complete verse (2 Thessalonians 2:5)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Thessalonians 2:5:

  • Uma: “Surely you still remember, relatives, that I taught you before [lit., yesterday] all of this when I was still there with you.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Don’t you remember? I have told you about this when I was still there with you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Perhaps you have not yet forgotten that I told you all of this when I was still with you.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “You probably haven’t forgotten all these-things, because of-course indeed I told you while I was there (near addressee).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But probably as for this, you haven’t yet forgotten it, for I have already taught it to you when I was there with you.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Remember the word I told you when I was there where you are. You see that I told you just like this word now.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:5

Phillips and some other translations change Paul’s rhetorical question, “Do you not remember…?” (Revised Standard Version), into a strong positive statement. Paul is not, in fact, asking his readers for information; he is saying that they either must or should remember (cf. Jerusalem Bible “surely you remember…?”; Barclay “you cannot have forgotten…”; New English Bible “you cannot but remember”; Bible de Jérusalem “you remember, don’t you…?”). Don’t you remember? may be rendered as an emphatic statement, for example, “I am sure you remember,” or “you certainly must remember.” It may then be necessary to follow the verb remember by the statement which immediately follows, for example, “I am sure you remember that I told you all this while I was still with you.” In some instances the reference to all this must be made more specific, for example, “I told you about all that was going to happen.”

For the clause while I was with you it may be important to introduce some spatial specification, for example, “while I was still there with you,” or “while I was still in Thessalonica with you.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .