The Delegates' Version was a significant translation of the Bible into Chinese produced by a committee of Protestant missionaries in classical, literary Chinese. The New Testament was completed in 1850, and published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1852. Two separate Old Testament translations were produced, one published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1854 and in a single volume in 1858, whereas another was published by the American Bible Society in 1863.[1]
In August 1843, a meeting of missionaries was held in Hong Kong to discuss the question of whether another revision of the Bible should be produced. A plan was adopted by which the services of every missionary capable of rendering aid were enlisted, and at five stations local committees were formed, to each of which a share of the work of revision was given. From these local committees, delegates were appointed to form a general committee of revision, by which the translations of the local committees were to be compared, and the version finally determined by the votes of the delegates.[2]
The first meeting of the delegates was held in June 1847. The committee consisted of:
Lowrie drowned shortly after the work was begun and William Charles Milne was elected to fill his place. Bishop Boone never attended a meeting of the delegates after the first chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel was finished. However, when the version was finished, Boone repudiated all responsibility for it, so that the translation was understood to be virtually the work of the English missionaries Medhurst, Stronach, and Milne.
The committee, aided by several Chinese scholars (such as Wang Tao), continued their work daily from 10:00am to 2:00pm, almost without intermission. The translation of the New Testament was finished in July 1850 and was published in 1852 with the approval of the delegates, and became known as Delegates' Version.[3]
Soon after the publication of the New Testament, a translation of the Old Testament was commenced. But owing to a division among the members, the committee separated, resulting in two versions. One was completed in 1853 by the English missionaries Medhurst, Stronach, and Milne, and published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1854, followed by a single volume published in 1858. This has also been called the Delegates' Version. The American missionaries Bridgman and Michael Simpson Culbertson withdrew from the committee of delegates and prepared a separate final version, published by the American Bible Society in 1863.[1]
Though the Delegates' Version was recognized as having an elegant style, its use of classical Chinese limited its usefulness for commoners to understand. Notably, two members of the Delegates' Version translation committee, Walter Henry Medhurst and John Stronach, decided to introduce a new translation in Nanjing Mandarin and known as the Nanking Version. Medhurst translated the Old Testament and Stronach carried out the translation of the New Testament. The entire Bible was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1856 and became the first translation not based on literary Chinese.[4]
Several other translations were produced in classical Chinese, as well as in regional Chinese languages. However, by 1890 at the General Conference of the Protestant Missionary of China, it was agreed that a Chinese Bible should be produced that would be acceptable to all Protestant denominations, which resulted in the Chinese Union Version published in 1919.[5]