BIBLE, IN CHINESE [BRIDGMAN (ELIJAH COLEMAN) AND MICHAEL SIMPSON CULBERTSON, translators] [Pentateuch], separate title-pages for each part (the first printed on yellow paper), slight toning and spotting, stitched in contemporary limp cloth, light wear, 4to (240 x 150mm.), Ningbo, American Presbyterian Mission Press (Huahua Bible House), 1853-1855 Footnotes: FIRST FASCICULE OF THE BRIDGMAN-CULBERTSON OLD TESTAMENT COMPRISING GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, DEUTERONOMY. Elijah Coleman Bridgman and Michael Simpson Culbertson were the American missionaries responsible for producing a significant independent Chinese Bible translation following a major schism within the Protestant missionary community. Their work emerged from the collaborative efforts of the Delegates' Version, an interdenominational project initiated in the 1840s to provide a unified Chinese scripture. Although the committee successfully published the New Testament in 1852, the transition to the Old Testament was marred by the 'Term Question,' a fundamental disagreement over whether to translate the word for God as 'Shén' or 'Shàngdì'. Unable to reach a consensus with their British colleagues, Bridgman and Culbertson withdrew from the joint committee to pursue a translation that aligned with their linguistic and theological preferences. While the remaining members of the original committee, Walter Henry Medhurst, John Stronach, and William Charles Milne, completed the Delegates' Version of the Old Testament in 1853, Bridgman and Culbertson began their independent release that same year with the publication of Genesis. They continued their labour over the next decade, eventually publishing their complete translation of the Bible in 1863. Provenance: William Parker (d.1863), MD and medical missionary, with ink inscription on upper cover 'W. Parker M.R.C.S. Pentateuch'; Halifax Missionary Exhibition tag (Nova Scotia 1903), with ink inscription 'The British Museum wanted this. Col. Calvert found it in Scotland' and note that it had been lent by Catherine Forrester Paton from Alloa (1855-1914). Paton allowed her home in Glasgow to be used as a training location for women who wanted to be missionaries. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: • • Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing