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.
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 13:9:
Uma: “Our(excl.) hearts are glad even if we (excl.) are weak, as long as you [emphatic] are strong. We(excl.) pray that your hearts will be clear following the Lord.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “We (excl.) are happy even if the people consider us (excl.) to be weak if only your trust in Isa Almasi is strong. And we (excl.) really ask of God that your behavior will continually become better.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “I will rejoice if you are without fault, even though it seems as though we have no authority. And that’s not all, for we pray that your behaving properly might be thoroughly strengthened.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore we (excl.) will be happy if we (excl.) are weak in people’s estimation, just-so-long-as you are strong. Because what we (excl.) are praying is that your behavior and your harmony will become-more-and-more-correct until it has no lack/fault.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “I will be really happy if I don’t need to show my authority to judge you because your ways/nature are now improving/good. And I am praying that they will become all the more good until everything is now fine (lit. fixed-up) in God’s sight.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Therefore I just rejoice when it is said of me that I do not speak strongly. I only want that your faith will come out well. I always pray to God for you, that concerning the accompanying life that goes with your faith, there will be nothing missing.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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).
Weak and strong here mean that Paul is happy to be wrong or to suffer defeat as long as the Corinthians are living victorious Christian lives. Indeed, Paul prays that they will continue to grow more mature in their Christian living. It should be noted that this verse uses the same vocabulary as in 10.10, where the theme of strength and weakness was introduced. This, then, is the conclusion of the matter.
Your improvement: this wording, as well as the Good News Translation rendering “that you will become perfect,” may be misleading. The idea here is not so much that of bringing to perfection something that is already good. It is rather one of restoring something that has been damaged or reinstating something that was lost. Paul used the verb form of this noun in Gal 6.1 to speak of the need to restore a fellow Christian who had sinned. Hence Anchor Bible, Barrett, and Martin translate “your restoration,” while Revised English Bible speaks of “your amendment.”
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 .
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®).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.