complete verse (2 Corinthians 6:8)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 6:8:

  • Uma: “Whether we (excl.) are disparaged or praised, whether we (excl.) are criticized or honored, it is clear that we (excl.) are indeed God’s workers. Some say that we (excl.) are deceivers, but our (excl.) words are true.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Sometimes also we (excl.) are honored but sometimes also we (excl.) are put down/humbled. Sometimes we (excl.) are praised but sometimes also we (excl.) are spoken-bad-about/to/slandered (bissãhan la’at). They say we (excl.) lie but really all we (excl.) say is true.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There are those who respect us and there are also people who do not respect us. There are those who praise us and there are those who gossip about us. Some say we are liars but what we say is not a lie.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “In our (excl.) serving God, there are those who esteem and those who despise us (excl.), there are those who praise-us and those who speak-evil-of us (excl.). There are those who say we (excl.) are liars, but what we (excl.) say is certainly true.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “We (excl.) really have experienced being highly spoken of and having destructive lies spoken against us (excl.), slandered and praised, we (excl.) have been said to be liars, even though the truth is what we (excl.) are telling.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Now, there are people who look respectfully on me and there are also people who do not look respectfully on me. There are people who speak well of me, and there are also people who speak bad of me. There are people who say I deceive, but I always speak what is the true word.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “Sometimes I feel honored, other times disregarded; some people mock me, others praise me, still others consider me a false teacher, even though I speak the truth.”

Translation commentary on 2 Corinthians 6:8

Good News Translation continues to break down the long, complex sentence of the original by making separate sentences here. This will probably serve as a good model for the receptor language in most cases. The words honor, dishonor, ill repute, and good repute form a stylistic construction known as chiasmus. In such a construction the two center words are paired together, and the two outer words are paired together in the form a-b-b′-a′. In both cases the paired words are basically synonyms. In some languages it may be more natural to put the positive element first in each of the two pairs, but in others the negative element may come first in each case. Naturalness in the receptor language should be the determining factor in the arrangement of these four expressions.

In honor and dishonor: the word translated as honor is the Greek word often translated as “glory” (see 1.20 and 3.7-18). In this context it means “in good reputation,” making it virtually synonymous with the following statement good repute. The term dishonor is elsewhere translated “menial” (Rom 9.21), “degrading” (1 Cor 11.14), “shame” (2 Cor 11.21) and “ignoble” (2 Tim 2.20). This noun is made up of a negative prefix and the stem of a verb meaning “honor,” “revere” or “value.” It seems to refer to the same sort of activities that result in ill repute which follows. Here it may be translated as “by shameful treatment” or “someone esteems me, someone else treats me with contempt” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente).

In ill repute and good repute: the two Greek terms refer to having a bad reputation and a good reputation. The first two pairs of words may be translated “sometimes people respect us and sometimes they shame us. Sometimes they mock us and sometimes they praise us.” This will also solve the problem of translating passive meanings where this is a problem.

We are treated as impostors and yet are true: treated by whom? Christians? Non-Christians? Literally the Greek says “as deceivers and true.” Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation correctly translate the last two words of this verse as opposed to what precedes. Though they are treated as deceivers, they speak the truth. The meaning is clearly expressed in Contemporary English Version: “We always told the truth about ourselves. But some people said we did not.” Another possible model avoiding the passive form is “people accuse us of being liars, but we always tell the truth.”

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 .