Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the exclusive form (referring only to Paul).
Source: SIL International Translation Department (1999).
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 3:2:
Uma: “You yourselves are a praise letter that we (excl.) possess/hold. You are like a letter that is written in our (excl.) hearts, for we (excl.) love you. Wherever our (excl.) journey goes, we (excl.) recount to all people how/that you received the Good News that we (excl.) carried.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But I don’t have to carry letters like that, because you are a letter written in our (excl.) livers. You are seen by the people and immediately they know that your behavior is good, and because of this they know that we (excl.) have authority.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But as for us, we don’t need anything like that; we know that you are our letter, for by means of your good works, everybody knows that our works are also good.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because you yourselves are what are compared to a letter that is the evidence (lit. showing) of our (excl.) work. The contents of that-aforementioned letter are already in our (excl.) minds, and it is also easy for even any person who comes-to-know you to read-it.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But as for us (excl.), we (excl.) don’t need (anything) like that, for you now are as it were a letter which testifies about us (excl.). We (excl.) really are sure about the new-quality of your lives and this also is what testifies to everyone of the good-quality of our (excl.) work among you.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “But I do not need a letter to help me. If there is someone who wants to know if the word I spoke there where you live came out good or not, then he can see how you are walking and thus know that the word came out well. As for me, always I am thinking of you.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Warlpiri (verses 1-3) “You people talk and reckon that I am just boasting and calling myself big. But me, you people know me as a Church Apostle. I am not like many others who reckon that they themselves are Apostles. They show you papers/letters with their names so that you can look at them and know, so they reckon, that they are Apostles. And as for me, I am not asking you so that you can give me a paper like that so that I can go around showing it. You people are like a paper with story that God wrote in my heart. When other people see you, they think about me as God’s Apostle. And they know you also that you are like a letter that Christ Jesus wrote on paper. He did not write the story on stone with something like charcoal. In your hearts he wrote it with God’s Holy Spirit, God who is really alive. This certainly is the paper I show to people.” (Source: Carl Gross)
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).
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 .
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.