The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated in English as “painful” or “sorrow” is translated in Huba as “cut the insides.” David Frank explains: “Huba has just one expression that covers both ‘angry’ and ‘sad.’ They don’t make a distinction in their language. I suppose you could say that the term they use means more generically, ‘strong emotional reaction’ (source: David Frank in this blog post ). Similarly, in Bariai it is “the interior is severed/cut” (source: Bariai Back Translation).
In Noongar it is translated as koort-warra or “heart bad.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)
In Enlhet it is translated as “going aside of the innermost.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 2:1:
Uma: “So, I said I had better not go visit you right away, for I do not want to make your hearts sad again, like what happened on my previous visit.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then I thought, I would not come so that I would not make you troubled/sad again.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And because of this, brothers, I decided that I would not visit you again if it was going to be just like my first visit to you. Because at that time my visit to you caused you grief.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Thus I decided that I wouldn’t visit you again if it was like my-preceding -visiting there at which you were saddened.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Therefore, just like I said, I decided not to go to you yet, in which I would be bringing you big grief.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Therefore I thought that it would be better that I wouldn’t go there again, because if I had gone, it would only be that your hearts would be sad from the word I would reprimand you with concerning what you are doing.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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).
For: the UBS Greek New Testament follows those Greek manuscripts that begin this verse with the word For. Some manuscripts have the word “But” (followed by King James Version). The reading For seems to be the best reading, since 2.1 gives the reason for Paul’s delay in making a trip to Corinth (1.23-24). This may be translated “So” as in Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, and others. Translator’s New Testament renders it more dynamically by beginning the verse “This is why….”
I made up my mind: this English idiom translates a single Greek verb meaning “judge,” followed by a form of the reflexive pronoun meaning “in myself.” In many languages the literal “judge in myself” may be rendered by a verb meaning “I decided,” or in some cases “I determined in my heart.” In one language the meaning of this verb combined with the negative not to … that follows resulted in the translation “I refused [to return to you]….”
Not to make you another painful visit: literally “not to come to you again in sorrow.” Though Acts does not mention this visit, apparently Paul had already made one visit to Corinth that turned out to be a painful visit (this visit may have occurred between the writing of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians; see 2 Cor 13.2). According to Good News Translation, the persons who experienced the pain from the painful visit were the Corinthians, not Paul: “to make you sad.” Though verse 2 indicates that the Corinthians were the ones who experienced pain, verse 3 seems to include Paul also. It may therefore be better to avoid stating explicitly who would be made sad by such a visit. The painfulness would certainly be felt by both parties.
The “pain” or sadness to which Paul refers in verses 1-5 is emotional pain and not physical pain. Some languages may need to speak of “sorrow” or “pain in the heart” to make it clear that physical pain is not intended.
The Good News Translation translation “to make you sad,” if followed, should not be understood to mean that Paul’s purpose in coming was to cause them sorrow. Rather the result of his visit was that they were made sad.
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 .
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.