Holy Spirit: How about 精神 (seishin) instead of 精霊 (seirei)?

The word 精霊 (seirei) is used as the translation of "Holy Spirit".  However, this word (seirei) is also "only used in Bible" word.  People usually do not know what it means.  People might say, "seirei? Is that ghost or angel?" guessing from Kanji (Chinese character).

How about using 精神 (seishin) or 魂 (tamashii) instead? Both are commonly used words, and both has the meaning of "Spirit""Soul"

Personally I think the word 精神 (seishin) is more suitable for the translation of the word "Holy Spirit", because "精" (sei) means "spirit" and "神" (shin) means "God".  On the other hand, the word 魂 (tamashii) contains "鬼 (oni)" which means ghost or devil.

Let's check how much the words 精霊 (seirei) and 精神 (seishin) are used on the internet (data from Google).

精霊 (seirei): 4,000,000 results
精神 (seishin) : 254,000,000 results

精神 (seishin) could be used more than 60 times than 精霊 (seirei) on internet!

Matthew 1.1 - 1.16 how about using English pronunciation?

Let's take a look at Bible from Matthew.  At the begging of the chapter (1.1 - 1.16), names are listed.  In Japanese bible, these names are based on Spanish (or Portuguese?).  Let's me show you the example. 

David is "ダビデ (dabide)

Issac is "イサク" (isaku)

Jacob is "ヤコブ (yacobu)

Joseph is "ヨセフ (yosehu)

I can say confidently that Japanese speaking people are much more familiar with English pronunciation of these names than Spanish one.  

For example, most Japanese people know David because they know David Beckham or David Bowie.  Issac is famous because of Issac Newton, and Jacob is the name of clothing store in the mall. 

On the other hand, most Japanese people have not heard of the names of   "ダビデ (dabide)" or "イサク (isaku)" in our daily life.

So why don't we use English names instead of traditional Spanish names?

In this way I think that people can relate to Bible more and want to read it more.

Japanese Bible reminds me of MS-DOS

There used to be OS (operation system) called "MS-DOS", before Windows showed up.

In order to operate MS-DOS, we had to remember the "commands".

This reminds me of Japanese Bible.  In order to understand what Japanese Bible is saying, we have to know "Japanese Bible Technical Terms".

I really would like to have Windows or Mac version of Japanese Bible, to which more and more people can easily access, without knowing the technical terms.

Good News : how about お知らせ (oshirase) instead of 福音 (hukuin)?

The word 福音 (fukuin) is used in Japanese bible for the meaning of "Good News".  But this word is not commonly used word in Japan. Actually I can say that 福音 (fukuin) is one of the "technical terms" or "jargons" used only in Japanese Bible

How about using the word お知らせ (oshirase) instead?  Good News means "news from God".  And the word お知らせ (oshirase) is very widely used to indicate "news".  Actually, 知らせ (shirase) means "news" and お (o) makes  the meaning of "news" more thorough.   So I think that the word お知らせ (oshirase) is suitable one to indicate the "news" from God.

I just want to show you by Google as indicator how often are 福音 (fukuin) and  お知らせ (oshirase) used in Japanese websites:

福音 (fukuin) : 15,600,000 results

お知らせ (oshirase): 231,000,000 results

The data above shows that  お知らせ (oshirase) would be used in Internet nearly 15 times more than 福音 (hukuin).

When 福音 (fukuin) is searched by Google, 19 out of 30 top-listed websire is related to Christianity.
On the other hand, 0 out of 30 top-listed websire is related to Christianity when お知らせ (oshirase) is searched.   This also implies that the word 福音 (hukuin) is used inside Japanese Christian community only.

Hello!

Hello!  My name is Ginger.  I am currently living in Vancouver area, Canada.

I came to Canada from Japan in 1998 and started attending to church since the winter 1998.  The reason why I started to go to church was that I was so bored on Sunday and I thought that it is not healthy by myself on Sunday.  I also thought that it is good to learn Canadian culture.

One day, pastor gave me "Good News Bible", saying, "it is good for you to read it".  So I started reading it - I was shocked that it was very easy to read!  My English is not so good, but still, it was easy for such a person like me.  Honestly speaking, I felt more comfortable to read the English Bible than Japanese one!

First time I read Bible was when I was in junior high school.  There was free Japanese Bible in my room and I was curious about it.  I opened the Bible, and decided to read "Act -使徒行伝 (in Japanese, this name "Shitogyoden" sounds very classic, a bit too classic)" .  After I read a few sentences, I gave up reading it.  I felt bored, honestly speaking.

My cousin took me to his church several times when I was high school student.  Since then, I have not exposed myself to Christian stuffs until I came to Canada.  My impression about Bible was "old and musty".

The reason why I felt comfortable about Good News Bible was obvious to me.  It was written by everyday language.  The key words in Bible, such as "Good News" and "Holy Spirit", are also from everyday language.  The names of people in Bible, such as Paul and John, are used as name of people at next door.

In contrary, "Good News" is 福音 (Hukuin), and "Holy Spirit" is 精霊 (Seirei) in Japanese.  Nobody use such words in everyday life!  I even did not know the meanings of Hukuin and Seirei when I was in Japan!

In addition, Paul is パウロ (pauro), and John is ヨハネ (yohane) in Japanese Bible.  Perhaps these pronunciations (pauro and yohane) come from Spanish or Portuguese, but "Paul" or "John" sounds much more familiar because modern Japanese people are exposed to American culture such as movie or music, and we are learning English since junior high school.  So why does Japanese bible translation need to be stuck in old custom?

To me, it is sad thing that I, Japanese native speaker, feel more comfortable with English Bible than Japanese one.  I think that Bible is supposed to or designed to hit people's heart.  So I really hope that Japanese Bible is also able to hit people's heart very hard.  I googled Japanese websites to see if someone has same idea I have, but surprisingly I could not find any.  (Maybe because Japanese Christians are comfortable with what they are reading now, and non-Christians do not care about it?).

Anyway, I felt I really need to do something about it, so I started to do this blog.  But I have problems - I am not good at languages - both English and Japanese - of course I do not know about Hebrew at all.  I do not have any theological knowledge at all, either.  Please help me!  I just rely on my faith and guts feelings which I really hope that come from Holy Spirit.