We'll at least they are now printing Bibles there and not persecuting Christians left and right. It is a vast improvement from before so as a Christian I am thankful.

About being in libraries and stuff, it will follow.

Seems like a marketing scheme...what translation are they using? Wouldn't doubt if its a highly modified version to fit in with the Communistic ideology...or is that an oxymoron?

Are they actually printing them in Chinese...or are they just printing say...English translations in China? If so seems like an attempt to dominate yet another American market...

They're printing the Chinese Union Version (simplified script version). This is the most common version in use among Chinese speaking Protestant Christians worldwide (sort of like the KJV of the Chinese Christian community although the version used for the basis of the translation was the English language Revised Version - using the original manuscripts for crosschecking).

The language is somewhat dated but I think the Amity Press edition uses modern punctuations rather than the more archaic punctuation system that I was taught when I was in school. An example of the dated language would be the translation for the term "walk together" which is now used contemporarily to mean "a protest march" - haha.

Of course, with the current growth of Christianity in China, it'll take quite a few years to get a Bible on the hands of every Christian, even at the rate of 1,000,000 new Bibles being printed a month. And the distribution points for the Amity Press Bibles will be through the officially registered so-called Three-Self Churches (technically they're known as the Protestant Church in China). This would mean some difficulty for Christians who attend non-registered congregations to get a copy.

Nonetheless, this is cause to celebrate. It is the result of many decades of prayer and martyrdom.

Currently the most common version used by Protestants is the Chinese Union Version (1919) or "Héhé běn" available in 2 different scripts (simplified and traditional) and punctuation schemes (modern and traditional). There are also 2 versions; one using the term "Shen" to translate the term "God" while the other uses "Shangdi". You need to kinda know the development of the Protestant Church in China to figure out why this is so.

The only other versions I've seen used by the local Chinese speaking churches here in Malaysia are the Today's Chinese Version (1979) which is based on the same translation principles of the Good News Bible and the romanised Amoy dialect Bible (1884). The latter is primarily used by the older generation (first generation migrants) although I find it readable as well, albeit a bit strange to see my own dialect transcribed in Latin script. The language is a bit archaic though but I believe that 's because the dialect has been contextualised quite a bit here in Malaysia with a lot of integrated loan words from English and Malay.

I know that there exists a Chinese Living Bible but its not commonly used here. The Chinese New Version (1992) is starting to get some usage, esp among the Evangelicals, and the Recovery Version is used almost exclusively by congregations affiliated with Living Streams Ministry. The latter is apparently quite a good translation (I have a copy) if you can ignore the more controversial commentary-like footnotes.

I spent two years teaching English in China, and had the opportunity to develop fruitful relationships and have many discussions about God and His Word. I had access to a few Chinese Bibles (Union version I presume), and English Bibles, and would offer both for discussion. Almost invariably, Chinese people would tell me that (sadly and ironically) the English translation was "much easier" to understand than the Chinese one.

If the Chinese government was truly serious about religious freedom in general (and Christian specifically), why not print and make available modern translations? Why not English Bibles too, and parallel Chinese/English Bibles? Why make them only available at 3-Self Churches where Bible purchasers are monitored, if not required to register? It's a step in the right direction, but many more steps remain.

I would like to urge you to look into the facts of the case related to Bob Fu's claims:

http://www.apologeticsindex.or...

Above article refers to the house churches often cited Bob Fu of CAA - "The Three Grades", and their rival "The Eastern Light".

These unregistered/underground Christian sects were banned by the Chinese government because they were killing people in order to retain and compete for membership.

These "cult of Christianity", thou in name are Christian, do not even believe in the Bible. For example The Eastern Light believes Christ has returned to Earth - in the form of a invisible Chinese woman. The Three Grade's Leader, Xu Shuangfu, actually named himself as the Messiah reborn.

First, one must understand that the governing elements of the Communist Party in China have an uncanny way of glossing and glittering things to "fool" Westerners. It says a new facility is being built "to print Bibles." Great. But unless it has changed in the last few weeks only the CCP can decide how many are published and the limit allowed in China as of two weeks ago was a total of 43 million. With a population of 1.3 BILLION that is relatively insignificant. But the "new facility" deflects attention from that fact. And by the way you had better not share your Bible with anyone if it is not sanctioned by the official Chinese church. It has just been announced that the the CCP is progressing quite well in construction of facilities which will house religious believers in attendance at the Olympics.Will make it easier to control them. They are rounding up Christian leaders and Falun Gong even as I write in an ongoing effort to silence them. In short, while I agree with Bob on this issue I also agree with his ongoing warning to carefully evaluate and consider what the chicom are really up to on a day to day basis. Thanks for the good but don't be fooled into thinking that the bad is dissappearing along with it. Hope and pray that the chicom will see the wisdom in what Bob and I constantly advise--look upon the Christians as non threatening and creating a stable segment of society. Maybe the most positive step we have seen in a while was Hu's call for more religious tolerance in December, but let us not forget the entire context of his remarks reveal that he adheres, at least publicly, to the idea that this should be done within the context of Chinese law which the government claims means inside the Chinese church. So, maybe nothing or maybe just a baby step. With both eyes wide open and a healthy dose of skepticism, let us pray that it becomes significant in a positive way