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China: 'Printing the Chinese Scriptures' - the first Chinese translation of the Bible - using cattle power, c.1848

China: 'Printing the Chinese Scriptures' - the first Chinese translation of the Bible - using cattle power, c.1848

In 1840, a group of four people (Walter Henry Medhurst, Charles Gutzlaff, Elijah Coleman Bridgman, and John Robert Morrison) cooperated to translate the Bible into Chinese. The translation of the Hebrew part was done mostly by Gutzlaff, with the exception that the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua were done by the group collectively. This translation, completed in 1847, is well-known due to its adoption by the revolutionary peasant leader Hong Xiuquan of the Taipingtianguo movement (Taiping Rebellion) as some of the reputed early doctrines of the organization.

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