William Dean and the First Chinese Study Bible

This book examines a significant, yet much overlooked Chinese Bible translation project produced by William Dean (1807–1895), an American Baptist missionary to the Chinese people in Siam and China. Decades prior to the Union Version, Dean was convinced that sound translation alone was inadequate for cross-cultural audiences who were unfamiliar with the Christian religion to gain a correct reading of the Scripture. Dean provided extensive commentary to his Bible translation despite the potential of “violating” Bible production principles set by the Bible societies. Dean’s particular word choices reflect his effort to contextualise the Christian message culturally and socio-politically, and to establish the Bible as an authoritative text in the Chinese intellectual tradition. This study utilises extensive primary sources in both the English and Chinese language from the American Baptist Historical Society Archives and the Bible Society Library at the Cambridge University Library.