Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 211

1850.

Term for Elohim and Theos.

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investigations. In doing all this, it has been my purpose duly to arrange all the classes of words, to remove the errors into which others have fallen, to give the learner a thorough knowledge of his subject, and to make known the divine will. By arranging the characters under their appropriate radicals, confusion and disorder are prevented. Thus all things without exception, are subjected to our view. When characters have seemed obscure, they have been elucidated by quota- tions; and in doing this the works used have been the Book of Changes by Mang; History by Kung; the Odes by Máu, the Ritual by the officers of Chau; the Spring and Autumn Annals by Tsó; and likewise the Conversations and the Treatise on Filial Duties; all in the ancient form of writing. When any characters occurred which I could not understand, these have been left blank.

ART. II. Thoughts on the term proper to be employed in translating Elohim and Theos into Chinese. By a Missionary. In a Letter to the Editor.

In common with many others, my mind has been not a little exer- cised in the perplexing inquiry, as to the term proper to be employed in the Chinese language as an appellative for God, or the Deity of the Bible. It is confessedly an inquiry of vast importance, but also not free from many difficulties; as is manifest from the great amount of talent, labor and investigation it has called into exercise. My cherish- ed hope and prayer have been, that contending parties would be led to see and feel as one man on the subject. This object has not yet been attained; and it is with the prayerful desire of furthering so de- sirable a result, and not simply to enter the list of controversialists, that I now take up my pen. I have read the greater part of what has been written on this subject with some degree of attention; and am compelled to confess that the arguments on neither side have been conclusive to my own mind; while from these papers mainly, I have been furnished with materials, which have enabled me to form an opinion, based, as I think on sound logical deductions, which will appear in the sequel.

Of the terms which have been proposed to render

and sis

into Chinese, only two are prominent; shin and ti, the latter to be accompanied with some qualifying adjunct, and these are pro- bably the only native oues at all defensible. Before proceeding

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VOL. XIX. NO. IV.