Translations of the New Testament into Chinese

Translation Holy Scripture into Chinese has a long history. First biblical texts came to China during the Tang dynasty, brought from Syria by Nestorian preachers. These texts were translated into the languages of the peoples of the west of the country; most of them have not survived.

In the middle of the 12th century, during the Song Dynasty, Jewish settlers arrived in China. They brought with them the Old Testament, which the Chinese called the daojing (the book of the way - µAs). Through Central Asia, the Bible reached the Mongols even before the rise of Genghis Khan. The founder of the Mongol Yuan dynasty set about translating the Scriptures into Chinese, after which the New Testament and the Psalter were distributed at the court in Beijing. Unfortunately, translations of that time have not been preserved.

Mostly foreigners worked on the translation of the Bible. At the end of the 16th century (Ming Dynasty), the Catholic missionary and scholar Matteo Ricci worked at the court in Beijing. Thanks to him, more than 2,000 preachers arrived in China, and working translations of passages of the Holy Scriptures necessary for the work of missionaries were made.

The first Catholic translation of the Four Gospels and the Epistles of the Apostle Paul (surviving to this day) was created by the French missionary J. Basset. At the end of the 18th century, the Jesuit Louis de Poirot made an almost complete translation of the Bible. Both manuscripts have not been published and are kept in museums.

Protestant translations appeared at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1819 a complete translation of the Bible was completed by R. Morrison and W. Milne of the London Missionary Society. Their translation was published in Malacca under the title "The Holy Book of Divine Heaven" (Shengtianshenshu). In 1835, a group of translators formed to revise Morrison's scripture. The result was printed new text New and Old Testament. At the same time, K. Gutslaf published his updated translation of the New Testament.

In 1843, American and English missionaries met in Hong Kong to discuss a project for a new translation of the Holy Scriptures. Teamwork has begun. The editor was the Chinese scholar Wang Tao. The Old Testament was translated with the participation of the sinologist J. Legg, who conveyed many theological concepts through terms familiar to Chinese philosophy, and these concepts did not always adequately reflect the meaning of the original text. This translation was called the "delegates' version".

Until the middle of the 19th century, the educated strata of Chinese society were the main addressee of missionary preaching, but over time the audience expanded, and there was a need for simplified texts. Prior to this, all texts were translated exclusively into the Wenyan written language. The first text in the spoken language were several translations, called Qianwenli Yiben. During the second half of the 19th century, many individual translations of the Holy Scriptures appeared. One of the most significant was the work of S. Shereshevsky. It was completed in 1902 despite almost complete paralysis of the body. Currently, this text is the most common.

It is worth recalling that all these translations were made by Protestants. As far as Catholics are concerned, the first translation of the New Testament from Latin into Chinese was made by the priest Xiao Jingshan. Gradually, the Chinese themselves began to do translations, using only the advice of foreign missionaries. In 1939, the translation of the entire Bible by Zhu Baohui appeared, in 1967 - by Xiao Tedi and Zhao Shiguang, in 1970 - by Liu Zhengzhong.

In the second half of the 20th century, translations of the Holy Scriptures into modern colloquial Chinese were published "Modernized Chinese Translation", " modern bible"," New translation ". From a textological point of view, Chinese translations are constantly evolving in the direction of simplifying the language and bringing it closer to the spoken language. It should be noted that translations of the Bible and some of its books into the languages of the national minorities of China were made.

Meanwhile, the need to work on improving the translation remains, due to a number of reasons: historical, linguistic, theological. Let's look at them briefly.

1. The first European missionaries to enter China were Catholics, who did not expect the imminent publication of the Bible. It was believed that only sermons did not open the way for arbitrary and erroneous interpretation of the Bible. However, partial working translations were produced. There were more Protestant translations, about three hundred. The reason for this diversity was the disagreement of different missionary societies on how best to display the content in Chinese.

2. Over the past two hundred years, the Chinese language has undergone major changes. The desire of the missionaries to make the Holy Scriptures accessible to a wider circle of people caused the appearance of translations in simplified Chinese.

3. The problem of the transfer of theological concepts that do not have any analogies in the Chinese language. Various paths have been considered.

4. The first was proposed by the Catholics and considered appropriate to use the traditional Chinese philosophical vocabulary to convey theological terms. Supporters of the second method believed that this should be avoided, since the use of the traditional dictionary leads to the "Confucianization" of the Holy Scriptures.

