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愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である ai wa subete o kanzen ni musubu obi de aru Love Binds Them All Together

愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である (ai wa subete o kanzen ni musubu obi de aru), love is the sash that binds all things perfectly, is the closing sentence of Colossians 3:14 as the 1955 colloquial Bible prints it, with すべて written in kanji. The Meiji Bible of 1880 made love the sash of all virtues, 衆徳の帯, and the Bible of 2018 keeps the colloquial sentence and ends it です.

Japanese Scroll of Love Binds Them All Together (ai wa subete wo kanzen ni musubu obi de aru) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Love Binds Them All Together (ai wa subete wo kanzen ni musubu obi de aru)

Love Binds Them All Together in Japanese, from Colossians 3:14, a hand-brushed hanging scroll by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase.

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Abstract

愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である, love is the sash that binds all things perfectly, is the second sentence of Colossians 3:14 in the 1955 口語訳's words, 愛は、すべてを完全に結ぶ帯である, with 全て in kanji and no comma. The older Japanese Bibles made love a sash of the virtues: 衆徳の帯 in the Meiji Bible of 1880, 徳を全うする帯 in the revision of 1917. The 聖書協会共同訳 of 2018 keeps the 口語訳's sentence, without its comma, and ends it です.

Overview

The sense. The verse adds love over everything before it, これらいっさいのものの上に、愛を加えなさい in the 口語訳's words, and names love the sash that binds all things in completeness.

The words. 愛 carries a Christian sense in the dictionary, for God to cherish all humankind without limit, first cited from 植村正久's Browning of 1890 [1]. 帯, a sash, is cited from the 日本書紀 of 720 [2]; 完全 from the 玉塵抄 of 1563 [3].

The text in English. Colossians 3:14: the King James and the American Standard read the bond of perfectness; the New International reads binds them all together in perfect unity; the English Standard and the New Revised Standard read binds everything together in perfect harmony [4].

The historical record

1852 and 1919. The Chinese Bibles beside the Japanese. Two Chinese translations stand beside the Japanese wording, read here for what they share with it, not as its source. The Delegates' Version of 1852 reads 盡善之維繫 for the sash [5]; the Union Version of 1919 reads 聯絡全德的 [6].

1880 and 1881. The Meiji New Testament. The Meiji committee finished its New Testament in 1880; the 1881 新約全書, the earliest complete printing in the National Diet Library, reads 此の諸の事の外に愛を加へよ愛ハ衆徳(すべてのとく)の帶(おび)なり for Colossians 3:14 [7]. 三浦徹's annotated 新約全書略註 of 1904 prints the verse in plain readings, 此の諸の事の外に愛を加へよ愛は衆德の帶なり [8]. The Meiji Bible has 衆徳の帯, the sash of all virtues, where 愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である has 全てを完全に結ぶ帯.

1910. The Catholic ラゲ訳. Émile Raguet's Catholic translation of 1910 reads Colossians 3:14 尙(なほ)此(この)一切(いつさい)の事(こと)に加(くは)へて愛(あい)を有(いう)せよ、愛(あい)は完(くわん)德(とく)の結(むすび)なればなり [9]: love as the knot of perfect virtue.

1917. The 大正改訳. The Protestant revision of the New Testament, finished 5 October 1917, reads Colossians 3:14 凡て此等のものの上に愛を加へよ、愛は徳(とく)を全(まつた)うする帶(おび)なり in its 1927 printing [10]: love as the sash that perfects virtue.

1922. The Anglican hymnal. 古今聖歌集, the Anglican church's revised hymnal, quotes Colossians in its hymn 320, 愛は德を全うする帶なり, in the 1917 revision's wording [11].

1955. The colloquial 口語訳. The Japan Bible Society's colloquial translation, the New Testament in 1954 and the whole Bible in 1955, reads これらいっさいのものの上に、愛を加えなさい。愛は、すべてを完全に結ぶ帯である at its own verse-search endpoint [12]. The Japan Bible Society's own list of the wordings it revised in 1975, 1984 and 2002 does not touch this verse [13]. 愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である is this Bible's second sentence with 全て in kanji and the comma dropped.

