Translation Landscape

History of Bible translation into Mandarin

Protestant Bible translation into Chinese began with Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China, whose translation work (completed 1823) produced the first full Chinese Bible; Catholic translation work, including the Franciscan-led Studium Biblicum project, developed on a separate track over the following century. The most consequential milestone was the Chinese Union Version (和合本, CUV), a collaborative Protestant translation completed in 1919 that became, and remains, the dominant Mandarin Bible in circulation, roughly analogous in cultural weight to the King James Version in English. The CUV was published from the outset in two parallel editions differing only in how they render “God,” 神版 (Shen edition) and 上帝版 (Shangdi edition), a live artifact of the unresolved 19th-century Protestant missionary “Term Question” that this Language Package addresses directly by following the 神版 tradition. Since 1919, the CUV has been reissued with modern punctuation (1988/2011) and formally revised (Revised Chinese Union Version, New Testament 2006, full Bible 2010), while a growing number of independent modern translations, along with the long-standing Catholic Studium Biblicum Version, have expanded the landscape considerably without displacing the CUV as the shared reference text most Mandarin-speaking Christians would recognize.

Bible translations available in Mandarin

Ordered by estimated popularity/usage among Mandarin-speaking Christians today, most-used first. Traditional- and Simplified-character editions of the same translation are noted together where both exist rather than listed as fully separate entries, since they represent the same underlying text. Source text and translation style are marked “(inferred)” where no publisher statement was found and the entry reflects reasonable inference from publication era, sponsoring body, and translation practice norms.

Translation Full Name	Denomination / Publisher	Source Texts	Translation Style	YouVersion Available	Age / Revision	Key Risks
Chinese Union Version, New Punctuation (新標點和合本／新标点和合本, CUV/CUNP) — Shen 神版 and Shangdi 上帝版 editions, Traditional and Simplified	Hong Kong Bible Society / Bible Society in Taiwan / Amity Printing (United Bible Societies), ecumenical Protestant	Textus Receptus-era Greek New Testament and Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament (inferred; typical of early-20th-century mission translation practice, predating modern critical editions)	Formal equivalence, traditional literary register	Yes — Shen/Simplified: https://www.bible.com/bible/48/JHN.3.16.CUNPSS-神 ; Shangdi/Traditional: https://www.bible.com/bible/414/JHN.3.16.CUNP-上帝 (additional Shen/Traditional and Shangdi/Simplified editions also listed on YouVersion)	1919 text; 1988/2011 punctuation revision	None significant; the dominant, settled reference translation. This Language Package follows the 神版 tradition specifically; the two editions are not interchangeable term-for-term.
Revised Chinese Union Version (和合本修訂版／和合本修订版, RCUV) — Traditional and Simplified	Hong Kong Bible Society	Modern critical Greek/Hebrew texts (Nestle-Aland/UBS Greek New Testament, Biblia Hebraica; inferred by standard revision practice for this era)	Formal equivalence, modernized register	Yes — Shangdi: https://www.bible.com/bible/139/JHN.3.16.RCUV (Simplified: https://www.bible.com/bible/140/JHN.3.16.RCUVSS) ; Shen (和合本2010): https://www.bible.com/bible/2625/JHN.3.16 (version ID confirmed; short version-code suffix unconfirmed)	NT 2006, full Bible 2010	None significant; the leading modern revision of the CUV.
Chinese New Version (新譯本／新译本, CNV) — Traditional and Simplified	Worldwide Bible Society (环球圣经公会), with the Lockman Foundation	Modern critical Greek/Hebrew texts (inferred by publisher, same sponsoring foundation behind the English NASB’s formal-equivalence tradition)	Formal-dynamic blend	Yes — Traditional: https://www.bible.com/bible/40/JHN.3.16.CNV ; Simplified: https://www.bible.com/bible/41/JHN.3.16.CNVS	1992	None significant.
Chinese Contemporary Bible (當代譯本／当代译本, CCB) — Traditional and Simplified	Biblica	Modern critical Greek/Hebrew texts (standard for Biblica’s contemporary-version line; inferred by publisher norm)	Dynamic equivalence	Yes — https://www.bible.com/bible/1392/JHN.3.16.CCB (Traditional); https://www.bible.com/bible/36/JHN.3.16.CCB (Simplified)	NT completed 2010, rev. 2012, 2023	None significant.
Chinese Standard Bible (中文標準譯本／中文标准译本, CSB) — Traditional and Simplified	Global Bible Initiative / Holman Bible Publishers (now Chinese Bible International)	Modern critical Greek/Hebrew texts	Formal equivalence (“optimal equivalence,” inferred by shared translation philosophy with the sponsoring organization’s English CSB)	Yes — Traditional: https://www.bible.com/bible/312/JHN.3.16.CSBT ; Simplified: https://www.bible.com/bible/43/JHN.3.16.CSBS	NT 2011, full Bible completed later	None significant.
Today’s Chinese Version (現代中文譯本, TCV) — Traditional (2019 revision)	United Bible Societies / Hong Kong Bible Society	Modern critical Greek/Hebrew texts	Dynamic equivalence, Good News Bible-style plain language	Yes (Traditional) — https://www.bible.com/bible/3283/JHN.3.16.TCV2019T ; Simplified edition not found in current YouVersion catalog (print/digital via Amity Printing and UBS-affiliated outlets)	NT 1975, full Bible 1979, rev. 1995 and 2019	None significant.
Studium Biblicum Version (思高聖經／思高本) — Catholic	Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Hong Kong	Original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek (translated directly over several decades by Franciscan biblical scholars; well documented)	Formal-dynamic blend	No — print and digital editions via Catholic diocesan sites and apps (e.g. ccreadbible.org)	1968	None significant for Catholic use; the standard Chinese Catholic Bible.
Recovery Version (聖經恢復本) — Traditional and Simplified	Living Stream Ministry (the publishing arm associated with the “Local Church” movement founded by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee)	Modern critical Greek/Hebrew texts, with extensive doctrinal footnotes	Formal equivalence with heavy interpretive annotation	Yes (Traditional) — https://www.bible.com/bible/4230/JHN.3.16.恢復本 ; Simplified not found in current YouVersion catalog (available via Living Stream Ministry’s own apps/print)	NT 1985/1991, full Bible 1999, Chinese ed. 2003/2005	Medium. Some evangelical apologetics and countercult organizations have historically characterized the Local Church movement’s theology (particularly around church authority and the doctrine of God) as doctrinally aberrant; the ministry itself disputes this characterization and the dispute has evolved over decades. Treat the base translation text with caution and avoid relying on its footnotes as neutral doctrinal reference.
New World Translation (新世界译本)	Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses)	The Watchtower Society’s own translation, not from mainstream critical texts	Formal on the surface, with documented doctrinally motivated alterations (e.g. non-Trinitarian renderings)	No — available only via jw.org and the JW Library app	2001, rev. later	High. Non-Trinitarian, produced by a group outside the historic Christian traditions this pipeline follows; must never be used as a reference or vocabulary source.
Lü Zhenzhong’s Version (呂振中譯本), Chinese Living Bible (当代圣经), Chinese New Living Translation (聖經．新普及譯本), Worldwide Chinese Bible (環球聖經譯本), and other minor or historical editions	Various individual scholars and smaller publishers	Not independently confirmed for most entries	Varies; individual scholarly translations tend formal, popular editions tend dynamic	Mixed — mostly not on YouVersion; available via publisher sites, o-bible.com, or print	1970-2023, varies	Low; minor or superseded editions with limited current circulation relative to the CUV/RCUV mainstream.

