So, what if she wants a good Bible in her native language?

So, my wife decided to become a Christian of her own volition from talking with other Chinese Christians and reading excellent Chinese web sites such as CHRIST the Eternal TAO.

Before she made this decision she was given a English (NIV) and Chinese Union Bible in simplified characters and then when she was Baptized she received a solely Chinese Bible. Besides Simplified and Traditional versions of the Chinese Union Bible, there are ShangDi and Shen versions of the Bible, ShangDi being the most preferred rendering for the name of God.

The thing is, most Chinese Bibles are horrible translations, and not translated from the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, but translated from poor English translations.

So what is one to do? Well I researched on the web and found a Chinese Bible Version that was praised by Catholics and Protestants alike for being faithful to the original sources. Most reviews said that the other Chinese translations tend to be very vaguely paraphrased in places from the weak English translations.

This version is called the Chinese Studium Biblicum Version of the Holy Bible. Now the only drawbacks are that the version is not readily available, and it is only available in Traditional Chinese Characters. Thankfully my wife can read both simplified and traditional characters. It also may not render God as ShangDi.

So how does one order this Bible? Well after hours searching I found out it can only be ordered by emailing sales@sbofmhk.org in Hong Kong and making a request. However, the Old Testament Only Version for Jews can be bought as a parallel version with Hebrew and English versions as well at Amazon.com.

The Bible costs HK$140.00. The surface postage to the States is HK$5.00. Airmail postage is HK$160.00, plus a charge a handling fee of 10% of the postage. So surface mail is HK$145.50 and airmail is HK$316.00 which currently is US$18.76 or $40.74, respectively. Honestly, not a bad price for a good Bible! (FYI: HK$ is Hong Kong Dollar, US$ is United States Dollar)

To read more about this version of the Bible, read HERE.

To read more about ShangDi, and the historical connections of his worship in China to the Bible read HERE, HERE, and HERE.

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