A Comparative Study Of The Bible’s Two Chinese Versions From The Perspective Of Receptor’s Response Theory

The Bible is not only the classic of Christianity, but also an important literary work of the world. It is one of the best-sellers around the world and it has been translated into many different languages from the biblical words of Hebrew and Greek. Actually, the Bible has been translated into about 2261 languages apart from the dialect versions. Thus, the influence of the Bible in human history is quite profound and great.The first Chinese Bible version was translated by missionaries in Tang Dynasty. It got its peak by the publication of Chinese Union Version after going through Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1992, Chinese New Version was published with its concise language and understandable sentence pattern and was also accepted by readers. In fact, the authority of Chinese Union Version is not threatened. However, comparing to other versions, what the disadvantages of Chinese Union Version? how does it form its popularity? Will a better version surpass it in the future?This thesis will discuss and compare the two versions under the principle of Nida’s receptor’s response theory. First of all, the thesis focuses on the development history of the Bible translation both in ancient times and in modern times. Then the author analyzes the similarity and differences of CUV and CNV and makes comparison of the two versions under Nida’s principles. Through comparison in many aspects including wording choice, sentence structure, idioms, figurative expression as well as making implicit information explicit, the distinguished character of two versions are made clear.