성경 번역상 상이한 단어 선택 전략들, 전문성 대(對) 대중성 - 현대 몽골어 성경 번역본의 빌레몬서 1:9의 “presbutēs”(πρεσβύτης)를 중심으로 -

Abstract

In the tradition of Christianity, translated versions of the Bible have been highly regarded as much as the ones in original languages. It is evidenced by the fact that the Church gave the place of honour to the Vulgate, a translated version, at least in the Middle Age. This means that translation has always been crucial in the thought and practice in various branches of Christianity, in particular, commentary and Bible translation.<BR> This article aims to clarify the relationship of commentary and Bible translation, and the differences between them, and to enhance our understanding of Bible translation. In doing this, this study delves deeply into the different word choice strategies in Bible translation, focusing on “presbutēs”(πρεσβύτης) in Philemon 1:9 in the modern Mongolian Bibles as a case study. The Letter to Philemon is known to have relatively a few, if any, commentary issues to consider, such as the meaning of “presbutēs”. Meanwhile modern Mongolian Bibles, which began to emerge in the late twentieth century in the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet, show the diversity of word choice strategies in Bible translation. In translating the word “presbutēs”, modern Mongolian Bibles adopt three different word choice strategies of choosing “an old man” or “an ambassador” or of omitting the word. More interestingly, modern Mongolian Bibles adopt two different word re-choice strategies in their revised versions: change or continuity. To put perspective on the case of modern Mongolian Bibles, this article widely surveys other cases: the English Bibles including the RSV which first chose “an ambassador” for the word of “presbutēs”; other Bibles in Asian languages such as Mongolian in Old Script, Manchurian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese; and some European languages such as Russian and German which Mongolian translators are familiar with. The result shows that most of the modern Mongolian Bibles have the propensity to choose “an old man”, which is found in most of the cases in other language Bible translations as well. It also sheds light on the process of Bible translation and revision, particularly the Korean Common Translation-based Bibles in South and North Korea.<BR> This study argues that commentary and Bible translation have different groups of target readers, with the former aiming at professionals and the latter at grassroots. Because of this, commentary allows as many different words as possible, and thus tends to be expansive and suggestive; whereas Bible translation pinpoints one word, and thus tends to be restricted and directive. With their different but complementary roles, both commentators and Bible translators can help ‘the Book of God’ become ‘the Book of people’. In sum, commentary opts for professionalism while Bible translation popularity.