A Preliminary Assessment of the Recent Chinese Translations of the New Testament—Taking Verses from Hebrews as Examples

A Preliminary Assessment of the Recent Chinese Translations of the New Testament—Taking Verses from Hebrews as Examples

LI Chun

This paper certain verses in the Book of Hebrews in four different Chinese analysis translations. It begins by comparing three recent translations with the Chinese Union Version. The differences are divided into three categories: (1) those not involving changes in meaning, (2) those having different meanings but still compatible with other translations, and (3) those having seemingly contradicting meanings when compared with the other translations. The comparisons show the characteristics of contemporary Chinese used by new translations. Contradicting translations may point to the needs of taking context into account when translating and stating translation principles in detail.