この記事は2006/10/08, 2009/01/28, 2014/06/23付邦文記事をまとめて英訳したもの。他所に掲載する前にここに置いたみた。
: Whence it comes and the result of a study
Only occasionally, but the legend has been coming up persistently since many years ago. After examining carefully a few times as to where the person spread it heard the idea, I found out that it seemed the source could be traced to English-speaking mission president(s) or somebody of the similar or higher rank who came to Japan.
From what I heard the story several times, I gathered as follows: some person who had been exposed to Japanese Bible, when he or she read Joseph Smith say German Bible is more accurate than English one, ---Joseph Smith referred to the fact that original pronunciation and spelling of “James” should be “Jacob” [jakob] --- that person could have thought, A-ha, Japanese Bible should have been under the influence of German Bible as he remembered Japanese Bible translates Greek ‘Iakobos’ to ヤコブ [jakob] instead of ‘James’ [d3eimz]. Typically we can cite the title of the epistle of James in the New Testament. I suppose it is quite possible that this hypothesis accounts for the emergence of the above legend. I have not been able to locate other sources for the reasoning so far.
Hereafter, I try to verify my conclusion that the legend is not true by giving two evidences.
1
First, we can examine whether German Bible influenced Japanese Bible translation by tracing from the current Japanese Bible to the earliest translations to see if there is or was any trace of affects from the German Bible. There are a few modern Japanese versions of the Bible widely known and used among the Christian churches here. They are “New Interconfessional Translation”(新共同訳), “Colloquial Japanese Bible” (口語訳), and “New Japanese Bible”(新改訳). All of these and others published in modern era are translated by Japanese translators from original Hebrew and Greek texts. They each have their distinguishing features and inclinations, such as emphasis on dynamic equivalence or formal equivalence, conservative and evangelical or open to critical scholarship, etc. However, they do not have any trace of influence from German Bible as far as I looked into literature and materials on the subject of Japanese translation of the Bible.
If I should point out different features of each version, “New Interconfessional Translation” is a revised outcome after being swung to E. Nida’s dynamic equivalence in its initial process, “Colloquial Japanese Bible” referred to Revised Standard Version (RSV), and “New Japanese Bible” to New American Standard Bible (NASB). Thus we can see, all of the three, more or less, consulted English translations.
Next, we can turn our eyes to the earlier first stage of Japanese translation of the Bible. This first stage can be generally termed “literary style versions” produced mostly by Western missionaries. A monumental work by a committee, chief members of which were American missionaries, J. C. Hepburn and S. R. Brown was completed in 1879 (NT) and 1887 (OT). It is called “Meiji Translation” (明治元訳). The translation work was done in reference to the King James Version and Bridgman & Culbertson Chinese Translation (NT1859, OT1864). Then in 1917, its New Testament portion was revised and the whole bible was called Taisho Revised Version (大正[改]訳).
Prior to and concurrently with the above first stage, there were several versions by individual translators and portions of Bible by them.
All of the above, from the earliest Japanese translation of the Bible to the latest, have no particular trace whatsoever of German influence as far as I can notice after years of study on this topic.
2
The above reasoning may not be a very convincing kind of evidence, some might say, as it is always not easy to prove nonexistence of something. But, then, the following point could settle the question, I am assured. It has been quite clearly pointed out that the Chinese translations of the Bible, particularly Bridgman & Culbertson Chinese Translation (1859, ’64) had a definite influence on Japanese Bible translation. Arimichi Ebisawa indicated it in 1981, and then Kenji Toki and Daijiro Kawashima studied the claim carefully and confirmed it in 1988. The influence ranged from vocabulary, including proper names, names of books and most of the major Biblical/Christianity terms, to exegeses.
As a supplementary note, I should add the followings. A friend in Tokyo suggested to me that Luther’s strong influence on Tyndale’s English translation of the Bible could have even indirectly affected Japanese translation of the Bible. And another thing to investigate is whether or not Gützlaff’s so-called spearhead translation of a part of the New Testament into Japanese left German influence. William Tyndale went to Germany in 1524 to be instructed by Martin Luther, and both of them translated the Bible into their respective languages around the same time. The Tyndale Bible(NT in 1526, OT in 1531) had the greatest influence on Authorized Version (King James Bible, 1611). Therefore, Luther Bible (German language, NT in 1522, OT in 1534) had no small influence on AV. However, American translators who translated the Bible into Japanese in 1889 (NT) and 1907(OT) made use of Chinese translation, RV, AV, and commentary by Keil and Delitzsch. With the elapse of more than three hundred and fifty years and the multiple uses of references, the influence of German Bible could be termed very remote and faint.
Next, Karl Friedrich Augustus Gützlaff, a German, did the earliest extant translation of the Bible with the help of three fishermen who had been drifted. His work is remembered as a memorable attempt but was not taken over by later translations.
In conclusion, we can state with rather firm confidence that there was no noteworthy influence of German Bible on the translation of Japanese Bible. It is quite probable that the legend stemmed from the reading of Joseph Smith’s remark, “German Bible is more accurate than English translation,” referring to the spelling of NT Ἰάκωβος in the former as ‘Jacob’ instead of ‘James.’ I count this legend as one of the typical urban legends.
(Footnotes and further editing are still due to be added/made.)
