In general, the history of Korean Bible translation has been assumed to begin in the late 19th century, when Protestant missionaries, together with Korean coworkers, commenced to agonize themselves in translating the Bible into Korean language, which is famous for defying acquisition by foreigners. However, this new book entitled ‘300 Years of History of the Korean Bible: History of Translation and Interpretation’ attempts to overturn the established theory that the history of Korean Bible translation kept pace with that of the Korean Protestant church.
Instead, the author argues that the history of Korean Bible translation needs to extend back over the centuries, at least to the 17th or 18th century, in order to include the hitherto neglected Catholic effort to translate the Bible. In fact, the Protestants aimed at translating the Bible itself, whether books or the whole of the Bible, as a prioritized missionary work. Meanwhile, the Catholics targeted translating Chinese Christian books and writing Korean apologetic and devotional books, and thus they translated Biblical verses or paragraphs, not books or the whole of the Bible, only when necessary for literary mission. In short, Catholic Bible translation took place mainly in the process of appropriation rather than intentional translation. The author maintains that the Catholic missionaries and the Korean self-evangelized believers read, memorized, and interpreted the Chinese Bible which they understood thoroughly capitalizing the benefit of the Sino-culture Sphere in Northeast Asia, and that they translated the portion of the Bible into Korean language when they translated and wrote Catholic literature.
In this context, the author emphasizes that the history of Korean Bible translation should be approached from the wider perspective ranging from appropriating, translating, interpreting, and writing, not limiting itself to Bible translation proper only. The author introduces widely the Chinese books which the Korean Christians used, the Korean books which they wrote, and the Bible which they translated. In particular, the author, a renowned Old Testament scholar, explains how the Korean Christian writers interpreted the Bible in their literary works, which is the author’s main contribution to the understanding of Korean Bible translation. Interestingly, the legacy of the Catholic translation has been inherited by next-generation Catholics as well as Protestants in the 19th century. Another book on the history of Korean Bible translation, whether by the author or another, is to be published, which will also deal with the 20th century, when Protestant translation mission reached its peak.