From Monologue To Dialogue

The Bible, the most translated work in the history in terms of the number of people engaged in this work and the number of the languages into which it has been translated, has been rendered into various versions by different translators who are guided by different principles.By comparing the two popular modern Chinese Bible versions, Chinese Union Version (CUV), a literal translation and Today's Chinese Version (TCV), the most popular present day Chinese version translated under the principle of dynamic equivalence, the paper suggests that in spite of the apparent differences between these two versions, the two versions complement each other in that they are produced for their defined readers.By outlining the traditional debate on 'literal' and 'free', the paper initially employs the Skopostheorie, which places the utmost importance to readership, to discuss the reasons why in the fields of translating, the traditional deep-rooted emphasis on the form in the history of Bible translation has gradually given way to the priority of smoothness. A more practical and detailed discussion is arranged to analyze the various differences between the two versions of the Bible. Through this analysis, it concludes that readership justifies the two versions with which the CUV is more suitable for the theologians, Bible students and some serious Christians who have more knowledge of the Hebrew, Latin and Greek language, for it enables them to better appreciate the style of the original text, while the TCV the common readers.The discussion contributes to the conclusion that in order to function well among more readers, the Bible translation employs different principles to meet their needs. This leads to the coexistence of Chinese Bible versions in China and versions in other languages in the world as well.