07-011
Chinese Orthodox Bible
Chinese
translation of the Orthodox Bible is a complicated matter.
First, there is
no official or universal declaration of the canon of the Old Testament by any
ecumenical council of the Orthodox Church. The canon was formed gradually by
the consensus of the local churches and the tradition of the fathers. Different
regions and traditions may have developed different preferences and practices
regarding the use and acceptance of certain books. Therefore, there is no
single Orthodox canon of the Old Testament, but rather a range of canons that
reflect the diversity and unity of the Orthodox Church.
Chinese Martyrs icon in Beijing
Second, the
Orthodox has never completed their Chinese Bible translation. Only a few books
of the Bible were translated into Chinese over the centuries and just 6 of them
have survived until today, available for reading. 3 of those
translations are in classical Chinese and the other three are in vernacular
Chinese. These translations are all outdated and hard to read.
Below is a list
of all available Chinese translations of the Orthodox Bible:
1864 -- New
Testament Holy Bible Engraving of Chinese translation diligently compared with
the original (新遺詔聖經謹遵原文譯漢敬鐫板)
New Testament Holy Bible Engraving of Chinese translation
diligently compared with the original
This New
Testament was translated from the Slavonic and published in the summer of 1864
by Archimandrite Guri (Karpov), the head of the 14th Russian
Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing. This translation is published in 2 volumes, Gospel
and Apostles.
It is not the
first but the oldest Chinese translation of the Orthodox Bible that can be
found. Translation is in Classical Chinese.
Scan copy can
be read from the official website of The Orthodox Fellowship of All Saints of
China (OFASC). Digitized copy can be read from website “Jesus Taiwan”. Guri has
added a number of newly created Chinese characters into his translation, such as 鿡,鿠,鿙, trying to
imitate the corresponding Russian pronunciation of the original texts. These
characters are not used nowadays and can only be displayed correctly on some
browsers.
1879 -- Psalter
in Classical Chinese (聖詠經)
Psalter in Classical Chinese
Published in
1879 by Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing when Archim. Flavian was
appointed head of the Mission. This Psalter is a translation of Russian text of
Book of Psalms, which appeared in Russian Synodal Bible (1876).
Translation is
in Classical Chinese. It is the only Orthodox translation that contains Psalm
151. Scan copy can be read from the official website of the OFASC. Digitized
copy can be read from website “Jesus Taiwan”.
1910 -- New
Testament from the original Greek (希臘原文新約聖經)
1910 -- Psalter
in Mandarin Chinese (官話聖詠經)
Psalter in Mandarin Chinese
Another
Russian Orthodox Chinese Bible appeared in the early 20th century, which was
completed under the leadership of the head of the 18th missionary group,
Archimandrite Archpriest Innokenty (1863-1931; in office 1896-1931), a.k.a
Figurovsky. Innokenty was consecrated as the bishop of Beijing in 1902, and
then as the metropolitan. His retranslation work was based on Gury’s translation,
and the writing still retained the characteristics of classical Chinese, but it
was closer to Mandarin.
The
New Testament from the original Greek and Psalter in
Mandarin Chinese were completed in 1910. The New
Testament books in this translation are arranged according to the Slavonic
order and does not include the Revelation of St. John the Divine, since the
Orthodox lectionary does not appoint it to be read liturgically. Psalter in
Mandarin Chinese does not include Psalm 151.
Scan copies of
both works can be read from the official website of the OFASC. Digitized copy
can be read from Bible app YouVersion.
1911 -- Gospel
according to St Matthew (註解《瑪特斐乙聖福音經》)
Gospel according to St Matthew
After
completion of the translation of Psalms into vernacular Chinese in 1910,
Bishop Innokenty continued his work to translate the Gospel of Matthew
into vernacular Chinese. His work was
published in 1911.
In the preface,
Innokenty introduced two specially made Chinese characters 鿗鿖 to represent
the abbreviation of the Slavonic transliteration of the name Jesus Christ.
Scan and
digitized copies of his translation can be read from the official website of
the OFASC.
1911 -- Genesis
the First Book (註解《創世紀第一書》)
Genesis the First Book
Bishop
Innokenty also translated the Book of Genesis into vernacular Chinese.
The translation was published in 1911.
Scan and
digitized copies of his translation can be read from the official website of
the OFASC.
Innokenty may have translated more books of the Bible. But there were many political unrests during the publication year. Only these 2 translations can be found nowadays.
