The noun witnesses is better rendered as a verb in some languages, for example, “you yourselves know just what we did,” or “you yourselves can tell just what we did,” or “… how we behaved.” A parallel expression may then be used to render and so is God, for example, “and God himself knows just what we did,” or “… saw the way we behaved.” In general, the Greek term for “witness” involves two aspects: (1) personal knowledge, and (2) the ability to speak about this personal experience. In some languages one needs to be explicit in indicating both these aspects. However, if both “the people” and “God” are combined as joint witnesses, it will probably be necessary to restrict the focus of attention to either “knowing” or “seeing,” for example, “both you and God know exactly how we behaved.”
Our conduct may be translated as “just what we did,” “how we acted towards you,” or “how we carried on when we were with you.”
You who believe is a common synonym for “you Christians” (cf. 1.7). This expression may need to be expanded in some cases, for example, “you who believe the Good News,” or “you who accept our message.” However, in other instances “you Christians” may express the meaning adequately.
Pure, right, and without fault represent another of the series of three terms which, as we have seen (1.2; 2.3; cf. 2.12), are a feature of Paul’s discourse style. There is a considerable overlap of meaning between these terms, and it is more important in translation to convey the total meaning of the three words together than to look for three precise equivalents. In some contexts, pure refers to conduct in relation to God (“pious” without the negative connotation of this word), and right refers to behavior towards other people. However, this is not always so, and the present context (toward you who believe) makes it clear that Paul is speaking of human relationships. There is no suggestion that Paul behaved less well towards nonbelievers, but here he is appealing to what his (Christian) readers know from their own experience.
It may be difficult in some languages to find adequate terms to translate pure, right, and without fault, since the first two terms are positive and the third is negative. In many languages the closest equivalent of pure is itself a negative expression, for example, “without anything wrong.” The translation of right normally focuses on “the way things should be”; and without fault may often be translated as “there is nothing for which we could be blamed in what we did.” All three expressions may be combined with an expression for “conduct,” for example, “The way in which we behaved towards you who believe was without anything wrong. It was just the way we should have acted, and there was nothing that we should be blamed for.” Three complete clauses to translate three words in Greek may seem to be rather heavy, but in some languages this expansion may be the closest natural equivalent.
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .