Theology Annual vol.2 1978 p.149-160
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Recently I met a priest who does pastoral work in a busy Kowloon parish. He told me that some of his young parishioners are eager to learn more about the Bible, especially about the life of Christ in the Gospels, and he asked me what was available in Chinese. The present article can be seen as an answer to his question.
It is always more important to read the Bible than to read about the Bible. However, since the Bible was written so long ago and so far away and often deals with profound and com-plicated matters, the ordinary reader needs additional help to understand the written word of God. If he only reads the biblical text, there will not infrequently be times when he is in doubt about what the words mean.
Fortunately such assistance is easily available today. This article attempts to introduce to the reader such books published by Catholics in Chinese about the Bible. It has a deliberately limited objective. It does not list translations of the Bible, many of which provide commentaries and other helps, cf. the article on that subject in Theology Annual 1 (1977), pages 90-100. It concentrates on more serious writings, without completely neglecting popular booklets. It attempts to deal with books currently available from publishers or bookshops in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
To draw the line between books on the Bible and those on theology, spirituality, catechetics or preaching is not always easy; but for the sake of brevity, only works that deal manly with the Bible are listed here. For obvious reasons I make no comments on the Chinese style of the works mentioned.
Our Protestant and Anglican brethren have written or translated many Chinese books about the Bible, our common heritage, but to keep the present article within manageable proportions, only works published by Catholics are included.
This is a major work of biblical scholarship which should be placed beside the Chinese Franciscan Bible. It provides information on every aspect of the Bible: each book of the Bible, important biblical persons and theological concepts, history, geography--all have articles devoted to them. Well illustrated and indexed, it is also splendidly printed and solidly bound, though the price is high. It possesses many of the good qualities and also some of the drawbacks noted in the monumental Chinese Franciscan Bible, cf. Theology Annual 1 (1977), page 96. This important dictionary is reviewed in 神學論集, No. 25 (1975), pages 457-467.
Fr. Luis Alonso Schokel is an internationally known Old Testament scholar and a professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, where almost all Catholic professors of Sacred Scripture receive their professional training. In this book he gives an enlightening account of how Catholics have approached the Bible since the sixteenth century Reformation up to Vatican Council II.
This work, introduced by the famous Chinese Catholic scholar Dr. John Wu Ching-hsiung, gives a general introduction to the Bible. Being an original work by Dr. Cyrus Lee Shao-k' un, its special feature is that it stresses the Chinese approach to the sacred writings.
Fr. Richard Wang of Fujen University, Taiwan, wrote this short introduction to answer readers' questions about inspiration, revelation, the canon of the Bible and such-like matters, ending up with some practical advice on reading the Bible.
This is a translation of What is the Bible? written by the well-known French scholar Henri Daniel-Rops of the Academic Francaise for the 150-volume Faith and Fact series. It is probably the most comprehensive work of general introduction available in Chinese and is written in non-technical language.
The author of this booklet is Fr. Mark Fang, Old Testament professor at Fujen University and editor of 「神學論集」 for a number of years, who has written-extensively on the Bible. This is one of his shorter writings, with four brief chapters on the Holy Land and the Bible; the Catholic Church and the Bible; reading and studying the Bible; and the historical value of the Bible. These were originally a series of lectures.
Some of the customary introductory questions are dealt with in this translated booklet (the original author's name is omitted for some reason). It has a section on biblical problems and ends with advice on how to read the Bible with profit.
This set of ten attractively produced booklets covers the usual ground of biblical introduction. It has the advantage of being the most recently written work of its kind in Chinese. It gives helpful advice on such things as how to set up a Bible study group and how the Bible can help us to pray better. There are also pamphlets in the set providing necessary information on the historical background of both Old and New Testaments.
Fr. Mark Fang deals in this booklet with such questions as: Now that we have the New Testament, do we need the Old Testament? What has the Bible to say to modem man? Wisdom in the Bible and in Chinese culture--what have they in common?
Is the Catholic Bible identical with the Bible read by the Protestants? Fr. Fang explains the differences and how and why they arose. He adds in an appendix a useful list of the Catholic and the Protestant names in Chinese for the books of the Bible and their abbreviated titles.
These 163 questions and answers originally appeared in a regular column conducted by Frs. Fang and Wang in the periodical「聖化」over several years. They deal with a great variety of questions that readers asked about the Bible, about half of them concerning the New Testament.
A similar but much shorter pamphlet written by Fr. Francis McCool of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, which answers questions commonly asked, e.g. what does the Bible teach about the origin of man and of the universe?
A series of eighteen sketches by the English biblical writer Fr. Leonard Johnston of prominent biblical personalities, mostly from the Old Testament, such as Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, John the Baptist.
One of the only books I have seen in Chinese written to help the pilgrim to the Holy Land. It gives an outline of the general history of Palestine and then information on what one can see at the many places that figure in the Bible. The illustrations are somewhat disappointing.
In Chinese, then, there exists a good variety of popular works to introduce people to the Bible, but nothing as yet by a Catholic scholar dealing thoroughly with the more profound questions in a scientific, up-to-date, technical way, to compare for example with A. Wikenhauser's New Testament Introduction or Robert-Feuillet's two-volume Introduction to the Bible.
This rather detailed history of the Jewish people in biblical times was written by Henri Daniel-Rops, mentioned above.
Fr. Mark Fang attempts in this short pamphlet to introduce his readers to the new approach to the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, especially since the time of Julius Wellhausen. He summarizes the official Catholic teaching on these complex questions.
Fr. Fang briefly deals with how the Pentateuch reached its present form and also with the completion of the whole Old Testament. He acknowledges his debt to Fr. Norbert Lohfink, the German Old Testament specialist.
This booklet discusses the sources of the Pentateuch as commonly accepted today and also the place of the Law and the Covenant in the Pentateuch.
This is a full-length 200-page work in which Fr. Fang provides a detailed, full-scale treatment of the text of the book of Genesis, concentrating on the much discussed first eleven chapters.
Cardinal Jean Danielou, who was more a patrologist than a scripture scholar, selects some major theological issues raised by the first three chapters of Genesis, such as the creation of the universe; the mystery of sin; and Adam and Christ.
Here Fr. Fang discusses the book of Exodus and in a densely written booklet explains how the book was written and what place it holds in the New Testament.
The Conscience of Israel is a very successful work of the respected U.S. scholar Fr. Bruce Vawter and provides an excellent, well-informed and non-technical introduction to the Pre- Exilic Prophets of the Old Testament.
The Fujen Theological Series published this work on Second Isaiah (chapters 1-39 of Isaiah). It was prepared, like several other volumes in the series, by some of the students in the Theology Faculty of Fujen University, Taipei, as a result of seminar work. It discusses many relevant questions, e.g. the prophetic movement; critical and historical questions concerning the book of Isaiah; the Servant Songs; Second Isaiah and the liturgy; and adds a useful bibliography of Chinese and English writings on Isaiah.
This is a parallel work to the preceding prepared by the Fujen theology students on the prophet Jeremiah. It provides some detailed exegesis of important passages.
In the same Fujen Theological Series, we have a thorough textual exegesis, followed by a theological synthesis of the enigmatic book of Job.
This is a translation of a well-established book on the Psalms by the Dutch Trappist, Pius Drijvers. It gives a rather complete treatment of the customary questions, e.g. the origin of the Psalms; the various types; their use as prayers. It also prints the complete text of the Psalms in the Franciscan translation.
Fr. Augustin George, a French biblical scholar, concentrates on the spiritual and theological riches of the Psalms, but without neglecting important literary and critical issues. Fr. M. Fang, one of the translators, appends three of his own articles on the Psalter, previously published elsewhere.
The most recent volume in the Fujen Theological Series is a full-length study of the Book of Proverbs, giving detailed exegesis and a general introduction on the Old Testament wisdom literature. There is an interesting comparative table of Chinese and Old Testament proverbs and a good bibliography in Chinese and English.
On the Old Testament we now have some highly competent work done by Fr. M. Fang and also by foreign experts such as Vawter, Drijvers and George. But apart from these writings on the Pentateuch, on the Psalms and on two of the prophets and Proverbs, together with the Franciscans' 8-volume translation and commentary, there exists almost nothing by Catholic writers in Chinese on vast tracts of the Old Testament, and in particular no up-to-date commentaries either at the popular or scientific levels.
Fr. Patrick Fannon, the English biblical scholar, adds a subtitle to the original booklet: "the birth of the New Testament from the life of the Church". He explains how the New Testament was gradually written to meet the needs and circumstances of the early Church and that it still has an intimate connection with the daily life of the modern follower of Christ.
To compose this very useful small book, Fr. Fang took the introductions to all the books of the New Testament as found in the complete edition of the Jerusalem Bible and translated them into Chinese.
Fr. Joseph Huby, the French biblical writer, wrote this systematic treatment of each of the four Gospels and their writers and special characteristics. It provides a lot of basic information, but having been written between the two World Wars, is not now up-to-date on various critical questions.
"Are the Gospels trustworthy?", that is the question which Fr. Eugene Zsamar, a Hungarian missionary who spent his life among the Chinese and wrote a series of books in Chinese on spirituality, attempts to answer in this booklet. His answers are the traditional ones, common in text-books earlier this century but now needing updating.
Fr. A.B. Chang has taught dogmatic theology at Fujen University for some years. His Modern Criticism of the Gospels presents biblical-theological studies of Christ's Baptism, Temptation and Transfiguration, preceded by a set of chapters on modern Catholic critical study of the Gospels and its effect on our understanding of historicity, inspiration and related topics. This is a valuable work by a prominent Catholic theologian.
