When finishing New International Version Translation in 1919, western missionaries said: “We have made our best effort. It is up to you to do the remaining.”
As president and international general secretary of World Wide Bible Society, for 33 years Pastor Rong Paul held up to the vision missionaries left to Chinese Christians and dedicated himself to Chinese Bible translation unswervingly.
In spite of huge opposition waves during the early period, great manpower and material resources were devoted to the translation of New Chinese Version. Finally 29-year weeping sowing brings forth great sheaves.
Popularity of Bibles of different versions does not affect scripture reciting. According to Pastor Rong, understanding the spirit is the most important for believers. It does not make much difference you like reading NIV or NCV. Just as Anglicans, pentacostals and Presbyterians all use NIV but belong to different denominations, using the same Bible can not bring belief unification.
In Pastor Rong’s opinions, Chinese should shoulder the responsibility to translate Bible into Chinese. Just as Englishmen translated Bible into English and Frenchmen translated Bible into French, Chinese Bibles should also be done by Chinese. At that time missionaries did the translation due to lack of translation capacity among Chinese. Therefore they said:“We have made our best effort. It is up to you to do the remaining.”
NIV meet the needs of people of that time, but it cannot satisfy the current needs, Pastor Rong added.Some desolate diction and translation mistakes prevent people from understanding the Bible better. Previous people dared not point out these mistakes for fear of being accused of changing the Bible. Bible translation is a process rather a one-time task. For example, though Bible translated by Morrison led some people to believe in God, his son made necessary improvements. God loves man and each should listen to His word. Therefore Martin Luther did German translation, Wycliff did English and even Japanese where Christians are few have their own Bible version
Although coworkers of New Version return with shouts of joy, they went through a lot of hardships during the translation process. At first nobody understood principles of Scripture translation, so NCV coworkers became the target of public criticism. Quite a few famous pastors joined in the work including well-known pastor Teng Jinhui, president of NCV, however, popularization was still beset with many difficulties. Responsible for promoting at time, Pastor Rong endured much criticism.
NCV was refused to enter China Mainland due to government interposition as well as commercial reasons. But God still does his work despite all the difficulties. One mainland pastor printed 140,000 NCV in private and called Pastor Rong to express his thanks; a divinity school in Singapore turned to NCV and a lot of churches purchase NCV. “Our 30-year labor turned to be fruitful.”says Pastor Rong.
NIV translation started in 1890 and finished in 1919; NCV started in 1972 and finished in 2001. “It is not a coincidence that both cost 29 years,” says Pastor Rong,“God made us see the clear course of history in this way.”
How should believers see Bible translation? What is the difference between NCV and the past versions? Please see part II of the interview tomorrow.
