Revised Standard Version follows the order of the Greek in verses 13-14, while Good News Translation restructures the order (so also Revised English Bible).

For is explanatory. In the previous verse Paul stated that his behavior was “with holiness and godly sincerity.” Verse 13 explains that his letters have been written in the same way and are not intended to deceive or fool the reader.

We write: the pronoun we at the beginning of this verse is taken by some as an epistolary plural. Moffatt, for example, restructures the phrase but talks about “my letters.” And An American Translation has “what I am writing.” While the verbal expression we write may refer to what he is now writing, it probably refers to what he habitually writes in his letters to the Corinthians. Revised English Bible makes this second interpretation explicit: “There is nothing in our letters to you…” (so also Phillips, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). Translators working in languages that have habitual verb forms may wish to use such a form here.

Nothing but what you can read and understand: Phillips captures well the sense of Paul’s words here: “Our letters to you have no double meaning—they mean just what you understand them to mean when you read them.” Barclay adds the words “—no hidden meaning.” Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente says “Our letters are not ambiguous: there is nothing more in them than what you can read and understand.” And Moffatt uses a well-known English idiom that also conveys the sense of the text: “You don’t have to read between the lines of my letters.” Another English idiom is “we did not beat around the bush.” But some languages may say something like “we talked straight to you,” “our words were not crossed [complicated],” or “our arrows were not crooked when we wrote to you.”

I hope: the shift from the plural pronoun to I may be taken as support for those who see the above plural as epistolary. And in a number of languages the verb hope will have to be translated idiomatically, as in verse 10 above.

Understand fully: the words thus translated in Revised Standard Version may also be taken as meaning “understand to the end.” If taken with the words in part, the sense is that they now understand in part, but Paul hopes that they will understand fully. If taken with the words on the day of the Lord Jesus, the sense is that Paul hopes that they will go on understanding “to the end,” that is, until Jesus returns (so Barrett). Though both translations fit the context, most interpreters prefer the first of the two possible meanings, as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

As you have understood in part: the Greek verb you have understood may be taken as referring to the present time or to a time in the past. Good News Translation understands these words to refer to the present situation: “even though you now understand…” (so also Revised English Bible “you do understand us in some measure”). Following this interpretation Good News Translation has inserted the word “now,” which is not written in the Greek. Paul may, however, be referring to a time in the recent past. In Greek the pronoun “us” follows the verb have understood. Revised Standard Version has left this pronoun untranslated, but translators may wish to translate it, as Good News Bible does.

That you can be proud …: the Greek word translated by that in Revised Standard Version introduces the content of Paul’s hope: that you can be proud of us as we can be of you.

You can be proud of us as we can be of you is literally “we are your boast just as you are ours.” In some languages the clause containing the expression “to be proud of” may have to be translated something like “you will be honored because of us, just as we will be honored because of you” or “we will receive recognition because of you, but you will also receive recognition because of us.”

On the day of the Lord Jesus occurs also in 1 Cor 5.5, and without the name “Jesus” in 1 Thes 5.2; 2 Thes 2.2. New Jerusalem Bible indicates that the day of the Lord Jesus is in the future (“when the Day of our Lord Jesus comes”) but does not make clear that this day is the day when Jesus himself will come (so God’s New Covenant “on the day when the Lord Jesus comes”; see also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). To avoid suggesting that this is Jesus’ first coming, Contemporary English Version says “when our Lord Jesus returns.”

The Lord Jesus: some Greek manuscripts read the Lord Jesus (followed by Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version) in verse 14, and others have the possessive pronoun “our Lord Jesus” (followed by Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, and Revised English Bible). The evidence for both readings is about equal, and New American Bible reflects the uncertainty by placing the word “our” within brackets in the translation, as do the editors of the UBS Greek New Testament. Some languages must use a possessive pronoun with the noun “Lord” regardless of the correct Greek text. “Our” here seems to include the readers.

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 .