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First Korean Bible translations
Luke 1882; NT 1887; full Bible 1911· Council, creed or writing· Books & writings
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
Korean translations made between 1882 and 1911, often reaching Koreans before missionaries did, which spread both Christianity and the Hangul script.
See it on the Bible & Christianity map →What it is
In Manchuria, Scottish missionary John Ross and Korean helpers such as Seo Sang-ryun (서상륜) printed the Gospel of Luke in 1882 and the whole New Testament in 1887 (the Ross Version). In Japan, the convert Yi Su-jeong translated Mark (1885). From 1887 a missionary translation board in Seoul, chaired by Underwood, produced an official New Testament (1900) and the full Bible (1911). All used Hangul (한글), the native alphabet then looked down on by elites who wrote in Chinese characters.
Why it matters
Many Koreans read Scripture before meeting a missionary, and Bible study taught many ordinary Koreans, especially women, to read Hangul.
Sources and history
Original printings survive in Korean libraries and Bible Society archives; Ross's reports and the translation board's records document the work, including Seo Sang-ryun's colportage in Uiju and Sorae.
Questions and debates
How much Korean co-translators, rather than missionaries, shaped the wording is debated, since their names were usually left off title pages.
Connections (2)
▸Underwood and Appenzeller: first Protestant missionaries helped translate First Korean Bible translationsHistorical record
The connection
The missionaries knew Koreans needed a Bible in clear Hangul. In 1887 they formed a translation committee, later the Board of Official Translators, with Underwood as chair and Appenzeller among the members. Working with Korean scholars, they revised the earlier Ross and Yi Su-jeong versions and produced the New Testament (1900) and the full Bible (1911).
When and where
Seoul, 1887–1911; Appenzeller drowned in 1902 when his ship sank on the way to a translators' meeting in Mokpo.
Historical evidence
The committee's minutes and annual reports, Bible Society records, and the title pages of the 1900 New Testament and 1911 Bible document the work.
Questions and debates
How much the official Bible kept from the Ross Version, written in a northwestern (Pyeongan) dialect that Seoul readers found hard, is still being studied.
▸The New Testament was first put into Korean in First Korean Bible translationsHistorical record
The connection
The New Testament reached Korean first, book by book: Luke and John (1882), the complete Ross New Testament (1887), then the missionaries' official version (1900). Translators chose 'Hananim' (하나님), drawn from the native Korean word for the lord of heaven, as the name for God, rooting the Bible in familiar Korean religious language.
When and where
Mukden (now Shenyang), Manchuria, 1882–1887, by John Ross with Korean translators; the official Seoul version followed in 1900.
Historical evidence
Copies of the 1882 Luke and the 1887 New Testament survive in Korean libraries, with Ross's reports to the National Bible Society of Scotland.
Questions and debates
Whether 'Hananim' means 'the One' (hana) or 'Lord of Heaven' (haneul) was argued; Protestants say Hananim, Catholics today Haneunim, a split visible in every Korean Bible.