Chalmers-Schaub Wenli New Testament — Classical Chinese NT 1897 (China)
Overview
湛約翰－韶瑪亭文理《新約全書》 (Chalmers-Schaub Wenli New Testament) is the complete New Testament translated by John Chalmers (1822–1899) and Martin Schaub (1850–1900), originally published in 1897 in Wenli (文理) — the literary form of Classical Chinese — and digitized by Simon Wong for the United Bible Societies in 2018 (digital edition © UBS 2018, Public Domain). Available via YouVersion/Bible.com (ID 2212). This is a historical scholarly Bible edition in the classical register of written Chinese (Wenli, 文理), which was used in 19th-century missionary Bible translations for educated Chinese readers regardless of regional dialect.
Language and People
The Chalmers-Schaub NT is in Wenli (文理), a formal written register of Chinese based on Classical Chinese (wényán, 文言), used in literary and official communication throughout East Asia. Wenli served as a supra-dialectal written standard understood by literate Chinese speakers of all regions — Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Shanghainese, and beyond — as well as by educated readers in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The ISO code cmn (Mandarin) is used here though Wenli technically transcends any single spoken dialect.
Historical Context
John Chalmers (1822–1899) was a London Missionary Society (LMS) scholar-missionary based in Hong Kong, renowned for his Chinese language scholarship. Martin Schaub (1850–1900) was a Basel Mission missionary in South China. The 1897 Wenli NT was part of the broader 19th-century Chinese Bible translation project that culminated in the Union Version (1919), which eventually superseded the Wenli style translations. The Wenli NT tradition includes several competing 19th-century translations (Bridgman-Culbertson, Delegates' Version, etc.); the Chalmers-Schaub represents one scholarly lineage. The digital edition was prepared by Simon Wong and made available through the United Bible Societies, preserving this historical text for contemporary digital access.
Publishing and Organizations
Original publishers: London Missionary Society and Basel Mission (1897). Digital edition: © United Bible Societies (2018), made available by Simon Wong. Public domain status makes the text freely reproducible.