| Chinese Union Version | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Chinese Union Version |
| Other names | 和合本 |
| Abbreviation | CUV |
| Language | Chinese |
| OT published | 1919 |
| NT published | 1906 |
| Complete Bible published | 1919 |
| Authorship | Calvin Mateer et al. |
| Derived from | English Revised Version |
| Version revision | 1988 (CUVNP), 2006 (RCUV NT), 2010 (RCUV OT+NT) |
| Publisher | China Christian Council or Hong Kong Bible Society (current) |
| Copyright | Public domain (copyright expired) |
| Religious affiliation | Protestant |
起初，神創造天地。地是空虛混沌，淵面黑暗；神的靈運行在水面上。神說：「要有光」，就有了光。 神愛世人，甚至將他的獨生子賜給他們，叫一切信他的，不至滅亡，反得永生。 | |
| Chinese Union Version | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 和合本 | ||||||||||||
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TheChinese Union Version (CUV) (Chinese:和合本;pinyin:héhéběn;lit. 'harmonized/united version') is the predominanttranslation of the Bible into Chinese used by ChineseProtestants, first published in 1919.
The CUV is currently available in bothtraditional (CUVT) andsimplifed (CUVS)written Chinese, and is published inHong Kong by theHong Kong Bible Society, aBible society affiliated with theUnited Bible Societies; inTaiwan by the Bible Society in Taiwan, also associated with the United Bible Societies; and inChina by Amity Printing Co., Ltd., of theAmity Foundation in Nanjing, related to theChina Christian Council and also affiliated with theUnited Bible Societies.
A revision for the CUV, theRevised Chinese Union Version (RCUV,和合本修訂版;héhéběn xiūdìngbǎn), was completed for the New Testament in 2006, and for the entire Bible in 2010.
The CUV was translated by a panel with members from many differentProtestant denominations, using theEnglish Revised Version as a basis and original-language manuscripts for crosschecking. Work on the CUV began in 1890 and originally, three versions of the CUV were planned—twoclassical Chinese versions and a vernacularMandarin Chinese version. The CUV was completed in 1919, with one amalgamated classical Chinese translation and one vernacular Mandarin translation. With the onset ofMay Fourth Movement, and the associatedNew Culture Movement, the CUV is the second translated work to be published inVernacular Mandarin Chinese, after the first vernacular Chinese Bible, the Peking Committee Bible.[1]
The CUV in use today is thevernacular Mandarin Chinese version, published in two slightly different editions—the "Shen" Edition (神版) and the "Shangti" Edition (上帝版)—differing in the way the word “God” is translated. The vernacular Chinese language in the CUV has changed a lot since 1919 and its language is stilted for modern readers. Furthermore, many Chinese characters used in the CUV have fallen into disuse and cannot be found in commonly available dictionaries today.
John 3:16.神愛世人，甚至將他的獨生子賜給他們，叫一切信他的，不至滅亡，反得永生。(CUV 1919)
Work towards the revision for the CUV, theRevised Chinese Union Version (RCUV), started in the early 1980s. Its goal was to update the language of the CUV while keeping as much of the original translation as intact as possible, ultimately resulting in an update of 15% of the New Testament and 20% of the Old Testament. The revision to the New Testament was completed in 2006 (新約全書─和合本修訂版), and to the entire Bible in 2010. This version was consecrated on 27 September 2010 atSt. John’s Cathedral in Hong Kong.[2]
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Text in the Chinese Union Version is typeset generally vertically from right to left, with some captions for illustrations typeset horizontally from left to right.[citation needed]
Because of the old-style and ad hoc punctuation, the CUV looks archaic and somewhat strange to the modern reader. The result of updating the CUV’s punctuation in line with modern usage is theChinese Union Version with New Punctuation (CUVNP or CUNP;simplified Chinese:新标点和合本;traditional Chinese:新標點和合本;pinyin:xīnbiāodiǎn héhéběn) which was published in 1988.
This edition with the Chinese characters written horizontally, printed byAmity Printing Company in Nanjing, and published byChina Christian Council in Shanghai, constitutes the largest number of the Bibles in present-day China. Some wording and proper nouns (people's names and place names) have been changed from the 1919 version in order to adapt to the modern use of theChinese language. A bilingual Chinese-English edition, the Chinese Union Version combined with theNew Revised Standard Version, is also published byChina Christian Council.
