17As for us, brothers and sisters, when for a short time we were made orphans by being separated from you—in person, not in heart—we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face.
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the exclusive form (excluding the addressee).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
In Fijian, the paucal exclusive forms neitou and keitou (“of me and a few [two or slight more]”) are used instead. This choice is understandable in view of the introduction found in both letters to the Thessalonians, where the writer Paul indicates clearly that the letters were co-authored by two other colleagues, Silas and Timothy, hence the use of a pronoun referring to three people (“Paul, Silas and Timothy”).
The Greek that is translated in English as “brother” or “brother and sister” (in the sense of fellow believers), is translated with a specifically coined word in Kachin: “There are two terms for brother in Kachin. One is used to refer to a Christian brother. This term combines ‘older and younger brother.’ The other term is used specifically for addressing siblings. When one uses this term, one must specify if the older or younger person is involved. A parallel system exists for ‘sister’ as well. In [these verses], the term for ‘a Christian brother’ is used.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae)
In Matumbi is is translated as alongo aumini or “relative-believer.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
In Martu Wangka it is translated as “relative” (this is also the term that is used for “follower.”) (Source: Carl Gross)
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is often translated as Mitchristen or “fellow Christians.”
Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Thessalonians 2:17:
Uma: “Relatives, from/because-of this short separation of ours(incl.), we really miss/long-for you. Even though we (incl.) are separated in the eyes, [i.e., are physically separated] yet we always are thinking-about you [lit., have-you–in-eye] in our hearts. So, we are looking for a way/road to go visit you.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “My brothers, even though it isn’t a long time since we (incl.) separated we (excl.) are really longing for you. We (excl.) wish very much that we (excl.) will meet again with you. It is true, we (excl.) are far from you, but our thoughts are always there with you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for us, Brethren, when we left you for a short time, we did not forget you, rather we are very lonely for you and we always very much would like to visit you there.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Even though it hadn’t been long since we (excl.) were separated from you brothers, our (excl.) homesickness for you was nonetheless great, and we (excl.) put-forth our (excl.) efforts (lit. ability) to return there (near addressee) so we could see-each-other again. It is admittedly still true that even though our (excl.) location is far, you are nonetheless in our (excl.) thoughts.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, as for us (excl.), siblings in believing, admittedly we (excl.) aren’t there with you now, but it’s true that it’s like our (excl.) mind/thinking is indeed there. And from that time when we (excl.) had to leave your place there, which in our (excl.) mind/inner-being is just like we (excl.) had been bereaved, our (excl.) loneliness for you is really severe, even though it hasn’t yet been long. Our(excl.) wanting to return there to you really doesn’t stop.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Listen, brothers, when shortly after we left you, already we very much missed you. Since then we always have been wanting to see you.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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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).
The phrase as for us is a very convenient device in English for shifting focus, but some languages do not have any such mechanism. The closest equivalent may be an expression of “speaking” or “thinking,” for example, “now I want to speak about us,” or “and now think about us.”
Separated translates a strong and unusual word which literally means “orphaned,” but it can also be used to mean the separation of parents from children and a lover from his beloved. “Bereft” (Revised Standard VersionMoffatt) gives the right meaning by the use of a somewhat archaic word. New English Bible‘s “you were lost to us” reverses the focus, and Barclay‘s “you and I were lost to each other” steers a middle course. Paul is referring to the moment of being torn away from his friends, not to the period of separation which followed. It may be difficult in some languages to employ a passive expression such as were separated without indicating the agents. Moreover, this separation was not a physical act of removing Paul from the people, but the persecution which forced Paul and Silas to leave (Acts 17.10). Accordingly, it may be necessary to translate “we were forced to leave you,” or “some people there made us leave you.”
For a little while does not mean that Paul had already been reunited with the Thessalonian Christians, as he makes clear in the following verses, but it indicates that he is confident that the separation will not be long. It may be difficult to translate for a little while, since we do not know specifically how much time had actually lapsed. One must certainly not give the impression that the lapsed time was merely a matter of a few days or weeks, and though Paul wishes to emphasize the relative shortness of the time, a literal translation could be quite misleading. In order to emphasize that the separation is still continuing but should not be permanent, some languages may employ a perfect tense, for example, “we have been forced to be away from you for a while.”
