Creator Version Bible
The Creator Version of the Bible, the first Japanese Bible which uses “創造主 Sōzōshu (Creator)” in place of “神 Kami (god),” has been published with the hope to equip the Church for mission.
Nobuji Horikoshi, who originally proposed this idea, says “When sharing God with the Japanese, they say, ‘there are gods in trees and stones.’ We need to deny their god before we can share the true God, which can lead to the listener closing his heart. Look under 「創造主」 in a Japanese dictionary and it will say ‘Christian god.’ If there is a Bible that uses 「創造主」 for God, I hope it will help the gospel spread.”
“In my ministry there were battles with the temples and shrines concerning the name of god, but when I talk of life, no one denies it. Ancestral worship is about giving thanks to those who gave life. If you go further back, you will arrive at the Creator. The Creator Version Bible has developed a foundation for evangelism in Japan.”
Mr. Horikoshi, the son of a Shinto priest, began to think about life after losing his mother at the age of eleven. After the war, he came to know the Creator and became a pastor. In the kindergarten that was attached to the church, he taught using 創造主 instead of 神. In 1999, he started Sōai Christ Church. For the past 13 years, they have replaced 神 for 創造主, when reading from the New Japanese Bible (新改訳).
The Creator Version is not a word–for–word translation, but is based on the Modern Japanese Bible, which uses the Dynamic Equivalence model, aiming to produce an equivalent effect in the reader as original words did in their original readers.
Included at the back of the Creator Version is a large number of color visuals including maps and charts. Archeological and biological findings are explained from the point of view of creationism.
Keigo Kosaka, Representative of Logos Publishing, who published this version, hopes that “this Bible might be used for the 99% of the Japanese population who still do not know the Creator.”
From Christian Shimbun, May 5, 2013
Excerpt translated by Tim Williams