The Chinese Pastoral Bible (Chinese: 牧靈聖經 or Chinese: 牧灵圣经; pinyin: mùlíng shèngjīng; jyutping: muk6 ling4 sing3 ging1) is the Chinese edition of the Christian Community Bible. Work on the translation began in 1991, took 5 years to finish, and the completed translation was published in 1999. This translation is available in both traditional and simplified Chinese.
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Based on existing versions of the Christian Community Bible, the Pastoral Bible:
Since its publication, this translation has been in the center of some controversy due to:
Due to its criticisms, some regard this translation as being a poor translation unsuitable for lay people without extensive prior theological training; at the same time, there are also people who recommend this translation to lay people.
The Pastoral Bible uses modern typographical conventions and is typeset horizontally from left to right. It distinguishes between passages the editors feel to be more important and those felt to be less important, and the less important passages are typeset in a smaller font. This treatment allows the bible to stay within a reasonable thickness despite its extensive annotations, which often take up as much as half of the page.
The Pastoral Bible is copyrighted, but the publisher has chosen to allow it to be accessed and downloaded online from their web site free of charge. The downloadable version is in Microsoft Word format; a browsable HTML version is also available.