Kinh Thánh 1934

The Kinh Thánh Truyền Thống, published in 1934, is the classic Protestant translation of the Scriptures into Vietnamese. It was produced under the coordination of William Cadman and his wife Grace Cadman, missionaries of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, in collaboration with Vietnamese scholars, notably the poet and linguist Phan Khôi, whose literary contribution was essential to the quality of the final text.

The translation methodology combined work from the Textus Receptus and the Masoretic Hebrew with reference to English and French Protestant translations. Phan Khôi brought to the project a poetic sensibility and command of modern quốc ngữ (the romanized script of Vietnamese), producing a text of recognized literary elegance. The theological vocabulary coined in this translation established Vietnamese Christian terms that remain in use, influencing hymnals, devotional literature, and preaching.

The Vietnam of the 1930s lived under French colonial rule, with Protestant missions expanding alongside the dominant Catholic presence. The Kinh Thánh Truyền Thống met the needs of the growing Vietnamese evangelical community and became the standard Bible of historic Protestant denominations, especially the Evangelical Church of Vietnam. It survived the war, the division of the country, and decades of religious restrictions under the communist regime, remaining central to Vietnamese evangelical identity to this day, both in the country and in the global diaspora.

The text is in the public domain and may be freely reproduced and distributed. It remains widely available in printed editions, digital platforms, and Bible apps, and is the best-known and most-loved version among Vietnamese Protestant Christians.