Matt W Cook

In trying to improve my Urdu I’ve been reading the Bible more lately. That is, I’ve been reading the Urdu Bible more lately. I find it amazing how fresh it seems to me. Just the different wording and different idioms and emphasis that is given to the text. Yesterday I read 2 Corinthians 4:7-12. Here’s a translation from the Urdu, as I see it.

But we have this treasure placed in clay pots so that it will be obvious that this unlimited mighty, controlling, wonder-working power is from God’s side, not from our side. Pressure comes to us from every side, but we don’t get crushed. We certainly have stress, but we are not hopeless. Persecution comes, but we are not left alone. We are wounded, but we do not perish. We, in our own bodies, carry Jesus’ death around so that Jesus’ life also will be obvious in our bodies. Because while we live, for Jesus’ sake, we stare at death’s face so that Jesus’ life also may be obvious in our perishable bodies.

mighty, controlling, wonder-working power in Urdu is a neat word, Qooderut. It’s very hard to translate and means a lot of things. Mighty, controlling, wonder-working power is about as close as I can get.

I don’t know if it carries the same meaning in English, but when I read it for the first time in Urdu I was gripped. What an amazing fact that we are so cared for. How wonderful that the unlimited Qooderut of God is working on our behalf. That even though I’m pressured and stressed out and persecuted, it is never to the uttermost. The word I translated as stress is also a big word. It could mean anxiety, confusion or even compassion sometimes.

I think it’s hard for me to explain how lovely this has all become to me. I feel refreshed by it, as if I read it for the first time and didn’t know about it before. What a wonderful truth that we carry Jesus’ death around so that his life will be obvious, and even though we stare death in the face, it’s for His sake and his life is made obvious by it.