한글성서 「예수셩교 요안복음젼서」 발굴본(1882-1883년)에 관한 서지적 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a bibliographic study on the newly discovered Korean translation of the Bible Yesuseongkyo Yoannaebokeumjeonseo by reviewing in order the life of missionary John Ross, his translationandpublication of Korean Bible, the distribution of Yesuseongkyo Yoannaebokeumjeonseo, the bibliographic characteristics of both Yesuseongkyo Yoannaebokeumjeonseo and its Korean translation, the comparison between the recently found Yesuseongkyo Yoannaebokeumjeonseo(1882-1883) and its 1883 version, and the value of Yesuseongkyo Yoannaebokeumjeonseo. The newly discovered Yesuseongkyo Yoannaebokeumjeonseo is the first ever found Bible translated into Korean. In fact, the cover is imprinted with a publication record of Mungwangseowon located in ShenYang(瀋陽) and date of 1882. However, the exact period seems to be slightly prior to 1883 due to a number of evidential contents including the word ‘Haneunim(하느님)’ changed to ‘Hananim(하나님)’, the vowel sign /․/ more frequently used than in the 1883 version, and the word ‘Sungsin(성신)’ used instead of ‘Sunryeong(성령)’. Hence, the publication date can be estimated to be between 1882 and 1883. Moreover, on the front cover Yesuseongkyo Yoannaebokeumjeonseo is printed and on the back cover printed is Gandokyochwi which shows that it was initially bound as Gandokyochwi when brought into the country and was re-bound as Yesuseongkyo Yoannaebokeumjeonseo afterwards. The book itself documents the historical hardship and grief that the gospel suffered in the early days. The main text of this book totals 39 pages, and 「Gangmyeongpyeon」 on page 40 explains words. The cover is yellow in color with a publication record of Mungwangseowon located in ShenYang(瀋陽), 1882. The wooden types for printing this book are smaller than 0.5cm in both width and length, and their sizes are not consistent. In fact, it was recorded to be printed with lead metal types cast in Yokohama, but the test result shows that they were not lead types, but actually wooden types. It is expected that the results of this study will be applied to the fields of history of Christian literatures and Hangul literatures as well as bibliography.