In 1964 the Pontifical Biblical Commission published an important statement on the historicity of the Gospels, in effect giving the official Catholic position towards Rudolf Bultmann and his influential school of Form Criticism. This document of the Biblical Commission, which was taken up into the Vatican II Constitution on Divine Revelation, has been translated into Chinese by Fr. Richard Wang who added Fr. Joseph Fitzmyer's informed commentary on it from Theological Studies of 1964.
This is a series of 14 short commentaries on each book of the New Testament forming the Chinese version of the popular U.S. series. New Testament Reading Guides. They are quite readable and informative, and in some cases are of real value where done by outstanding scholars, e.g. Raymond Brown on John; R.A.F. MacKenzie on New Testament Introduction; David Stanley on Matthew; Barnabas Ahern on Galatians and Romans. The Chinese translations were done in Taiwan by a group of university students under the supervision of Fr. Richard Wang. The full biblical text is also printed, in the Franciscan translation.
In the 1920's and 1930's the Verbum Salutis commentaries on the New Testament books appeared in France. The Gospels commentaries subsequently were published in English. Only one of these commentaries has appeared in Chinese: Fr. Joseph Huby's commentary on Mark's Gospel which was translated in Shanghai in the late 1940's and reprinted in Taiwan. It is a substantial work, stressing the theological and spiritual aspects, but is outdated from the exegetical and critical points of view.
These three booklets were prepared to help those teaching Biblical Knowledge for the Hong Kong Secondary Schools Certificate of Education examination, which in New Testament prescribes The Acts of the Apostles and one of the Synoptic Gospels in rotation. Each booklet is divided into a certain number of lessons and gives a short bibliography for further reading in Chinese and English. The volume on the other Synoptic Gospel, Mark, does not seem to have been published as yet.
This work, compiled by the indefatigable Fr. Fang, collects the introductory material on St. Paul, his life, letters and theology to be found in the highly-acclaimed Jerome Biblical Commentary and presents it, in slightly simplified form, in Chinese dress, resulting in the most up-to-date Catholic work on St. Paul in Chinese.
A useful book on St. Paul by Fr. Francois Amiot, the French biblical scholar. It is on a popular level, covering somewhat the same ground as the preceding work but not as well.
There are some useful books in Chinese on the New Testament but they are not numerous. We must record the astonishing fact that apart from the Franciscans' three volumes of New Testament text and commentary and the New Testament Reading Guide series dating back almost twenty years, there is only one commentary of any size on one of the four Gospels and virtually nothing on any of the other 26 books of the New Testament, the basic writings of the Christian religion.
This is a major reference work, edited by Fr. Xavier Leon-Dufour with articles contributed by the leading biblical scholars of the French-speaking world. The Chinese version is translated directly from the original French in its second, greatly enlarged edition. This standard work has articles on all the theological concepts of both the Old and New Testaments. The French and English editions follow a purely alphabetical order for the articles, where-as the Chinese rearranges the material into three volumes, dealing in turn with: God and the World; Christ and Salvation; The Holy Spirit and the Church; but for ease of consultation, adding indexes in Chinese, English and French.
Fr. Albert Gelin, the French writer, gives a valuable short survey of the main themes of Old Testament theology under the headings: God's revelation in the Old Testament; God's plan for mankind; individual salvation.
Fr. Gelin's study of Man in the Bible adopts a theological and spiritual approach.
Fr. Jean Giblet, the French writer, edited this work which follows some key biblical themes, e.g. God's plan, God's revelation, God's call, God's faithfulness, as they develop right through the Old and New Testaments.
This work of the famous French theologian Fr. Jules Lebreton is subtitled: "The Spiritual Doctrine of the New Testament".
Apologetics and the Biblical Christ was written by the well-known U.S. theologian, Fr. Avery Dulles. In five chapters he discusses the impact of modern studies on the traditional approach to fundamental theology and apologetics.
This is a competent work on how the Bible sees the divinity of Christ. Five prominent French exegetes contribute. Special attention is given to St. Paul and St. John.
On Biblical Theology, the fruit of detailed study of the sacred text, we have now one major work, the Dictionary of Biblical Theology, and half a dozen other volumes of fairly recent vintage. We still lack in-depth treatments of major writers (such as John and Paul) and of themes of the New Testament, particularly as seen through Chinese eyes.
Although this article aims at being comprehensive within the limits expressed, it appears to be a first voyage across a largely uncharted sea. So the compiler would be grateful to receive corrections and to learn of books in this field that have been overlooked in the present tentative list.
Two reflections suggest themselves at the conclusion of this rapid survey of Chinese Catholic books on the Bible: gratitude to those who have laboured long hours and months to produce our present Catholic literature on the Bible, whether written originally in Chinese (almost one half of the titles listed above) or translated from other languages; and secondly, a realization of the enormous task that remains to be done in this field by dedicated people who have a love of God's Word, who are prepared to master the tools of modern biblical study and who can write Chinese well－－an urgent and demanding example of "Localization". Only then can Catholic biblical writing in Chinese hope to take its place beside the extensive and profound Catholic writings on the Bible in the other great world languages.
Prepared by: Holy Spirit Seminary College