"It's both Greek and Chinese to me!"

From The Christian Post, news of a new translation of the Bible:

LifeWay Christian Resources, one of the world’s largest providers of Christian products and services, recently printed a modern translation of the New Testament in Chinese. It is reported to be the first time Scripture was directly translated from the original Greek version to Chinese.

Prior to the new LifeWay translation, called the Chinese Standard Bible, Chinese Christians depended on a translation known as the Chinese Union Version. This translation was done back in the 1920s and is based on an English copy of the Bible rather than the original Greek.

With this archaic translation, readers would express confusion over certain passages that were translated in a way where it would be read literally, such as when Jesus told his disciples to drink his blood and eat his flesh.

Lest more confusion ensue, I'll simply note that the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Ancient Oriental Churches have always followed the archaic translation and ancient understanding of John 6:51ff., which is that Jesus spoke literally and clearly when he said, for example: εἶπεν οὖν αὐτοῖς [ὁ] Ἰησοῦς· ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν μὴ φάγητε τὴν σάρκα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πίητε αὐτοῦ τὸ αἷμα, οὐκ ἔχετε ζωὴν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς. (Jn 6:53).

In the words of Jesus, as found in the King James translation: "Doth this offend you?" (Jn. 6:61).

By the way, for my money, it's hard to top The Hidden Manna: A Theology of the Eucharist, by Fr. James T. O'Connor, when it comes to an examination of the biblical, patristic, and Magisterial teachings about the Eucharist.

Comments

[Ed Peters]

Omnia mihi Graeca lingua sunt.

[Evan]

What an odd way for the article to frame this issue! I wonder how exactly one wouldn't translate it literally in Chinese (or any other language). After all, Baptists and all manner of "memorialists" use the KJV too.

As you say, John 6 just doesn't make much sense without literal talk of "flesh" and "blood". What else might the disciples be finding offensive?

[Margaret]

My husband has that t-shirt, Ed. Most people don't get the joke...

[Janny]

So in other words, what LifeWay did was take a translation that was perfectly good--and valid!--and turn it instead into one that was acceptable by Protestants who don't believe in transubstantiation or the Real Presence...so they don't have to answer those embarrassing questions about why they choose to take most of the Bible "literally" but not Jesus' specific words here?

Boggles the mind, it does.

JB