Seoul Bible MuseumPermanent journey← Journey mapBefore foreign Protestant missionaries settled in Korea, Korean translators in Manchuria were already helping to produce Gospel texts in Korean.
The room’s claim
The arrival was not one date, one route, or one denomination. In a work compiled in 1614, a Korean scholar listed section titles from a Chinese-language book of Catholic teaching. This documents knowledge of those titles, but does not establish possession or reading of the book. In 1784 Yi Seung-hun carried books on Catholic ritual and doctrine back from Beijing. Protestant translation developed through Korean collaborators in Manchuria and Japan. Luke was printed in Korean in Manchuria in 1882, before Protestant missionaries settled in Korea. How those printed portions then reached readers inside Korea remains a question for historical investigation.
Before proceeding: ‘The Bible came to Korea’ can hide the people involved. This gallery shows the people the surviving record lets us see, and marks where the record is silent.
Object at the threshold
1887 예수셩교젼셔 · title page · Korean Bible translation history
Begin with the object itself. The vertical title, printed characters, seals, and visible wear identify a book made in a particular time and place. Its title page carries two dating systems, while its Korean script makes the result of translation immediately visible.
This page belongs to the 1887 예수셩교젼셔. It did not cross borders by itself: people translated, revised, carried, opened, and read it. The Korean Bible Society watermark belongs to this catalogue reproduction, not to the historical page itself.
Korean encounters with Catholic teaching began through books and intellectual exchange before a resident foreign priesthood. Lay believers formed communities, interpreted texts, and endured persecution. This history prevents a Protestant-only account of the Bible in Korea.
John Ross and John Macintyre worked with Korean translators and typesetters in Manchuria. Korean scholars first drafted from a Chinese New Testament; Ross and Macintyre revised the draft against the Greek and an English text. The museum has not yet verified individual translators’ names or roles from traceable sources.
Luke and John appeared in Korean in 1882–1883, and the complete Korean New Testament, 예수셩교젼셔, followed in 1887. Translation was already an act of Korean interpretation, not mechanical transfer.
Source note: Korean Bible Society: Korean Bible translations 한국어
In Japan, Korean scholar Lee Su-jeong (이수정) encountered a Chinese New Testament, became a Christian, and translated Mark into Korean in mixed Chinese-character and Hangul script. It was published in Japan in 1885.
Source note: Korean Bible Society: Lee Su-jeong’s (이수정) 1885 Mark 한국어
Luke was printed in Manchuria in 1882, before Protestant missionaries settled in Korea. Lee Su-jeong’s Mark was a separate publication, issued in Japan in 1885; the museum has not established where it falls relative to the missionaries’ arrival. How these printed portions reached readers inside Korea is not established in the evidence the museum has examined.
Source note: Korean Bible Society: Korean Bible translations 한국어
Printing in Korean script widened the possibility of reading beyond those educated in classical Chinese. This does not establish how many people actually read these books. Literacy, cost, geography, and distribution are factors that could have affected access. The sources gathered here do not establish how, or whether, each factor operated in 1887.
…And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
Romans 10:14 · ESV
Relationships behind the book
People chose to translate, revise, carry, open a door, and read. Their relationships turned an object into a living encounter.
Korean translators and the Ross translation circle
John Ross did not translate alone and then hand Koreans a finished book. Korean scholars drafted a Korean text from a Chinese New Testament, and Ross and John Macintyre checked and revised that draft against the Greek and an English text. Ross’s own account also records the participation of Korean typesetters and Chinese printers. However, the sources the museum has examined do not allow us to confirm the names or specific roles of individual translators. The history of this translation shows a process in which several people took part, not the work of one person alone.
Korean Bible Society — history of Korean Bible translation 한국어 ↗Lee Su-jeong (이수정)
Lee Su-jeong arrived in Japan as part of a Korean diplomatic mission in 1882. A visit to the agricultural scholar Tsuda Sen led to his receiving a Chinese New Testament. He read it, became a Christian, was baptized in 1883, and began translation work. His Mark, in mixed Chinese-character and Hangul script, was published in Japan in 1885.
A Korean scholar, working in Japan, prepared Scripture in Korean.Korean Bible Society — Lee Su-jeong’s 1885 Mark 한국어 ↗
Korean translators and typesetters
A printed page has a history before it reaches a reader. Ross’s contemporary account distinguishes Korean translators, Korean typesetters, and Chinese printers, but does not name the translators. The museum therefore does not assign names or individual roles here. How these printed portions reached readers inside Korea is not established in the evidence the museum has examined.
The book was made by people—translators, typesetters, printers—whose individual names and roles the museum has not yet verified from traceable sources.Korean Bible Society — history of Korean Bible translation 한국어 ↗
Permanent timeline
Rather than choosing one simple ‘first,’ this timeline distinguishes biblical ideas, portions, New Testaments, and complete Bibles. Catholic and Protestant paths remain visible—and meet in 1977.
Korean scholars encountered biblical teaching through Chinese-language Catholic books. These were not yet a Korean Bible translation, but they formed an early path by which biblical narratives and vocabulary entered Korean reading communities.
