Traditional Chinese Union Version (CMNUNVT)

Overview

The Chinese Union Version (和合本, Héhé Běn) is the most widely used Chinese Protestant Bible translation, first published on April 22, 1919, in Shanghai. [1] It was the product of a 29-year translation effort — the largest Bible translation project in the history of the Chinese Protestant Church — initiated at the 1890 General Conference of Protestant Missionaries in Shanghai, where delegates approved a plan to create a "Union Version" in three registers of written Chinese: High Wenli, Easy Wenli, and Mandarin. [1] [2] The Mandarin committee included 16 Western missionaries from various denominations and mission societies, notably the American Presbyterian Calvin Wilson Mateer (1836–1908), who led the initial translation work and participated from start to finish, along with Chauncey Goodrich, George Sidney Owen, Frederick William Baller, Spencer Lewis, and Chinese scholars Cheng Jingyi, Liu Dacheng, and Wang Zhixin. [1] [3] The New Testament was completed in 1906 after 16 years, and the Old Testament required another 13 years. [2] The project survived the Boxer Rebellion, the collapse of the Qing dynasty, and World War I. [1] The translation was sponsored by the American Bible Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the National Bible Society of Scotland. This edition (CMNUNVT) is the traditional-character text with new punctuation (新標點和合本), published by the Bible Society of Hong Kong and the Bible Society in Taiwan. The CUV holds an authoritative place in the Chinese church comparable to the King James Version in the English-speaking world. [2]

Language and People

Mandarin Chinese (ISO 639-3: cmn) is spoken by approximately 918,000,000 people in China. [Glottolog: mand1415]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Bible Society of Hong Kong.

References