Chinese New Testament

Mandarin Chinese is spoken by approximately seventy percent of people living in China. Geographically Mandarin covers a large part of China: from Yunnan in the southwest to Xinjiang in the northwest and Heilongjiang in the northeast. It is believed that Chinese is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the world and has the second most number of speakers in total (including native and non-native speakers). Although the Chinese language has various dialects, such as Cantonese, almost all dialects use the same written form.

It was a great joy for the Society to publish the Chinese New Testament earlier this year. The Thanksgiving service in the USA was well attended and there is growing interest in our translation project.

The team have prepared a first draft translation of Genesis. They are currently translating Exodus and Psalms and are more than halfway through both books. The work is now being assisted on a trial basis by a native Chinese woman who is gifted and experienced in both Biblical Hebrew and translation into Chinese.

We are also progressing a version of the New Testament in traditional Chinese characters which are in common use among many Chinese speakers in the Asian countries beyond mainland China. A Chinese translation of How the Holy Bible Came to Be was distributed alongside the New Testament at the launch service.

TBS is thankful to firstBible International who raised funds for printing the New Testament, which supplemented the Society’s own printing. TBS is also very grateful for the substantial financial support given by GBS over many years for this major project.