate that Paul is quoting from the Old Testament, and they put the source of the quotation in a note (Nueva Biblia Española, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, New Jerusalem Bible). New Revised Standard Version places quotation marks around the citation, as in 10.17, but does not directly indicate, as Good News Translation does, that these words are from the Scriptures.
The passive construction be sustained will require some restructuring in many languages. Two possible models are “it takes at least two or three witnesses to support any accusation” or “only if two or more witnesses swear that they saw something does that matter show itself to be true.”
To avoid the misunderstanding that only two or three witnesses, and no more, were allowed to present evidence, Good News Translation says “two or more witnesses.”
Why does Paul quote this rule from Deuteronomy? It is not likely that he means that he will take the Corinthian Christians to court or that he will apply the biblical way of settling a dispute when he comes to the church in Corinth. Rather, Paul compares the number of his visits to Corinth (This is the third time I am coming to you) to the number of witnesses required to convict someone. Paul is telling them that they have had the necessary warnings which the Scriptures require. While it may not be desirable to include this idea in the translation, some translators may wish to include a footnote, as the Revised English Bible Oxford Study Bible does: “The three witnesses (Deut 19.15) may be the three visits.”
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 .
formal second person plural pronoun
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 show 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. )