The position of the word always in the Greek sentence gives emphasis (see also 4.8). Note that Revised English Bible renders this “wherever we go…,” while New American Bible has “continually,” and Phillips reads “every day.”
Carrying: some experts see in the use of this verb a possible reference to the missionary travels of Paul. But the use of this verb may be awkward in some languages in such a context. It may not be possible to have death as the grammatical object of the verb “carry.” The idea is expressed by Phillips as “we experience something of the death of Jesus.” Two other possible models are “never free from the danger of being put to death like Jesus” (An American Translation) and “wherever I go, I am being killed in the body as Jesus was” (Moffatt).
The Greek is literally the body as in Revised Standard Version, but “our … bodies” (Good News Translation) is more natural English. Some languages require a possessive pronoun with the noun body. If the pronoun “our” must be used in a receptor language having inclusive and exclusive forms of the first person plural pronoun, the exclusive form should be used here. If translators agree with Moffatt that Paul here uses our when referring to himself only, it may be necessary to say “my body.”
The death of Jesus … the life of Jesus: Revised English Bible says “the death that Jesus died … the life that Jesus lives.”
So that: this indicates the purpose of the believers’ experiencing the death of Jesus. It was to lead to true life.
The life of Jesus here and in verse 11 refers not to the earthly life of Jesus but rather to the power of his resurrection life (see 4.14).
Be manifested: this passive verb will have to be rendered actively in a number of languages. One possible model is “other people may be able to see the life of Jesus in our bodies.”
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 .