Bible’s Retranslation From The Perspective Of Gadamer’s Hermeneutics

The Bible is not only one of the greatest Western theology classic, but also one of the literary masterpieces; moreover, it is one of the most important sources of the Western culture and literature. The Bible came into China with strong religious color, so it was translated for the spreading of religion at the beginning. The translation and dissemination of the Bible in China has experienced a process from the primary value of religion to literature. Since the Chinese Union Version was published in 1919, it has been the most widely influenced version in China. In modern times, the Chinese Union Version has been unable to satisfy the readers’ needs; some scholars have come to realize there are some defects in it, and set out to retranslate the Bible. In the early twenty-first Century, a series of the Bible volumes were retranslated by Feng Xiang, a non-Christian translator, and they were recognized and studied by general readers and academic community ever since the publication. His version fully embodied the application of Hermeneutics in translation practice.Hermeneutics was originally used to interpret the Bible and other theological scriptures. After Schleiermacher, Dilthey and Heidegger’s development, philosophical hermeneutics came into being ultimately, and the representative is Gadamer. It believes that understanding is the process of fusion of horizons. When the text’s horizon fits into the readers’, his understanding will be accomplished. This also shows that understanding is historical. Thus, the translation inevitably has a mark of the translator’s understanding of the source text. Compared the translator’s identity(i.e., the horizon) with his text view to the Bible, it can be confirmed that translation is largely determined by the translator’s horizon. It can be proved that translators interpreted and translated the original text with a specific purpose, which is a distinctive feature of the time. Therefore, the legitimate prejudice should be accepted by history. That is the characteristics of the new version which is different from the formers.This thesis is to explore the retranslation of the Bible, from the perspective of translator’s identity and horizon, and exemplified by Feng Xiang’s translation of Torah or the Five Books of Moses through the method of comparison and exemplification.This thesis consists of three chapters.The first chapter analyses the relationship of the translators’ translation with identity. Believer and nonbeliever translators have many differences on religious belief and academic perspective. Believers tend to religion; nonbelievers tend to literariness; as well as cooperated translators tend to cultural negotiation.The second chapter probes the influence of translator’s horizon on the text of the Bible. The Bible is representative of the Hebrew culture, and affects all aspects of Western society and thus represents the Western civilization; the Bible is the highest religious scripture in Catholicism and Christianity; the Bible is also recognized as a literary classic in the world. There is no one absolutely correct translation version because of the different horizons.The third chapter explores Feng Xiang’s translation strategies in the Torah or the Five Books of Moses. Compared with Chinese popular versions, the author analyzes the application of literary strategies, then points out how the hermeneutics was used on Chinese Bible retranslation.In the end, the thesis draws two conclusions. Firstly, translators are influenced by the translators’ subjectivity(that is horizon) in the process of translation, thus take different translation strategies, and then the translation presents different characteristics. Secondly, the hermeneutics plays an important role in the research and guidance on the Bible Retranslation.