Catholic communities circulated Korean manuscript texts combining Gospel readings for feast days with explanation. Under episcopal supervision, selected readings were revised and printed in nine volumes as 성경직해 between 1892 and 1897. The edition’s title used historical Korean spelling; this display modernizes it for legibility. It was a lectionary tradition—not a translation of the whole Bible.
The Manchurian translation circle of John Ross and John Macintyre worked with Korean translators and typesetters; the museum has not yet verified individual translators’ names or roles from traceable sources. Korean Gospel portions were printed in Manchuria before Protestant missionaries settled in Korea.
Lee Su-jeong (이수정) translated Mark in Japan; it was published in Japan in 1885 as 신약마가젼복음셔언해 in mixed Sino-Korean script (국한문병용체).
The Ross translation circle completed 예수셩교젼셔. Its Korean script widened the possibility of reading beyond those educated in classical Chinese. Literacy, cost, geography, and distribution are factors that could have affected access; the sources gathered for this timeline do not show how, or whether, they did. Its title page now introduces this room; the opening of Mark appears below beside the 1900 edition.
The Bible Committee gathered its translated portions into a complete New Testament. It was an important achievement, but the committee treated it as an interim text requiring correction rather than the final authorized edition. Its cover and title page preserve the book’s identity; its opening of Mark appears in the comparison below.
Same chapter, two editions
Both Korean Bible Society catalogue images show the opening of Mark chapter 1. Look at the two pages side by side before interpreting what you see.
Unlike the 1887 page, the 1900 page visibly adds a ruled frame, verse-number markers, a projecting chapter tab, a running side header, and characters near the bottom edge that may be a page number (their reading is not confirmed). The chapter headings also visibly differ; the 1900 page reads ‘마가복음.’ These visible differences do not establish broader textual changes.
Differences in paper tone and sharpness—and the teal and circled marks on the 1900 page—do not establish which edition is older. Whether the 1900 page's coloured marks come from printing, later annotation, or catalogue production is not currently known.
After repeated correction of the 1900 text, the translation committee published the 1906 신약젼셔 as its first authorized Korean New Testament. Naming both editions reveals translation as sustained communal revision, not a single finished moment.
Commissioned under Bishop Gustave Mutel and translated by Korean Catholic clergy including Han Gi-geun, 사사성경 gathered all four Gospels in Korean. It served Catholic readers for decades, but it should be identified precisely as the Four Gospels rather than a complete New Testament or Bible.
The 1911 셩경젼셔 completed the first Korean Protestant translation of the whole Bible. The Old Testament was issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society and the New Testament by the American Bible Society. Its publication under colonial rule made the translated text both a religious book and a major body of Korean prose available to readers.
The 1938 셩경 개역 substantially revised the inherited translation, and the 1961 성경전서 개역한글판 aligned it with revised Korean orthography. The sequence shows that a Bible can remain culturally formative while its language continues to be corrected and renewed.
Korean scholars translated a new New Testament directly from source texts in contemporary spoken Korean. It marked a shift from repeatedly revising the inherited version toward a fresh translation for changing readers and public language.
Catholic and Protestant scholars produced the Common Translation in an ecumenical effort. It became the Catholic liturgical Bible until 2005 and remains a landmark where the two streams visibly meet.
표준새번역 appeared in 1993, 개역개정 in 1998, and the revised 새번역 in 2001. Different translation purposes—continuity, contemporary language, scholarship, and public reading—continued to shape Korean editions.
After seventeen years of work, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea published 성경 as the Catholic Church’s official Korean translation, translated from critical Hebrew, Greek, and Septuagint texts.
Object images and bibliographic details will be expanded as collection-level research continues.
Beyond the dates
A new edition is not merely the same meaning in different letters. It reshapes relationships among readers, language, worship, and authority.
Korean script widened the possibility of reading beyond those educated in classical Chinese, but literacy alone would not have guaranteed access. Cost, geography, and distribution are factors that could have affected who reached a copy; the sources gathered here do not show how, or whether, each operated in 1887.
Terms for God, grace, justice, kingdom, and community are not empty containers. Translators make choices within Korean words that already carry histories of their own.
Lectionary reading, private reading, preaching, study, song, and memorization create different encounters with the same text. Literary or spoken style, honorifics, and sentence rhythm shape how Scripture is heard in public.
Translators, Korean-language scholars, churches, Bible institutions, and reading communities carry different responsibilities. ‘Authorized’ does not end the story: revision continues as language changes, scholarship deepens, and readers ask questions.
They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.
Nehemiah 8:8 · ESV
People in this room
A name remains bilingual even when no cleared portrait is available. Established historical English forms are used here; significant alternate romanizations will be recorded in the future person record.
1842–1886
Korean scholar and translator of Mark in Japan
1842–1915
Scotland
Presbyterian missionary and translation partner in Manchuria
1837–1905
Scotland
Presbyterian missionary and translation partner in Manchuria
Individual Korean participants in Ross’s Manchurian translation work are not listed here: the museum has not yet verified their specific participation and roles from traceable sources. Portraits will be added only after reliable identification and image rights are confirmed.
The three recurring lenses
How did Korea get the Bible—and what was here before it arrived?
What impact did the Bible have—past, present, and future?
How important is the Bible to me?
The Great Commission · Me → Family → Community → Country → All nationsWhom does this Bible invite you to know—and how might its Word become lived in you and through you?