The formation
of the modern day Orthodox Bible
After
understanding the status of Chinese translation of the Orthodox Bible, let us
move on to see how well the modern day Chinese translations cover the Orthodox
canon.
In general, the
Orthodox churches accept most of the books that were included in the Septuagint,
the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that was widely used by the early
Christians. Septuagint includes additional books that are not found in
the Hebrew texts. Those additional books are pretty much the same as the
apocryphal books found in the Latin Vulgate. Here are a few exceptions: 2
Esdras is not found in the Septuagint but in the Latin Vulgate.
And Psalm 151, Psalms of Solomon, 3 Maccabees & 4
Maccabees are only in the Septuagint.
Over the
development of the biblical canon, Orthodox churches accepted some books unique
to Septuagint and Latin Vulgate and rejecting some. They picked Psalm
151, 3 Maccabees & 4 Maccabees from the Septuagint
but reject Psalms of Solomon. Some churches accepted 2 Esdras as
their canon which can only be found in Latin Vulgate. The Ethiopian
Orthodox Church even has a few other books in its canon. Wikipedia gives a
general idea of which books were accepted by the Orthodox churches. You can
check the list for more details.
As different
Orthodox churches may have small differences in the lists of books that they
accept, I use the list shared by the OFASC in this discussion. According to the
OFASC, the Orthodox Bible has 77 books. But getting this number is not a simple
mathematics.
First, it accepts
all 66 canonical books used by both Protestants and Catholics. It also accepts
the 12 deuterocanonical books used by the Catholics. But
in the Catholic Bible, 5 of the deuterocanonical books, Rest of Esther, Song
of the Three Children, Story of Susanna, The Idol Bel and the
Dragon & The Epistle of Jeremy are
combined into other books. However, in the Orthodox Bible, The
Epistle of Jeremy is a separate book. This adds
up the number of books found in the Orthodox Bible to 74.
In
addition, the
OFASC accepts 1 Esdras & Prayer of
Manasseh as canon. The Catholic considers these books as apocrypha. 1
Esdras is a separate book in the Orthodox Bible and Prayer of Manasseh
is listed after Psalm.
Furthermore, the OFASC also accepts the Septuagint books Psalm 151, 3 Maccabees & 4 Maccabees. 3 Maccabees & 4 Maccabees are separate books and Psalm 151 is listed after Psalm 150.
Therefore, 74 + 1 Esdras + 3 Maccabees + 4 Maccabees = 77 books.
The Orthodox workaround
A translation of the Bible into local language is essential for a church to evangelize the community. As there is no official Chinese translation of the Orthodox Bible, the Chinese Orthodox churches need to find a workaround. And the workaround is, to use the Chinese Bibles translated by other denominations.
Maybe due to historical reason, the Chinese Orthodox churches prefer the Protestant translations Chinese Union Version CUV or Revised Chinese Union Version RCUV to the Catholic translation Studium Biblicum Version, even though the Protestant translation has fewer books.
2013 - Mandarin Chinese Union Version according to the Byzantine Majority Text (國語聖經和合本根據拜占庭多數文本更新)
In addition, they also revised the text of the CUV to conform to the Byzantine Majority text. Revision of the New Testament was completed in 2013 and shared on the official website of the OFASC.
How well does
the workaround work out?
As the Chinese Orthodox church has adopted the Protestant translation of biblical names and places, Chinese Orthodox church uses the 1919 Protestant Bible Chinese Union Version CUV in their services and church literatures. The 1933 Anglican translation of the apocrypha covers all the 12 deuterocanonical books, as well as 1 Esdras and Prayer of Manasseh.
For
Psalm 151, the church have their own translation back in 1879,
although it is in classical Chinese.
Psalm 151
For 3 Maccabees & 4 Maccabees, luckily we have a professional translation by Mr. Eric C.K. Wong. His work Christian Extra-Canonical Document / 基督教典外文獻 covers all apocrypha and many pseudepigrapha. Chinese translation of 3 Maccabees & 4 Maccabees can be found in Christian Extra-Canonical Document - Old Testament VI.
Christian Extra-Canonical Document - Old Testament VI
To conclude
today’s article, I need to emphasis that there is no standardized version of
the Orthodox Bible. The above analysis only refers to the list of books given
out by OFASC. Other churches may put additional books into their canon. But
thanks to Mr. Eric Wong, most of those additional books are also translated.
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