2 Corinthians 3:1

A Living Letter

3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we? ¹ 

2 Corinthians 4:2

4:2 But we have rejected ²  shameful hidden deeds, ³  not behaving ⁴  with deceptiveness ⁵  or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.

2 Corinthians 5:12

5:12 We are not trying to commend ⁶  ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, ⁷  so that you may be able to answer those who take pride ⁸  in outward appearance ⁹  and not in what is in the heart.

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¹ tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply (“No, we do not”) which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ at the end, “do we?”

² tn L&N 13.156; the word can also mean “to assert opposition to,” thus here “we have denounced” (L&N 33.220).

³ tn Grk “the hidden things [deeds] of shame”; here αἰσχύνης (aiscunh") has been translated as an attributive genitive.

⁴ tn Or “not conducting ourselves”; Grk “not walking” (a common NT idiom for conduct, way of life, or behavior).

⁵ tn Or “craftiness.”

⁶ tn The present tense of συνιστάνομεν (sunistanomen) has been translated as a conative present.

⁷ tn Or “to boast about us.”

⁸ tn Or “who boast.”

⁹ tn Or “in what is seen.”