The printing of 20,000 Chinese Standard Bible New Testaments, described as the first direct Chinese translation by scholars from the original Greek published by Holman Bible Publishers, reports the Baptist Press (BP). Copies are now being sold in the U.S.A., Canada and Brazil. Holman Bible Publishers is affiliated with LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

"Our goal is that Chinese Christians would read this translation and love it," said Phill Burgess, executive director of LifeWay's Holman Bible Outreach International. "The translation that Chinese Christians have been using up to now, the Chinese Union Version, was translated into Chinese from an English copy in the 1920s. The language in that translation is archaic. This one is easier to understand since it relates to the modern Chinese language."

In 2004, the Asia Bible Society (ABS) approached LifeWay seeking a New Testament translated from the original Greek, and LifeWay signed on for the project. Publishing the Bibles in China (translating, editing and design) would be a difficult, time-consuming and expensive process, said Tim Jordan, an executive editor with LifeWay's B&H Publishing Group, which houses Holman Bible Publishers.

"In the future, LifeWay hopes to get legal approval from the Chinese government to publish Bibles in China," Jordan said. "Until then our primary focus will stay in the U.S., Canada and Brazil." The Bibles, however, are printed in Shenzhen, China, and transported back to LifeWay's distribution center in Lebanon, Tenn.

Having a current readable Bible in Chinese is important, if based on nothing but the numbers. Worldwide, an estimated 1.17 billion people are native speakers of Chinese. While spoken Chinese varies from region to region, the written language is common to most readers.