Unfortunately, many of the works of Russian missionaries have been unfairly forgotten. This primarily concerned translations of the Holy Scriptures, liturgical books, missionary activity in the Chinese Empire.

The first Orthodox translations belong to such missionaries as Archim. Peter (Kamensky), Archim. Iakinf (Bichurin), archim. Daniel (Sivilov). One of the active participants in the translation work can be called Hieromonk Isaiah (Polikin), who spent many years in China.

Hieromonk Gury (Karpov) began systematic work on translating liturgical books and the New Testament. In four years, he created a draft, which was corrected over two years in the course of mass readings. Further, it was necessary to obtain permission from the Holy Synod to use the translation in the practice of the Mission. The sanction of the spiritual department was received when the author of the translation had already returned to his homeland, but some amendments were ordered. Archimandrite Gury preferred the classical language, rendering the text not too close to the original, while the rest sought to simplify their translations. The next stage in the compilation of Orthodox translations of the New Testament is associated with the activities of Archimandrite Flavian (Gorodetsky). He decided to conduct worship in Chinese, for which he revised many old translations and made new ones. In 1884 Guriev's translation of the Gospel was revised and republished. When studying various translations Scripture into Chinese, scholars are trying to trace the influence of some texts on others. For example, Archimandrite Flavian used the translation of S. Shereshevsky. The last translation of the New Testament was made at the beginning of the 20th century during a mission led by His Grace Innokenty (Figurovsky). His translation is actually a gospel with detailed comments. A big step has been taken towards the modernization of the language, and the text is close to the modern spoken language. Unfortunately, the events of 1917 in Russia interrupted the missionary work of the Russian Spiritual Mission. Because of this, we do not know whether Orthodox translators used Greek or exclusively Church Slavonic and Russian.

Translation problems

Disagreements between different Christian denominations regarding the correctness of translations of the Bible into Chinese caused the process of the appearance of more and more new versions. The main controversy has always arisen regarding the translation of theological concepts that are not native to the Chinese language.

For example, let's take three texts of the Gospel of John: a Catholic one and two Protestant ones (hehe and lianhe). Unfortunately, Orthodox translations are now considered a rarity.

So, let's take the text of the Prologue: "In the beginning was the Word..."

For the translation “at the beginning”, Catholics offer a colloquial version of FЪЖріх (tszaytsich) - at the very beginning, Protestants melt the translation М “іх (taychu) - at the time of the great beginning. The “Word” is translated in the Catholic version as YsSF (Shengyan) - the Divine Logos, and the Protestants translate it with the well-known term of Chinese philosophy µA (Tao). “God” is translated by Catholics as MmCh (tianzhu) - the Lord of Heaven, and by Protestants in two ways: YPµY (shandi) and Ys (shen). Serious discrepancies concern, among other things, names, the translation of which is sometimes associated with the native language of the translator. For example, Catholics call the Apostle John the Theologian Ifny (Jovan), and Protestants - FјєІ (Yuehan) - John. IN " Orthodox prayer book” in Chinese, you can find, for example, a full hieroglyphic transcription of the phrase “archangel Michael”, although in the theological dictionary of the Chinese language there is already a generally accepted concept of the Archangel - CHIMmK# (zongtianshi).

Comparisons of three Orthodox translations can be added to this analysis: Archimandrite Guriy, Archimandrite Flavian and Bishop Innokenty. In the first two, the Name of Christ is transmitted in the Church Slavonic sound, while Innokenty uses the word Lord (Ch) to replace "He" or "He". To translate the word "bliss" arch. Gury and Flavian use the traditional Chinese "fu" (ёЈ - happiness). And Bishop Innocent uses two hieroglyphs "futsai" (ёЈФХ), denoting both knowledge and exclamation, thus emphasizing the series of appeals "Blessed are you ...". Much more difficulty arises with the translation of the word meek. Guriy speaks of "good and kind" (liangshan BIJZH), Flavian - of "warm and kind" (wenliang - OVBј), Innokenty - of "warm and soft" (wenzhou - OVIB).

Only the Kingdom of Heaven is universally translated in all texts as tianguo (Mnn), that is, a word is used that has deep roots in traditional Chinese ideology and consciousness.

As you can see, the differences in translations give rise to a different understanding of the Holy Scriptures.

The first translation of the Bible into Chinese was made by Hovhannes Kazarian. (Photo: Wikipedia) In modern China, Christianity is practiced, according to some sources, by almost 7% of the population. This is not so little.

