Bible2

1) Ps. 119:¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

2) A brother in the Lord said: “The Bible is the constitution of the Church.”  Well said. 

3) When Martin Luther faced a court of The Roman Catholic Church and possible death sentence, he defended his 95 theses.  He has nothing on his side but the Bible and God. 

The Holy Book

I like the table in the end of [1].  One important test of whether or not a religion is correct is the sacred books.  Evil religions, cults, or heresies use a sacred book(s) other than a widely accepted Bible.  (By the way, I do not agree completely with the author’s viewpoint on The Roman Catholic Church, which is way too negative.) 

What translation

Since the Bible is the constitution of the Church, not anyone who knows the biblical languages can translate the Bible.  (Not in terms of legality.  There are no copyright issues.)   A good version will take many experts and many years work (read the preface of NIV.  It took more than 100 scholars and more than 10 years).  This applies not only to Chinese but also to every language, including English.  Although English is much better than Chinese as a language for the Bible, English still lacks some expressive power for the Bible and is not as accurate as Greek. 

Different versions of translation may cause divisions in the Church.  Here, the Church refers the Universal Church including all churches through generations as well as Churches in different languages, Chinese, English, Korean, etc.  It is important to remove sectarian bias from translations.  Catholics and Protestants argued for generations of some differences, which are mostly minor or in footnotes.  Fortunately, these differences are largely resolved and the widely used versions are universally accepted by both Catholics and Protestants.  I strongly recommend the book [2].  To remove potential biases, many translations even invite Jewish scholars to verify the Old Testament. 

Translation is a type of prophecy.  Translations of the Bible were not allowed in the Catholic era.  There are reasons for this.  Possible division is one.  Another one is how to interpret the Bible.  Incorrect interpretation may have grave consequences.  In the Middle Age (prior to Reformation), this was one reason that The Roman Catholic Church did not condone unauthorized translation.  Martin Luther started translation the Bible into German because he believed that everyone should read Bible.  He is right.  In addition, he has the gift given by God.  He is an apostle (I Corinthians 12:28).  This does not mean that every spiritual person has the right to translate the Bible. 

Separation of power.  As an analogy, the US polity has three branches to share power: the administration, the Congress, and the Supreme Court.  Similarly, the Constitution of the Church should remove any sectarian bias.  Those who translate the Bible should not belong to only one denomination.  To avoid sectarian bias, the NIV is the work of almost all Protestant Churches. 

What about Chinese translations? 

Although Chinese lacks expressive power and is not accurate, good translations are still possible.  In addition, Chinese versions can be useful to many who do not know English, German, or another alphabetic language.  On the other hand, we should be aware the limitations of Chinese.  Perhaps Chinese versions of the Bible should be used only as references and should be updated periodically. 

Of the old Chinese translations, the Union version is widely recognized as a good one.  However, as mentioned in [2] there has much research done in the last 50 years and the Union version is too old (100 years old) to reflect that.  Plus, the Union version contains some serious mistakes.  It should be time to have a new Chinese translation. 

However, a good Chinese translation requires collaboration of all major Chinese churches and many years of scholarly work.  As you know, in the current environment this is not possible.  For the start, in mainland China there is an official Chinese church (three-self) and underground churches.  There is also a group known as the Local Church that uses a version called recovery version.  The Local Church was known as Christian Assembly and started by Watchman Nee.  Historically, it resembles Brethren (a Protestant denomination).  There are two problems with the so called “recovery version”.  First, it was translated by a group lead by Witness Lee.  Witness Lee was a co-leader with Watchman Nee and the most prominent leader of the Local Church after Watchman Nee was put into prison in 1952.  It is possible to consider Watchman Nee as an apostle in terms of I Corin.12:28.  However, it is clear that Witness Lee is not even a prophet in that sense.  And there are serious mistakes in the recovery version.  Second, even if the recovery version is correct, it is difficult to promote it since it will cause division in Chinese churches.  In Chapter 10 of [2] cults and extremes are prevalent in mainland China.  A Bible translation with serious errors can only make things worse.  

References:

1. http://www.gcciusa.org/b5/eBooks/Truth/truthIndex.html. 
2. “The Bible, an owner's manual” Robert R. Hann, Paulist Press, c1983.