Notes on confidence: version IDs and codes for the entries above were checked against bible.com’s own version pages at time of research; the 和合本2010 (RCUV Shen) entry’s short version-code suffix was not independently confirmed and should get a manual click-through before being relied on elsewhere. YouVersion’s Traditional-Chinese catalog also hosts several digitized 19th- and early-20th-century missionary and individual Mandarin New Testament translations (Beijing Mandarin Version, Nanjing Mandarin New Testament, and others) kept for historical/philological reference; these are not in current liturgical or curriculum use and are omitted from the table above.

Where existing translations fall short

The 1919 CUV’s semi-classical register can feel formal or distant to a modern, secular-educated reader, and while modern revisions (RCUV, CSB, CCB) address readability, none of them were designed to distinguish borrowed Buddhist, Daoist, or Confucian vocabulary from genuinely Christian meaning; the Bible text can rely on context to disambiguate a loaded term like 成圣 or 天命-adjacent language, but teaching material aimed at readers without a church background has to be more explicit, spelling out why a familiar-sounding word is being used in a different sense. Forensic and legal theological vocabulary (e.g. imputed righteousness, 算为义) also exists mainly in specialist theological Mandarin rather than everyday usage and needs active introduction.

Recommendation

The Chinese Union Version, New Punctuation, 神版 (Shen edition) is the recommended default reference translation: it is the most widely recognized text across mainland, Taiwan, and diaspora Protestant communities alike, has confirmed stable YouVersion listings in both Traditional and Simplified script, and its vocabulary is the baseline this Language Package’s glossary already follows. Worked example: John 3:16 in the Simplified 神版 edition is linkable at bible.com/bible/48/JHN.3.16.CUNPSS-神. For Traditional-script or Taiwan/diaspora-specific use, confirm whether 上帝版 is preferred locally before defaulting to 神版, since the choice is a live denominational-history marker, not a purely mechanical script setting.