Between Verbum and Dao: Chinese Translations of the Prologue of the Gospel of John (1:1) between the 17th and the 20th Centuries

Abstract

Terminology has always been one of the most concerned issues in Chinese Bible translations in history. Since the 17th century, foreign missionaries in China and Chinese Christians engaged frequent discussions and even heated debates on how to translate such key terms as Deus/God and Spiritus Sanctus/Holy Spirit when rendering either partial biblical texts or the full Holy Bible into Chinese. This study investigates a variety of Chinese translations of the prologue of the Gospel of John made by translators from the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church, and the Orthodox Church during China’s late imperial and modern periods. By way of in-depth analysis of the translation principles, techniques, language choices, as well as paratextual devices embedded in these translations, including the influential Chinese Union Version, the study aims to uncover the complex connections and overlaps of many Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox efforts in translating, or transwriting, the Word of God within the Chinese context over a period of four centuries.