Emanuel 上帝與＿＿ 同在

[Anthony Su]

Immanuel (Hebrew: עִמָּנוּאֵל meaning, "God is with us"; also romanized Emmanuel, Imanu'el; also አማኑኤል ('Amanuel') in Geez and Amharic, and Emmanouhl or Εμμανουήλ as per original Koine Greek [Κοινή Ελληνική] language of the New Testament) is a Hebrew name which appears in the Book of Isaiah (7:14) as a sign that God will protect the House of David.^[1]    以馬內利（希伯來語：עִמָּנוּאֵל‬‎，意為「上帝與我們同在」；天主教漢譯為厄瑪奴耳或厄瑪努爾；正教會漢譯為耶瑪砮伊勒）是聖經上出現的一個名詞，由2個希伯來語單詞「עמנו‎」（與我們同在）和「אל‎」（上帝）組成。這個名稱在《希伯來聖經》中出現數次（以賽亞書 7:14、以賽亞書 8:8），在《新約聖經》中（馬太福音 1:23）出現一次。

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Is the story of the three wise men a Christmas story or a post-Christmas story? 三博士的故事是「聖誕故事」還是「聖誕後」故事？

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Pastor Aline suggested that we sing, on the first Sunday of the year, the first world-famous Christmas carol Made in USA, "We three kings of orient are", as a hymn for the first time. 愛鄰牧師提出要在新年第一個主日禮拜中唱「東方三博士」，第一首出自美國的聞名於世的聖誕歌，也會是我們教會第一次在禮拜中唱這首歌當作聖詩。

It is not included in our Taiwanese hymnals. I guess the reason for the exclusion is the question about whether it is a hymn.  It was written for a Christmas show the depicted the magi. Verses 2, 3, & 4 uses "I" to talk about the three gifts. I guess this is the reason the song to be excluded from the Taiwanese hymnals which are published for worship services. Singing all five verses seems to be too much singing for some people. 這首歌沒有被納入任何台語聖詩裡面。我猜「到底這首歌是不是聖詩」有一個疑問。 這是當年為了一次教會裡的聖殿節表演而創作的歌。在2-4節用「我」這個字眼唱出三位博士各自的禮物。我猜這是不妹當作「聖詩」納入「為禮拜的用途而編輯、出版」台語聖詩的理由。連唱五節歌詞對有些人而言可能會太多。

Choosing only three of the five verses is a tough job because of the three gifts in the 2-4 verses. The various Mandarin translations I found variate from the original in different ways. I could not find any Taiwanese translation online. I found a translation of the first three verses in a hymnal published by the Min Chinese in the Philippines  I remember from childhood that a "Taiwanese Christmas songbook" published in the early 1950s has a Taiwanese version but I could not find the book when the hymn-selection first started.從五節歌詞裡面找出三節來唱是個難題，因為2-4節提到三個禮物。我找到的華語歌詞跟原文各有不同的差別之處。 在網路上找不到台語歌詞。在一本由菲律賓閩南語教會出版的聖詩集看到只有前三節的歌詞。記得小時候看過一本在1950年代出版的台語聖誕歌曲，卻在開始製作投影片時找不到。

After the work on the new slide set started with the existing Mandarin translations, I suddenly found the olf Taiwanese songbook in one of my boxes. It turns out that the Taiwanese translation breaks away from all the other translations by combining two of the three gifts in one verse to add another level of interpretation of the gifts. This makes it easy to sing only three verses of this song. After using the Taiwanese lyric the Mandarin and the English versions were adjusted accordingly. 在開始製作投影片後竟然在一個紙箱子李找到那一本老舊的台語聖誕歌曲集。很快地就發現，那個古老的台語譯本竟然打破其他譯本的慣例，把其中兩項禮物在同一節歌詞裡面講出來，而且把禮物的意義提升到另一個層級。這是得選唱三節歌詞變成很簡單。在納入這個台語歌詞之後，調整華語歌詞跟英語歌詞變成輕而易舉。

Changing the original lyric from a translation is a bold step. For maximizing the effect of hymn-singing this seems to be a good step to take. It turns the Christmas carol into a hymn. It is accepted by Pastor Aline. 根據翻譯版去調整原文的字句是個大膽的舉動。為了使唱聖詩的效益極大化，這樣的調整似乎是個好方法。這個作法使這首「聖誕俗歌」變成一首禮拜用的聖詩。愛鄰牧師接納了這個奇怪的措施。

This also reflects the special culture of our church, Taiwanese Presbyterian Church of Greater St. Louis, as testified in the evolution of the church and the design of our church building that breaks away from the traditional church building.   這個措施也反映了我們這個教會，大聖路易台灣人長老教會，的文化。這項文特質也見證在我們的教會演化史，和打破傳統的禮拜堂設計裡面。