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怎麼感動

Posted on November 10, 2022November 24, 2022 by yubo.du

IMHO, the hardest word to translate in the Bible is 感動 {gan3-dong4}. It makes perfect sense in Chinese but has no perfect equivalent in English, or even Hebrew or Greek. It means something in one context and something else in another. Sometimes it’s not even there in the text. Incidentally, it’s one of the favorite words in Chinese churches, so buckle up, because we need to figure this out.

I’ve scrubbed through all occurrences of 感動 in the Chinese Union Version and categorized the corresponding English verses. Here are our common options:

感動某人:
touch/move/stir someone (1 Sa 10:26, Luk 2:27, Jdg 13:25)
come upon/on someone (1 Sa 10:10, 2 Ch 15:1)
be upon/on someone (2Ki 2:9, 2 Ch 30:12)
at work in someone (Gal 2:8)
put into someone’s heart (2 Co 8:16, Neh 7:5)

被聖靈感動 (or colloquially 有感動):
by/through/in the Spirit (Mat 22:43, Rom 9:1, Rev 1:10)
moved by the Spirit (Luk 2:27) 

消滅聖靈的感動:
quench the Spirit (1 Th 5:19)

感動(名詞):
fellowship (2 Co 13:14)

Some other candidates outside the Biblical usage are also appropriate depending on the context, including “impression”, “inspiration”, or “conviction”. More importantly, don’t be limited by the sentence structure. Be flexible. For example, “我今天領受的感動是…” can be easily translated as “What God put on my heart today is…”, or “I was moved by God with …” whereas finding a perfect match for each word can be quite difficult.

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