The first Christian missionaries appeared in China in the 7th century, during the reign of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). True, there is a legend that at one time the Apostle Thomas, one of the disciples of Christ, visited.

Be that as it may, the first translation of the book, sacred to all Christians, was made only at the beginning of the 19th century, and the authorship of this translation belongs not to Nestorian or Catholic missionaries, but to a native of a family of Armenian merchants. Yes, the cultural ties between Armenia and China are much closer than it might seem at first glance.

China and Serampore

Who is he, the person who translated into Chinese?

According to historical data, as far back as the 2nd century, merchants from distant Armenia were quite successfully trading in China. In the 14th century, there were already fully formed Armenian communities in China.

One of the largest communities was in the city of Macau. It was there that in 1778, Hovhannes Kazarian was born into the family of a wealthy Armenian merchant (in Western literature he is also known as Joannes Lassar).

The Chinese servants who worked in the Kazarian household taught the boy to speak Chinese quite fluently. Later, the father ordered a special Chinese teacher from the city of Guangzhou, then known as Canton, for his talented son.

Since a Portuguese trading post had been operating in Macau since the 16th century, Hovhannes was also fluent in the Portuguese language. And of course, his native language was Armenian.

Hovhannes Ghazaryan began his career in the Portuguese office of Canton, where he edited official letters sent by the Portuguese to the Beijing Imperial Court. Later, he continued the family business, which led him in 1802 to Indian Calcutta.

With trade there, things were progressing too well, but the young man's excellent linguistic abilities attracted the attention of English officials. Hovhannes began to be addressed more and more often as a translator of the Chinese language.

Acquaintance with Protestant missionaries led Kazarian to the town of Serampur near Indian Calcutta. Here, at the very beginning of the 19th century, the Governor General of India opened Fort William College, an educational and scientific center for oriental studies.

Employees of one of the scientific departments of the college were engaged in the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the languages of Southeast Asia, among which was Chinese.

The search for a specialist who would not only translate the Bible into Chinese, but could also teach this language to college students, led to the not entirely successful merchant, but the talented polyglot Hovhannes Kazarian.

The leadership of Fort William College invited Hovhannes to work, saying that it was China itself who came to Serampore. For 450 English gold a year, Hovhannes Kazarian began teaching Chinese at the college and translating the Bible into Chinese.

Talent and hard work

Taking the English and Armenian editions of the Bible as a basis, Hovhannes set about translating the Gospel of John. Three years later, the translation of this part of the Holy Book, as well as the translation of the Gospel of Matthew and several other chapters of the Bible, were ready and published.

Rector of the College D. Brown was delighted with the work of the young translator. In one of his letters sent to London, he wrote: “Mr. Lassar sent me three of his translations of the chapters of the Bible into Chinese.

This is the brainchild of his mind and diligence. Mr. Lassar is a true Chinese, he reads Chinese with the same ease as you do English, and writes just as quickly. By translating the Bible into Chinese, he will do a great job if God gives him five or six years of life.”

In 1807, a copy of the Gospel of Matthew translated into Chinese, executed and designed in calligraphic style by Hovhannes Kazarian, was solemnly presented as a gift to the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Lambeth Book Depository. This was the first translation of the Holy Scriptures made by the staff of the Center for Oriental Studies in Bengal.

Between 1815 and 1822, translations of the Old and New Testaments into Chinese were completed and published. This was a year before the translation by Robert Morrison and William Mine known as Shentian Shengshu.

Unfortunately, an untimely death prevented Hovhannes Kazaryan from completing the work he had begun, but his translations of the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and Mark are considered one of the best translations of the books of Holy Scripture into Chinese.

Just a translator

The history of the appearance of the really first translation of the Bible into Chinese, made by the son of the Armenian people Hovhannes Ghazaryan, is not very well known, not only in the West, but also in Armenia itself. Alas, this is a fact, the reason for which, perhaps, lies in the fact that for hundreds of years the Armenian diaspora has been too scattered around the world.

Historically, translation activity was very popular among the Armenians living in the most different countries. Since the 5th century, the Armenian holiday calendar has had the Day of Translators.

Armenia became the first country where Christianity was adopted as an official religion back in 301, and the Armenian Apostolic Church has always occupied a special place in the Christian world.

In this context, neither the "true Chinese" Hovhannes Ghazaryan himself, nor his colleagues saw anything extraordinary in their translation activities. As they say, they simply lived by the principle: "Do what you must, and come what may."

