존 로스의 중국어 성경주석 및 한글 번역본에 대한 역사적 연구

Abstract

This article explores the seven Bible commentaries of the Rev. John Ross of Manchuria, published in Chinese in the early 1900s. It aims to uncover its historical background, the issues in their bibliographic information, and the Korean translations on the five New Testament commentaries. This study investigated the reports of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China held in 1890 and the China Centenary Missionary Conference in 1907, <the Conference Commentary> that Ross and the selected Protestant missionaries in China authored, the most influential Chinese Bible versions in the late nineteenth century, and the Korean translations of the commentaries that both the Dongyangsuhwon and the Korean Religious Tract Society published in the early nineteenth century. As the results of the study, this article ascertains that the Rev. Alexander Williamson’s suggestion of ‘an annotated Bible’ ended up with <the Conference Commentary>. The article also identifies that Ross’s commentaries, comprised of translation and his own writing, were published in various editions to reflect the difference in the term for ‘God,’ and while the Bible version used for the Old Testament was the Delegates’ Version, the one for the New Testament was the Easy Wenli version translated by the Rev. Griffith John in 1898. The Dongyangsuhwon located in Korea translated and published the five New Testament commentaries, and the Korean Religious Tract Society later revised and published the translated Commentary on Jude. Neither publication revealed Ross’s name, the original author of the Chinese version, in the translations. This article suggests that the study of the Rev. John Ross might be expanded through the subject-matter of Bible commentary and that <the Conference Commentary> could have contemporarily and historically influenced Christian life and theology in both China and Korea.