History of Korean Bible Translation and Its Controversies: Focusing on the Title of Psalm 7

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국기독교학회
· 수록지 정보 : 한국기독교신학논총 / 129호 / 37 ~ 62페이지
· 저자명 : 서재덕

초록

This paper briefly examines the history of Bible translation both worldwide and in Korea, summarizes the arguments of Korean Bible scholars, and analyzes the translation of the headword of Psalm 7 in early Korean Bibles in order to find answers to these questions. The reasons for Bible translation varied in each period. Notably, with the expansion of the Western world in modern times, the Bible has been rapidly translated into various languages, often driven by missionary motives. These characteristics also apply to the history of Korean Bible translation. The first Korean Bible only appeared in the late 20th century, and since then, numerous Korean versions have been published, indicating a significant growth in the Bible academic community in Korea.
However, even in this extensive history, there is a point of contention regarding the ability of early Korean Bible translators to accurately translate the original Hebrew and Greek texts into Korean. In examining the translations of the three early Korean Bibles for the headword of Psalm 7, four distinct characteristics emerge, shedding light on the controversy surrounding Korean Bible translators. First, there is a discrepancy in the translation of the word שגיון. SP translates it as “poetry,” while KB translates it as “a sad song.” On the other hand, KRV translates שגיון as “식가욘/shiggaion,” understanding it as a Hebrew proper noun. The second characteristic pertains to the translation of ,בן־ימיני which has two different translations. SP translates it as “sons of Yemin,” while both KB and KRV translate it as “Benjaminites.” The third characteristic is the style of translation. Both SP and KB employ narrative sentences, whereas KRV uses a narrative-remodeled style. This style of translation in KRV continues in subsequent versions, such as the later Korean Revised Version (1952) and the New Korean Revised Version. Finally, the fourth characteristic concerns the word order in the three versions.
Based on these textual fragments of evidence, it can be concluded that the early Korean Bible translators were sufficiently capable of translating the original text of the Bible.

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