This is a continuation of the figurative language of verse 2. Some languages may need to say “You are like a letter from Christ,” although the Revised Standard Version rendering accurately reflects the metaphor in Greek. Paul’s main concern here is to show that his apostolic authority comes from Christ. Since it was Paul’s preaching that led to their conversion, the Corinthians are themselves the evidence of his apostolic authority.

You show: the word thus translated may be understood in two different ways. It may be rendered actively as in Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version, indicating that the Corinthians are in focus. But it may also be taken as a passive, in which case the meaning is impersonal, as in Good News Translation “It is clear.” This interpretation is also followed by New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible, and several other versions; it should probably be followed in the receptor language.

From Christ means “Christ himself wrote this letter” (Good News Translation).

Delivered by us is literally “ministered by us.” The Greek may be understood to mean “delivered” or “sent” by us (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Revised English Bible), or “written” by us as Christ’s secretary (Nueva Biblia Española). Other translations retain the ambiguity of the Greek: “entrusted to our care” (New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, God’s New Covenant); “the result of our ministry” (New International Version); and “administered by us” (New American Bible). The New International Version rendering probably provides the best available model to be followed.

The passive ideas delivered and written in this verse will have to be made active in many languages. One may translate “Christ wrote…” and “he sent it in our hands” or “we delivered….”

The contrasts, not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God and not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts, indicate the divine nature of the “letter” which the Corinthian Christians are. In some languages it will be much more natural to state the positive before the negative: “Christ wrote it by the Spirit of the living God, not with ink. He wrote it on human hearts, not on tablets of stone.” In certain languages the ideas ink and tablets of stone may be quite foreign. In some cases ink has to be rendered “the water [or, liquid] of the letter,” and stone tablets become “large flat rocks.” An explanatory footnote may be required in some cases.

The words the Spirit of the living God (see also 6.16) will be difficult to translate with meaning in many languages. In the Old Testament God is sometimes called “the living God” in contrast to lifeless pagan idols (see Deut 5.26; Josh 3.10; Jer 10.10), or to gods that are said to die when the dry season begins. Translated literally the expression the living God may sound very strange and unacceptable. Since God is alive by definition, this adjective may be better left implicit in the receptor language. But in other cases it may be stated negatively as “the God who cannot die” or “the God who never sleeps.” In the Old Testament this expression is sometimes used in a way that is almost synonymous with “the true God,” but in other contexts it has the idea “the God who gives life.”

Tablets of human hearts: that is, the tablets are human hearts. The term tablets used here is found elsewhere in the New Testament only in Heb 9.4. The literal meaning is “a flat stone,” as in the first occurrence here, but it is obviously used figuratively in the second instance. Good News Translation simply says “on human hearts.” Where tablets are not used for writing, translators may want to follow Revised English Bible, “on the pages of the human heart.”

For comments on hearts see 1.22.

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 .