The Comparison of Two Chinese Versions(CUV and TCV) of Bible from the Perspective of Skopos Theory

Bible has a lot of Chinese versions, among which The Chinese Union Version(CUV) and Today's Chinese Version(TCV) are most popular. The skopos of CUV is for Chinese Christians while the skopos of TCV is not just for Chinese Christians but also for the non-believers. Different target readers decide different skopos of translation. The comparison of CUV and TCV of this essay will focus on the word choices and sentence patterns to illustrate the point. Concerning the word choice, CUV uses a lot of classical words that are hard for readers today to understand. As to the sentence pattern, CUV version is generally literal translation to be loyal to God. On the contrary, because of different skopos, TCV version is very free translation. We can not deny the fact that TCV using free translation is under the influence of Nida whose dynamic equivalence is influential during the1970s especially in the Bible translation. However, from the prospective of Vermeer's theory, the prime skopos of TCV is to help non-believers understand and be willing to read Bible. Strange sentences and vague meanings will prevent them from go on reading it. Since I am also a Christian, at the end of the essay I will illustrate the limitation of both versions from a Christian's perspective.