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The Significance of Alex. A. Pieters' Contribution to the History of Korean Translation of the Old Testament

Joong-Eun Kim 1

1장로회신학대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

The present article purports to enlighten Alexander Albert Pieters　 work and its significance in the history of Korean translation of the Old Testament. Especially his translation of the Psalms, ‘Si Pyeon Chwal Yo’ the Old Version of Korean Translation of the Old Testament (OVKTOT) and the Revised Version of Korean Translation of the Old Testament (RVKTOT), alongside his activities, will be examined in the article. Pieters was born on the 30th of December, 1871, and died on the 29th of June, 1958. He selected 62 psalms, apart from imprecatory ones out of total 150 psalms, and translated them into Korean. Twice in October and November 1898, Methodist Sam Mun Publishing in Seoul printed 2500 copies and published the work, entitled, ‘Si Pyeon Chwal Yo’ It was the very first Korean translation of a book from the Old Testament book ever published, and later OVKTOT (1911 edition) and RVKTOT owed a lot to it. ‘Si Pyeon Chwal Yo’ is written in easy Korean, exhibits poetic rhythm and bears resemblence to the original Hebrew quite closely. Authorized Translation Committee began its Old Testament translation from October 17th, 1904, and published the books of Genesis and Psalms in 1906. The work was assisted by Pieters　 helpful ‘Si Pyeon Chwal Yo’ Finally on the 2nd of April, the entire books of the Old Testament was completed (it took 5 years, 5 months and 16 days). On the 9th of March 1911, the very first Korean Holy Bible (the Old and New Testaments combined) was published. It consisted of 2 volumes of the Old Testament and 1 volume of the New Testament, which were the Old Version of Korean Translation of the Holy Bible. Since the use of proper nouns in the 1911 edition of OVKTOT was not consistent, W.D. Reynolds and his Korean assistants, from July 1912, set out constructing a writing system of proper nouns, which was accepted by the committee of the Revised Version of Korean Translation of the Holy Bible in 1913. In March 1936, the RVKTOT was completed. The version was aimed to be made as closely as possible to Ginsburg’s Hebrew Bible, in the principle of literal rendering of the original language. On December 1936, the RVKTOT was published. Pieters, from January 1926, worked as a lifelong member of the committee of the Revised Version of the Old Testament. He, together with Won Mo Lee, worked on tuning the literary style and accuracy of the OT revised translation of 1936, finishing the revision definitely in August 1937. On the 3rd of September 1938, the work was published, in a set with the New Testament, as the Revised Version of the Holy Bible. Undoubtedly Alexander Pieters is a pioneer in the history of Korean translation of the Old Testament; he indeed was an inpotant man in creating the OVKTOT and revising it to give birth to the RVKTOT. It is now clear that OVKTOT is not rendered from any Chinese or English versions of the Bible, but directly translated from the Hebrew texts. Pieters certainly played a central role especially in the translation of the RVKTOT.

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