complete verse (1 Corinthians 2:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 2:3:

  • Uma: “While I was with you, I was weak and I shook from fear.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Therefore when I arrived there at you (your place), I was weak, and my heart was beating (kebba-kebbahan) because I was afraid that perhaps I might not be able to do what God commanded me.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “When I arrived there to you, I was very nervous because I was very much afraid because perhaps I could not carry out what God wanted me to do.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “While I was staying-with you, I felt weak and my-heart-beat-rapidly (i.e. from fear) lest I not be-able-to-fulfill what God wanted.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “While I was there with you, I just felt weak and it was like my insides were quaking with fear, for in just my own strength I don’t have the ability to face/deal-with my job/responsibility.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “When I now had come to where you live, you saw that I was not strong in speech. Rather I even trembled, because I feared that the word I spoke wouldn’t turn out well.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on 1 Corinthians 2:3

As in verse 1, the emphatic words And I, with which the verse begins, suggest a contrast, either between Paul and the reader’s self-confidence, or more probably, between Paul and the self-confidence of the false preachers.

I was translates a Greek verb that has various meanings, but its tense indicates a particular event. It may introduce a reference (1) to Paul’s state when he arrived in Corinth from Athens (Acts 18.1); (2) to his state during his stay in Corinth (which Paul, as he looks back, thinks of as a single event); or even (3) to a state into which he fell during his eighteen months in Corinth (Acts 18.11). More literal translations such as Revised Standard Version leave the choice open. (1) is supported by verse 1 and is chosen by Good News Bible. However, it would mean that Paul is not saying anything essentially new in the present verse. Many translations agree with Good News Bible, including Revised English Bible (“I came before you”) and New Revised Standard Version. Translator’s New Testament chooses (2): “all the time I was with you I was weak….” Apart from verse 1, the wider context seems to suggest (2). This would include the content and manner of Paul’s teaching throughout his stay in Corinth. (3) does not seem likely, simply because Paul does not give enough detail. Regardless of which time setting the translator chooses for the first clause, the last two clauses of the verse may be restructured as “my physical condition was very weak, and I was shaking all over with fear,” or “my body was very weak, and I was so afraid that I shook all over.”

Good News Bible combines the words fear and trembling into “trembled all over with fear.” This is probably correct, as these two words are often linked together by their basic meaning. Many languages employ word pictures or idiomatic expressions to describe fear and trembling; for example, “soul (or, guardian spirit) disappears and bile is stirred up” or “so afraid that teeth chatter uncontrollably.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .