初探《聖經・馬太福音》熟語中譯對中文的影響

Abstract

本研究從《新約‧馬太福音》出發，翻查《和合本》和《和合本修訂版》兩本《聖經》中譯本，找出現代中文有在使用的聖經熟語。藉由觀察華人主流網路媒體的應用情形，了解現代中文聖經熟語的涵義，並取之與神學教義解釋相互比較，分析現代的應用是否仍保有《聖經》原意。試圖由聖經熟語的條數、應用廣度，了解《聖經》譯入中文之後，對中文產生的影響。

另為釐清聖經熟語的發展脈絡，本研究追朔至十八、十九世紀的三版中譯本：《古新聖經》、《神天聖書》、《委辦譯本》，一窺中文《聖經》古譯本與聖經熟語發展的互動情形，且進一步依據現代中文聖經熟語的發展現況，分類為「用字不變」、「間接發展」、「意思轉變」三種熟語。此外，本研究也會探討現代中文聖經熟語是否為獨立發展而成，意即沒有可對應套用的現代英文聖經熟語，以及經過時間的發酵演變，現代中英文聖經熟語的發展方向是否一致，還是已出現分歧。

本研究共計找到 22 條中文聖經熟語，及其衍生發展出來的 30 條現代中文聖經熟語，其中計有高達七成七的現代中文聖經熟語，即便應用多已無宗教色彩，但仍保有《聖經》原意，另有近三成的現代中文聖經熟語未必有可套用的現代英文聖經熟語。

The research presented here aims to read through the gospel of Matthew of the New Testament in two versions of Chinese Bible, United Mandarin Version (和合本) and Revised Chinese Union Version (和合本修訂版), and look into biblical idioms used in the contemporary Chinese language. By observing the contemporary use of Chinese biblical idioms on Internet media, and comparing it to theological explanation, whether if the contemporary Chinese biblical idioms sharing the original meaning from the Bible is examined. The study hopes to shed light on the influence of Bible translations into Chinese through the investigation on the number of contemporary Chinese biblical idioms generated and their uses in the modern Chinese society.

For better understanding the development context of Chinese biblical idioms, the study traces the idioms back to three older versions from the 18th and 19th century, Guxin shengjing (古新聖經), Morrison/Milne Version (神天聖書), and Delegate’s Version (委辦譯本). Then the contemporary Chinese biblical idioms are classified to three categories, (i) wording remains unchanged, (ii) wording has changed, and (iii) meaning has changed. The study also examines if the contemporary Chinese biblical idioms are a result of independent development; that is to say no equivalent use of contemporary English biblical idioms is found.

This paper has found 22 Chinese biblical idioms which have developed into 30 contemporary biblical idioms. There are as many as 77% of these contemporary idioms being used in non-religious text while sustaining the original meaning from the Bible. Also, there are about 30% of these contemporary Chinese idioms find no equivalent biblical idioms in English.