The “Delegates’ version” of the Chinese New Testament in High Wenli, with Crystal Palace provenance

[Biblia sinica - NT]. Xin Yue Quanshu [The New Testament].

€ 8,500.00

Early edition of the influential "'Delegates' version" of the New Testament, presenting the Chinese text in elevated wenli style, printed at the London Missionary Society’s Shanghai press (Mohai Shuguan).

The Delegates' Version was a translation of the Bible into Chinese produced by a committee of senior Protestant missionaries (Medhurst, Milne, Stronach, Bridgeman and Bishop Boone) in classical, literary Chinese convened to bring earlier efforts into a harmonised text following the 1843 Hong Kong deliberations on key theological terms. This Bible edition exemplifies the mid 19th century move toward cooperative translation and a more consistent biblical register in Chinese, and it decisively shaped subsequent missionary and scholarly engagements with scriptural Chinese. Issued from the Mohai Shuguan press at a moment when Shanghai printing was becoming the main engine for Protestant literature, the present copy preserves an early Western binding and contemporary presentation context.

A scarce survival of a cornerstone version in the history of the Chinese Bible.