[연구논문]한글성서의 번역·보급과 그 문화·사회사적인 의미

This article tries to help understand what Korean Translation of the Bible means socio-historically during late 19th century to early 20th century. With Korean converts' aid John Ross began to translate the Bible into Korean and published the Gospel of Luke in 1882 at Manchuria, called as Ross Version. This has been considered as the first Korean Translation of the New Testament. On the other hand, in Japan Yi Su Jung translated the Gospel of Mark from the Chinese Bible in 1883. Two years later when first missionaries Horace G. Underwood and Henry G. Appenzeller came to Korea they took yi's Version with them. Both of translations however were done outside of the Korean Peninsula because missionary work was not allowed at that time. Owing to western nations' contact directly and indirectly. the treaty between Korea and the United States was the first to be signed in 1882. Consequently, treaties of commerce were concluded with England, Germany, and other nations. Not until then Christian missionaries could not corne to Korea officially. After Korea opened the locked gate, Korean Translation spreaded more wide and quickly than before throughout Korea. At this moment, two movements were madc concerning Korean Translation. First, the Korean Translation of the Old and New Testament started to be done full-scale on the one hand. In fact. this was the first and original purpose out of question that missionaries intended. Second and unexpectedly. Korean alphabet, hangul. had a chance to be reborn on the other hand. Since invented in 1443. hangul had been mistreated as lower letters. so-called unmun. Hangul was not used official but Chinese was. Accordingly, it was not necessary for Korean elite to have Korean Translations. However. missionaries tried to translate the Bible into Korean. Obviously, Korean (phonetic symbol) is much easier to learn than Chinese (hieroglyphic). Eugene N ida maintains that the Bible Translation should satisfy the condition who are the readers. I