Translating 2 Corinthians 1:13-14
Posted by BryanMay 7
I’ve finished translating 2 Corinthians 1, and it is available under the translation link above. I’m pretty happy with most of it, though I’m not so happy about verses 13-14. That being said, I want to see how you would translate it. The text is:
13οὐ γὰρ ἄλλα γράφομεν ὑμῖν ἀλλ᾿ ἢ ἃ ἀναγινώσκετε ἢ καὶ ἐπιγινώσκετε· ἐλπίζω δὲ ὅτι ἕως τέλους ἐπιγνώσεσθε, 14καθὼς καὶ ἐπέγνωτε ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ μέρους, ὅτι καύχημα ὑμῶν ἐσμεν καθάπερ καὶ ὑμεῖς ἡμῶν ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ κυρίου [ἡμῶν] Ἰησοῦ.
My translation is:
For we never write anything different to you, but only what you can read and understand. However, my hope is that you will completely understand, just as you have partly understood us, that you will boast of us just as we boast of you in the day of our Lord Jesus.
I’m just not completely satisfied with it (and really, I’m never completely satisfied with translation). What say you?
I apologize to my reader who don’t know Greek- I want your insight as well. You’re absolutely free to work from several english translations and make it your own.
The work of exegesis and translation is a community effort. Post your thoughts in the comments.
4 comments
Comment by Stephen C. Carlson on May 8, 2009 at 9:48 am
In translation, there are two things to be satisfied about: understanding the Greek, and expressing it in English. It’s not clear which you want to focus on.
One thing to look at is the οὐ ἄλλα … ἀλλ᾿ ἢ construction. BDAG, p. 44, s.v. ἀλλά 1a, suggests starting off v.13 as “for we write you nothing (else) except what you can understand…”
Comment by Bryan on May 8, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Hey Stephen,
Thanks for the comment! My focus is on the latter- providing readable english- but I might find out that my dissatisfaction in expressing it in good English is actually that I haven’t adequately understood the Greek itself.
I’m away from home for the weekend, which means away from my BDAG (an argument for saving up for an electronic copy), but I’m definitely going to check it out when I get back. Thanks!
Comment by Timothy Paul Jones on May 9, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I am always less-than-satisfied with any English word for epiginosko and its various forms. To translate it as “understand” doesn’t catch the intentional play on words that one finds from time to time between ginosko and epiginosko. Yet to introduce an adverb (“truly know,” for example) probably reads too much into the intensifying force of the “epi.”
Comment by Bryan on May 9, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Hey Dr. Jones-
First of all, thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I agree, epiginosko is a frustrating word to deal with. For the play on words, translations might do well to give a foot note explaining the wordplay like they do with a lot of the Hebrew prophet wordplays. Thayer recommends “know accurately” which definitely seems to be the idea in Peter, and possibly here. Louw & Nida says “to come to an understanding as the result of ability to experience and learn” which would also work here- the ability to learn through reading. But that’s hard to express in translation.