2 Corinthians 2:14-17
New Living Translation
Ministers of the New Covenant
14 But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. 15 Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. 16 To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?
17 You see, we are not like the many hucksters[a] who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us.
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- 2:17 Some manuscripts read the rest of the hucksters.
2 Corinthians 2:14-17
New English Translation
Apostolic Ministry
14 But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession[a] in Christ[b] and who makes known[c] through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place. 15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing— 16 to the latter an odor[d] from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?[e] 17 For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit,[f] but we are speaking in Christ before[g] God as persons of sincerity,[h] as persons sent from God.
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- 2 Corinthians 2:14 tn Or “who always causes us to triumph.”
- 2 Corinthians 2:14 tn Or “in the Messiah.”
- 2 Corinthians 2:14 tn Or “who reveals.”
- 2 Corinthians 2:16 tn The same Greek word (ὀσμή, osmē) translated “odor” here (in relation to the stench of death) has been translated “fragrance” in 2:14 and in the next phrase of the present verse. The word itself can describe a smell or odor either agreeable or disagreeable depending on the context (L&N 79.45).
- 2 Corinthians 2:16 sn These things refer to the things Paul is doing in his apostolic ministry.
- 2 Corinthians 2:17 tn The participle καπηλεύοντες (kapēleuontes) refers to those engaged in retail business, but with the negative connotations of deceptiveness and greed—“to peddle for profit,” “to huckster” (L&N 57.202). In the translation a noun form (“hucksters”) has been used in combination with the English verb “peddle…for profit” to convey the negative connotations of this term.
- 2 Corinthians 2:17 tn Or “in the presence of.”
- 2 Corinthians 2:17 tn Or “persons of pure motives.”
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