Notes:
Urban legends, or myths, are the modern-day equivalent of folklore. They are based upon misconception, misinformation and false beliefs and are to be found in practically any topic you can name
: Whence it comes and the result of a study
Only occasionally, but the legend has been coming up persistently since many years ago. After examining carefully a few times as to where the person spread it heard the idea, I found out that it seemed the source could be traced to English-speaking mission president(s) or somebody of the similar or higher rank who came to Japan.
From what I heard the story several times, I gathered as follows: some person who had been exposed to Japanese Bible, when he or she read Joseph Smith say German Bible is more accurate than English one, ---Joseph Smith referred to the fact that original pronunciation and spelling of “James” should be “Jacob” [jakob] --- that person could have thought, A-ha, Japanese Bible should have been under the influence of German Bible as he remembered Japanese Bible translates Greek ‘Iakobos’ to ヤコブ [jakob] instead of ‘James’ [d3eimz]. Typically we can cite the title of the epistle of James in the New Testament. I suppose it is quite possible that this hypothesis accounts for the emergence of the above legend. I have not been able to locate other sources for the reasoning so far.
Hereafter, I try to verify my conclusion that the legend is not true by giving two evidences.
1
First, we can examine whether German Bible influenced Japanese Bible translation by tracing from the current Japanese Bible to the earliest translations to see if there is or was any trace of affects from the German Bible. There are a few modern Japanese versions of the Bible widely known and used among the Christian churches here. They are “New Interconfessional Translation”(新共同訳), “Colloquial Japanese Bible” (口語訳), and “New Japanese Bible”(新改訳). All of these and others published in modern era are translated by Japanese translators from original Hebrew and Greek texts. They each have their distinguishing features and inclinations, such as emphasis on dynamic equivalence or formal equivalence, conservative and evangelical or open to critical scholarship, etc. However, they do not have any trace of influence from German Bible as far as I looked into literature and materials on the subject of Japanese translation of the Bible.
If I should point out different features of each version, “New Interconfessional Translation” is a revised outcome after being swung to E. Nida’s dynamic equivalence in its initial process, “Colloquial Japanese Bible” referred to Revised Standard Version (RSV), and “New Japanese Bible” to New American Standard Bible (NASB). Thus we can see, all of the three, more or less, consulted English translations.
Next, we can turn our eyes to the earlier first stage of Japanese translation of the Bible. This first stage can be generally termed “literary style versions” produced mostly by Western missionaries. A monumental work by a committee, chief members of which were American missionaries, J. C. Hepburn and S. R. Brown was completed in 1879 (NT) and 1887 (OT). It is called “Meiji Translation” (明治元訳). The translation work was done in reference to the King James Version and Bridgman & Culbertson Chinese Translation (NT1859, OT1864). Then in 1917, its New Testament portion was revised and the whole bible was called Taisho Revised Version (大正[改]訳).
Prior to and concurrently with the above first stage, there were several versions by individual translators and portions of Bible by them.
All of the above, from the earliest Japanese translation of the Bible to the latest, have no particular trace whatsoever of German influence as far as I can notice after years of study on this topic.
2
The above reasoning may not be a very convincing kind of evidence, some might say, as it is always not easy to prove nonexistence of something. But, then, the following point could settle the question, I am assured. It has been quite clearly pointed out that the Chinese translations of the Bible, particularly Bridgman & Culbertson Chinese Translation (1859, ’64) had a definite influence on Japanese Bible translation. Arimichi Ebisawa indicated it in 1981, and then Kenji Toki and Daijiro Kawashima studied the claim carefully and confirmed it in 1988. The influence ranged from vocabulary, including proper names, names of books and most of the major Biblical/Christianity terms, to exegeses.
As a supplementary note, I should add the followings. A friend in Tokyo suggested to me that Luther’s strong influence on Tyndale’s English translation of the Bible could have even indirectly affected Japanese translation of the Bible. And another thing to investigate is whether or not Gützlaff’s so-called spearhead translation of a part of the New Testament into Japanese left German influence. William Tyndale went to Germany in 1524 to be instructed by Martin Luther, and both of them translated the Bible into their respective languages around the same time. The Tyndale Bible(NT in 1526, OT in 1531) had the greatest influence on Authorized Version (King James Bible, 1611). Therefore, Luther Bible (German language, NT in 1522, OT in 1534) had no small influence on AV. However, American translators who translated the Bible into Japanese in 1889 (NT) and 1907(OT) made use of Chinese translation, RV, AV, and commentary by Keil and Delitzsch. With the elapse of more than three hundred and fifty years and the multiple uses of references, the influence of German Bible could be termed very remote and faint.
Next, Karl Friedrich Augustus Gützlaff, a German, did the earliest extant translation of the Bible with the help of three fishermen who had been drifted. His work is remembered as a memorable attempt but was not taken over by later translations.
In conclusion, we can state with rather firm confidence that there was no noteworthy influence of German Bible on the translation of Japanese Bible. It is quite probable that the legend stemmed from the reading of Joseph Smith’s remark, “German Bible is more accurate than English translation,” referring to the spelling of NT Ἰάκωβος in the former as ‘Jacob’ instead of ‘James.’ I count this legend as one of the typical urban legends.
(Footnotes and further editing are still due to be added/made.)
Notes:
Urban legends, or myths, are the modern-day equivalent of folklore. They are based upon misconception, misinformation and false beliefs and are to be found in practically any topic you can name
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