"And the word became Chinese" : Gabriele Allegra and the Chinese catholic Bible: history, process, and translation analysis

Abstract

The presence of Christianity in China dates back to the thirteenth century, though, the first complete Catholic Bible in Chinese was published and distributed only in 1968. This version was written by an Italian Franciscan friar, Gabriele Allegra (1907-1976) and a team of Chinese and European collaborators. It was translated between 1935 and 1968, in Beijing and Hong Kong and is known as Sigao Shengjing. Today, the Sigao Shengjing is still the Chinese version used in liturgy and in the official documents of the Chinese speaking Catholics, and it is commonly acknowledged as a good translation. Nevertheless, this translation has hardly been investigated to date. The aim of this dissertation is that of exploring the translation process of the Sigao Shengjing in the historical context in which it was set and to describe the translation method followed. Furthermore, through the textual analysis of chosen passages, the research purpose is to verify to what extent the translation principles were held, and to consider the validity of the Sigao Shengjing today. In order to explore these issues, after a brief review of the existing literature on the topic, the historical background of the first half of the twenty century is presented, taking into account both the history of the Catholic Church in China, and the different attitudes towards biblical translation adopted by the Catholic hierarchies. The life and works of Gabriele Allegra, his team, and the biblical research institute founded in 1945, are exposed through the analysis of the data collected from published and unpublished autograph documents of the friar, kept in an archive in Italy. The textual analysis considers two different editions of the Gospel of John (1957 and 1968), chosen due to the high amount of material personally written by Allegra on it. Appendices with the reproduction of the archive material and the comparison tables support the discussion and analysis of the topic. The concluding account of the contemporary scene of Catholic translations of the Bible in Chinese confirms the importance of the version analyzed and provides input for further research.