1970, 2003 and 2017. The 新改訳. 新改訳 first appeared in 1970; its 2003 text reads そして、これらすべての上に、愛を着けなさい。愛は結びの帯として完全なものです [14], and its 2017 text ends 愛は結びの帯として完全です [15]: perfect as a binding sash, where the 口語訳 has the sash that binds everything perfectly.

1987. The 新共同訳. 新共同訳, published September 1987, reads Colossians 3:14 これらすべてに加えて、愛を身に着けなさい。愛は、すべてを完成させるきずなです [16] — a bond, きずな, not a sash, 帯.

2018. The 聖書協会共同訳. 聖書協会共同訳, published December 2018, reads さらに、これらすべての上に、愛を着けなさい。愛はすべてを完全に結ぶ帯です [17]: the 口語訳's sentence without its comma, ending です for である.

Across the Bibles. The sash, 帯, is the Meiji Bible's word and that of every Protestant Bible read here after it except the 新共同訳, which has きずな; what the sash does changes with each.

A reading

愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である is the 1955 口語訳's sentence with a kanji where the Bible prints kana, and the 2018 Bible keeps that sentence nearly word for word. Before 1955 the Protestant Bible made love the sash of the virtues, 衆徳の帯 from 1880 and 徳を全うする帯 from 1917, close to the King James's bond of perfectness; the 口語訳 made it the sash that binds everything, as the New International Version later does in English with binds them all together.

Sources not seen

The 1917 first printing of the 大正改訳, the New Testament's original revision; the National Diet Library's earliest digitized printing is 1919, two years later, and no earlier printing is described here. A copy of 1917 would confirm the revision's wording had already reached its final form by 1919, or show what changed in the two years between.

The Catholic フランシスコ会訳 and バルバロ訳, two twentieth-century Catholic translations still in copyright, with no public verse-search endpoint. Their text of this verse would show whether the Catholic church's modern Bible differs from ラゲ訳's 1910 wording or from the Protestant Bibles it postdates.

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「愛」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/愛
  2. 「帯」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/帯
  3. 「完全」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/完全
  4. Colossians 3:14, Greek text and English versions, at biblehub.com. https://biblehub.com/text/colossians/3-14.htm
  5. 哥羅西書, 聖經 (委辦譯本或稱代表譯本), 1852, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/聖經_(委辦譯本或稱代表譯本)/哥羅西書
  6. 歌羅西書, 聖經 (和合本), 1919, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/聖經_(和合本)/歌羅西書
  7. 新約全書, 米国聖書会社, 1881, scan 295 (Colossians 3:14, p. 582). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992682/1/295
  8. 三浦徹, 新約全書略註, 1904, scan 390 (Colossians 3:14, p. 712). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/825539/1/390
  9. コロサイ書 (ラゲ訳), 1910, at ja.wikisource (Colossians 3:14). https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/コロサイ書_(ラゲ訳)
  10. 我らの主なる救主イエス・キリストの新約聖書, 1927, scan 269 (Colossians 3:14). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1053815/1/269
  11. 古今聖歌集 譜附, 古今聖歌集改訂委員, 1922, hymn 320 (Colossians 3:14), p. 361, from the National Diet Library's next-generation full-text search, its snippet only. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/941747
  12. 口語訳, 日本聖書協会, at the publisher's verse search (Colossians 3:14). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html
  13. 聖書語句訂正一覧（口語訳聖書）, 日本聖書協会, the 1975 · 1984 · 2002 revisions. https://www.bible.or.jp/read/si_word_correction/jc_word_correction.html
  14. 新改訳 第三版, 新日本聖書刊行会, 2003 text, at the publisher's verse search (Colossians 3:14). https://www.seisho.or.jp/biblesearch/
  15. 新改訳2017, 新日本聖書刊行会, 2017 text, at the publisher's verse search (Colossians 3:14). https://www.seisho.or.jp/biblesearch/
  16. 新共同訳, 日本聖書協会, 1987, at the publisher's verse search (Colossians 3:14). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html
  17. 聖書協会共同訳, 日本聖書協会, 2018, at the publisher's verse search (Colossians 3:14). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Takase Studios LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Not yet reviewed.