Variations In Chinese Translation Of The Bible

The Bible is the holy book of Christianity and one of the most influential works in the world. It is a great work with enormous historical, cultural and literary value. Since two thousand years ago, Bible translation has begun and now all kinds of numerous versions of the Bible are very popular. Variations in translation of the Bible have a long history, while the research on this issue drew very little attention because of the theory of translation variation was put forward very lately and is not so mature.Translation variation theory was put forward in the recent years of the late 20th century and early 21st century. It was a distinctively new age when the academy in China was extremely flourishing with the reform and opening-up policy. It gives more authority to translators so that they can be liberated from the source language to some extent. Meanwhile, translators will have to meet the special needs of readers effectively. It is a kind of translating activity to capture relevant content of the original using such accommodations as amplification, deletion, edition, narration, contraction, combination, and adaptation etc. according to the specific demands of specific readers under specific conditions. Generally speaking, according to different standards, translation can be classified in the following ways, literal translation and free translation, literary translation and information translation, interpretation and written translation, human translation and machine translation. From these ways of category, translation circles both at home and abroad mainly give the ways of category in the background of complete translation. However, from enormous translation practice, translation variation, with a long history, is becoming more and more popular and is drawing more and more attention of the scholars. The advance of Huang Zhonglian's translation variation theory has put forward a completely new way of translation category, that is, complete translation and translation variation. Compared to complete translation, translation variation is more efficient and targeted and is in accordance with efficiency requirement in this new age. It also exerts a tremendous influence on translation study.This paper is to explain and discuss the translation variation theory and to analyze and explain variations in translation of the Bible worldwide, especially in Chinese context. It includes all kinds of variation versions of the Bible, such as story versions, adaptation versions and versions for children. Besides, through the research on the translation theory and the variations in translation of the Bible, the author also tries to bring to light the relation between the variation of religious classics and the basic purpose of spreading of the religion. The trend of multiple functions of religious translation versions and the function of basic knowledge spreading of the variation Bible versions in Chinese context are also discussed in this thesis.The thesis has been divided into five chapters:Chapter One is the brief introduction of this research from the aspects of the background and significance, purposes and methodology, and the structure.Chapter Two is literature review. At first, it introduces the Bible, Bible translation in the world and some major trends of Bible translation. Then it introduces translation variation theory from the aspects of the background, main ideas, special effects and value.Chapter Three discusses variations in Bible translation. This chapter includes the origin, major types, fundamental purpose and effects of variation in Chinese translation of the Bible. Besides, it discusses in detail the effects of the variations in Bible translation on language, literature and cultural communication of the target language circumstances.Chapter Four discusses different variation Bible versions and makes comparison and analysis of some chapters of the Bible. The author divides these versions into versions focusing on Biblical history, Christian teachings and literary appreciation. The author also points out some limitations of the functions of translation variation versions, including taking a part as a whole, adding some personal understanding, distorting the literary quality of the Bible and misleading the readers and so on. Besides, a general explanation of the developmental trend of variations in Bible translation has been made at the end of this chapter. Chapter Five is the conclusion part. On one hand, through the study on variations in Bible translation, the author finds that variations in Bible translation have a far-reaching influence on the status of "the Bible as a literature". On the other hand, the author points out the openness and limitations of this study. At the end of this chapter, a summing-up description on this study is made in order to make this thesis more complete and rigorous.