Artsvi Bakhchinyan – PhD in Philology, Research Fellow at the Department of Armenian Communities and Diaspora at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. Engaged in research on the contribution of the representatives of the Armenian people to world civilization.

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The God spoken of in the Bible is the same God that the ancient Chinese worshiped at the beginning of their civilization. This conclusion was made by Dr. Chan Kei Tong, a Christian who spent seven years researching ancient historical records to come to this conclusion. In his book The Faith of Our Fathers: The Search for God in ancient China” talks about how the meaning of words in Chinese characters relates to situations and places found in Scripture.

Tong was born in Singapore. While serving as Executive Director, he helped create the Leadership Development International system. From LDI he made the most influential international education system. Today, he is a Master's Professor of Leadership at Trinity Western University in Canada and devotes the remainder of his time to mentoring leaders in China and the Middle East.

In this interview from the South American New Agency, during his first visit to Brazil, he talks about some of the evidence he found and how it helps prove the existence of God and shows the reliability of the biblical text.

Why were you interested in researching this topic?

I grew up in a traditional Chinese family. When I became a Christian (at that time I was 19 years old), I thought that I had moved away from Chinese culture, as most Chinese believe Christian faith western religion. The conversion to Christianity was painful. My family and my friends thought it was hard to call me Chinese now. However, I understood that I had to pay a personal price to know about Jesus Christ. Then I started working in China, having lived there for over 20 years. Gradually, I began to discover that in fact the ancient Chinese worshiped one true God, which is why I began to study this issue in more detail. Now, being a Christian, I understand that I am not departing from the essence of my ancient roots, but, on the contrary, returning to them.

How did you find the connection between the Bible and Chinese characters?

I think what impressed me the most was the Altar of Heaven in Beijing. This is the imperial sacrificial system. The official translation of this place into English could be called the Temple of Heaven, but in fact a closer meaning to reality is the Altar of Heaven. This is one of the best architecture in China. All tourists go there, because this is the very place that everyone should visit. At first I didn't go there because I don't really like temples. As a Christian, I don't like idols. But friends came to me who wanted to visit this place, so I went along with them. After being there, I thought, "Wait, there aren't any idols in this so-called Temple of Heaven." I saw only a "commemorative plaque" for God.

I began to study this issue and realized that the ancient Chinese describe their God as a Person. They write that He is Love, He is Almighty, All-Knowing, He is permanent, He is changeless, He is eternal. It's good that by that time all the Chinese classics were digitized, so I could find in the search engine, in the PDF files, every copy in which they talk about this God. I found that His characteristics are essentially the same as in the Bible. This fact prompted me to delve deeper into this topic, looking into other areas. So it turns out that I began my research in the Temple of Heaven.

How long have you been doing the research?

- Seven years. It was like a journey. At first I didn't think about publishing a book. Initially, I was just interested in it. I felt very bad about leaving my Chinese culture behind. When I started to dig into all this, I saw that they have a lot in common with Chinese culture. I researched this question, and it took me seven years.

What were the main results of your research?

The main conclusion is that the ancient Chinese (and I am now talking about their essence, and not about each individual of them) worshiped the God described in the Bible. They knew Him as a personal Savior who was interested in them, with whom they could have a relationship. The forgiveness of sin has also entered Chinese culture.

Is this fact accepted and acknowledged in China now?

No. Most people don't know about this, which is why I decided to write a book. I didn't just keep these thoughts to myself, I want every Chinese to know about it. And as I already said, China has several thousand years of history behind it. It looks like an onion, i.e. multilayer. If you clear only half way, then you will end up with Confucius. Many people think that Confucius is a representative of Chinese culture. And this is true if you only look back 2500 years. However, if you go deeper, you will realize that there is another 4,000, 5,000 years of Chinese history. Therefore, the period that I am writing about is 2000 years before Confucius, and this is precisely the core of Chinese history.

Most Chinese people don't know what I found. However, when I tell them about it, they get surprised and then do more research.

Are you trying to show them reality today?

Yes, that's exactly what I do.

How does this evidence help show the truth of Scripture and prove the literal meaning of the creation of the world described in the Bible?

I think this is a secondary issue, but I also think it's also very important, as many people now believe in evolutionary theories, thereby questioning the accuracy of the Bible. When you open the Bible, namely the book of Genesis, it speaks of the creation of the world. This could be a disastrous move. Imagine a situation when a young man says that the world was created in an evolutionary way, but the first pages of the Holy Scripture say the opposite - about Creation. By rejecting this fact, they will begin to reject the validity of the entire Bible. You cannot keep reading and believing the Bible if you think it is not accurate right from the start. So I discovered something important - the Chinese records were independent of the Bible, they were written before the creation of the Bible, even earlier. And this tells us that the ancient Chinese knew and wrote down the stories that are in the Bible. Such an approach and independence can become a source of reliability and authenticity of the Bible.