Not in our thoughts, of course, but only in body is (as of course indicates) an aside which is literally translated “in face, not in heart.” Moffatt appropriately used the idiom “(out of sight, not out of mind)”. Good News Translation (cf. Bible en français courant), by its use of thoughts, reminds us that in Hebrew thinking the heart was considered to be the seat of the intellect and the center of the whole personality, not primarily the seat of the emotions.
As in many instances, it may be necessary to introduce the positive statement before the negative one and to make more explicit what “body” and “thought” mean, for example, “we were only away from you as far as our bodies were concerned, but we never stopped thinking about you,” or “we ourselves were not with you, but we were always thinking about you.”
How we missed you and how hard we tried to see you again!Good News Translation effectively turns a statement into an exclamation and reverses the Greek sentence so that the longing is mentioned before the effort to which it gave rise. How hard is comparative in form (“more,” “more abundantly”), but the context shows that there is no real comparison; “more than if we had not been separated” would be nonsense. The comparative form is an idiomatic equivalent of “very” (cf. New English Bible “exceedingly anxious”). Formal equivalents such as King James Version “the more abundantly” and Revised Standard Version “the more eagerly” are misleading.
There are two problems involved in translating how we missed you. First, many languages do not use an exclamation, but prefer a type of emphatic statement, as in the Greek text. Second, this concept of “missing” must often be expressed in an idiomatic way, for example, “our heart was pained because of you,” “we hurt within ourselves because of you,” “our love for you grabbed us,” or “our insides went out to you.”
How hard we tried to see you again may likewise be changed into an emphatic statement, either of frequency, “we tried many times to see you again,” or of intensity, “we tried very much to see you again.” To see you is literally “to see your face.” Good News Translation and New English Bible eliminate the redundancy, while Revised Standard Version and Translator’s New Testament “to see you face to face” somewhat overemphasize it. In this context “see” must often be translated as “to visit,” since it is not simply sight, but more particularly fellowship, which is involved.
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 .
Paul explained that he wanted very much to visit the Thessalonians again
Paragraph 2:17–20
In these verses Paul affirmed that he and his companions had felt distressed because they had had to leave Thessalonica suddenly. He explained how they had tried to revisit the Thessalonian believers, but Satan had prevented them from doing that.
2:17a
This verse begins with a Greek conjunction (de) that is often translated as “But” (see the New International Version (2011 Revision)). This conjunction does not introduce a contrast with the previous verse. Instead, it indicates that Paul was changing from the topic of what the Jews did to him and his companions to a new topic. The new topic was how he and his companions felt when they had to leave Thessalonica. Some English versions, including the Berean Standard Bible, do not translate this conjunction. Introduce this verse in a natural way in your language.
Brothers: See the note on 1:4.
although we were torn away from you: See Acts 17:1–10. Local Jews had persecuted Paul and his companions and forced them to leave Thessalonica hurriedly. The passive form of the Greek verb aporphanizō is used here. While the Berean Standard Bible translates it as torn away, it literally means “to be orphaned,” that is, to lose both parents by them dying. However, in this context this word is used figuratively and means “to be separated from.” Paul probably used the term to express how sad he felt because he had to leave Thessalonica suddenly and be separated from the Thessalonians.
for a short time: A short time after Paul left Thessalonica, he began to desire to see the Thessalonians again. We do not know how long this time was, so you should try to avoid using a precise time word in your translation.
2:17b
(in person, not in heart): The Greek uses an idiom here which literally means: “in face, not in heart.” Paul meant that, although he and his companions were not physically present in Thessalonica, they continually thought about the believers there. You might have an idiom in your language that has this meaning. If not, one way to translate the verse is:
we ourselves were not with you, but we were always thinking about you (UBS Handbook Handbook, page 48)
This part of the verse is a parenthesis that further describes the verb “torn away” in 2:17a.
2:17c
our desire to see you face to face was even more intense: The Greek verb spoudazō, which the Berean Standard Bible translates as was…more intense, can mean one of two things:
(1) “to make a great effort, to try very strongly”.
(New International Version (2011 Revision), Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, King James Version, New Century Version, New Living Translation (2004 Revision)).
(2) “to be very eager, to want very much”.
(Berean Standard Bible, NET Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, SSA)
It is recommended that you follow the first option (1), as it fits the immediate context of 2:18, where Paul explained further how hard he had tried to see the Thessalonians again.
face to face: Here Paul uses the same idiom he used in 2:17b. He means that he wanted to be physically present with the Thessalonians. Consider translating this phrase as you translated the similar phrase in 2:17b.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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