As I PASSED HONGKONG, on my return journey, I saw my sister Helen, and talked over with her the question of looking over some manuscripts we had received of a revision of the translation of the four Gospels into Chinese. For a long time we had felt that one of the most urgent needs in China was a new translation of the New Testament. We have often been asked, and rightly asked: Why don't you publish more books on the truths of the New Testament? One of the great difficulties in such a work has been the present Chinese translation of the New Testament. In many ways it is excellent, especially considering the difficulties under which the translators worked; for it was one of the very first books to be put into the spoken language of the people, instead of the literary style, which is very difficult to understand, especially if read aloud. But even this translation does not provide what is necessary for clear and simple exposition of the New Testament. For example, "The Church" is translated "The Teaching Society". If one seeks to write on the truths of the Church of God, the first necessity is to point out that the Church is not a Society, and has no scriptural authority to teach. Sunday is "Worship Day". Monday is "Worship Day One", Tuesday, "Worship Day Two", and so on till Saturday is "Worship Day Six" and of course that brings Sunday, the Lord's Day, to the Seventh Day, instead of the First Day.
On almost every page, as one seeks to write on the Books of the New Testament, one meets with such expressions, or with mis-translations which cannot be passed by in a trustworthy exposition. If these errors and frailties are pointed out publicly to the Chinese Christians, it might well cause a feeling of lack of trust in the New Testament, and more harm than good might be done.
With this difficulty facing us we have done very little in the way of publications on the New Testament, waiting and hoping for a good and reliable new translation to be produced. Many have felt the need, and a few translations have been brought out. Indeed, we ourselves wasted much time, strength and money trying to publish one of these. But as far as we can judge, no satisfactory translation has as yet been produced.
For these reasons we felt every encouragement should be given to our Chinese brethren who were attempting to meet this need; and my sister Helen came to Shanghai to try and go over this new translation of the four Gospels. It soon became apparent that it would be easier to make an entirely new translation, than correct this one. For about two years, much work was put into this effort. The Gospel of Matthew was published, and a large part of Mark translated; and much information collected for a fresh Greek-Chinese dictionary. But before more was done, the opportunity passed, and it has not been possible to do more.