How do the Chinese view the study of the stars, and how does this relate to episodes from the Bible?

The Chinese are interested in studying the stars, but just for information. This interest cannot be called astrology, because they do not say that the stars control our life and destiny. And, of course, we are not talking about people. The Chinese understood one thing: God, who created the stars in space, can also give us key messages not only for this person, but for the whole world. And this is the main thing to remember. I have a text that shows us why the Chinese believe this and why they wanted to study the stars. They believed that God could show them important events.

It's just like studying people. As described in the Chinese texts, if you examine a person, you will know how to control him. I discovered two astronomical events associated with Jesus. We know from the Bible that the wise men followed the star to get to Jerusalem. They came from the east of Israel, most likely from Babylon or Persia. The time difference between Israel and China (the capital) is 4 or 5 hours in time zone. Then, most likely, Babylon is in a 2-hour difference with China. Then the obvious question arises: if the wise men saw this star, did the Chinese see it? I found out that yes, they saw her too. In fact, they recorded that this star shone very brightly for 70 days around the 5th century BC.

This post is very interesting! But it is also important because the Chinese interpreted this event. All this can be found in the records of Chinese history, not in modern history, but in the history of 2000 years ago. They say that this star marked the beginning of a new era and that it symbolizes sacrifice. Is not it exact description the first coming of Jesus? He came to this earth, starting a new era, and He also sacrificed Himself for the sake of all mankind. Now they say that this star came to us from the East. Chinese records tell us that there was another big star that appeared thirty months later, and this star was already Bethlehem. The wise men did not know where to go, and, naturally, they went to King Herod. But they saw the sign in the East, knowing full well that it pointed them to the newborn King, so they went to King Herod. Since Herod did not know anything about this, the wise men left him, and the star appeared again. Well, from Jerusalem to Bethlehem about 3 miles (or about 6 km), the wise men reached him. The Bible does not tell us exactly when Herod killed the boys under the age of 2, but I think the Chinese records can give us an answer to this question. They tell us that there was a gap of thirty months between the first and second stars. It took the wise men a long time to get to Jerusalem.

So, there is a second astronomical event that takes place on the day of the crucifixion. Jesus was crucified from approximately 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm in Jerusalem, but it was very dark. This phenomenon can be called a solar eclipse. Did the Chinese feel it at that moment? They were on the same continent. The answer is yes! 33 years after the appearance of the first two stars, the Chinese recorded a large eclipse. Their emperor was so afraid of this that he said, "From now on, do not mention the word 'saint'."

The important thing for us is how the Chinese interpreted all this. We do not know where they got this knowledge from, but it must be remembered that this is the accumulation of wisdom that is several thousand years long. Every evening they watched the stars, they recorded every detail for several thousand years, and not just for a short time. We do not know how they did all this, since we have lost this wisdom, but they were able to interpret solar eclipse. They said that this eclipse means that people have sinned, that sin is now in one person, and that now we all have forgiveness.

There is one more detail. One Chinese said: “God-Man is dead. Moreover, it is the death of the King.”

It turns out that if I translated this phrase, I would say that the God-man King died. You cannot more accurately describe the event that took place on the cross. Again, these were commentaries written by the Chinese 2,000 years ago before they even knew the existence of the Bible.

Where did you find this evidence? In historical documents?

My book has a bibliography listing all references. All records are official if we are talking about astronomical events. In the Chinese kingdom, each emperor has his own events and history. But astronomical events are in a separate section, along with the history of the judgment. You can't just go in there and change those records. They are in multiple copies. And, in general, why would anyone change them?

What is the current relevance of the salvation and creationist perspective presented in the Bible?

This helps people to believe in the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is not just good book telling us about morality. It also cannot be called a historical book, but it tells how people should live. So, if the Creation record is inaccurate, why should we believe the Bible? This was written by the Chinese civilization, which is as old as the biblical story. Now we are sure that the Bible is not connected with Chinese history. Therefore, everything that is said in the Bible, we are obliged to believe and believe again, because this Book is reliable.

Interviewed by Jefferson Paradello, SNA staff member, Brazil

Source adventist.ru

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