10:1 Now I, Paul, appeal to you 1 personally 2 by the meekness and gentleness 3 of Christ (I who am meek 4 when present among 5 you, but am full of courage 6 toward you when away!) –
13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. 11 Let them do this 12 with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.
1 tn The Greek pronoun (“you”) is plural.
2 tn The word “personally” is supplied to reflect the force of the Greek intensive pronoun αὐτός (autos) at the beginning of the verse.
3 tn Or “leniency and clemency.” D. Walker, “Paul’s Offer of Leniency of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:1): Populist Ideology and Rhetoric in a Pauline Letter Fragment (2 Cor 10:1-13:10)” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1998), argues for this alternative translation for three main reasons: (1) When the two Greek nouns πραΰτης and ἐπιείκεια (prauth" and ejpieikeia) are used together, 90% of the time the nuance is “leniency and clemency.” (2) “Leniency and clemency” has a military connotation, which is precisely what appears in the following verses. (3) 2 Cor 10-13 speaks of Paul’s sparing use of his authority, which points to the nuance of “leniency and clemency.”
4 tn Or “who lack confidence.”
5 tn Or “when face to face with.”
6 tn Or “but bold.”
7 tn The present tense of συνιστάνομεν (sunistanomen) has been translated as a conative present.
8 tn Or “to boast about us.”
9 tn Or “who boast.”
10 tn Or “in what is seen.”
11 tn Or “as ones who will give an account”; Grk “as giving an account.”
12 tn Grk “that they may do this.”