Cynthia Chang and the Chinese Living Bible

January 16, 2007

One of John Stott Ministries’ newest scholars is already making a difference in her home country of China.

Cynthia Chang’s journey to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS)  has been remarkable. Born “Hsing-Wei Chang,” Cynthia grew up with Christian relatives, her grandparents having become Christians in mainland China. After her parents’ divorce when she was eight, Cynthia developed a sense of shame and inferiority.  She excelled in school to cover up that embarrassment.  She had become a Christian at thirteen, but the influence of Campus Crusade for Christ during her college years encouraged her faith with the Word of God.  She served on the staff of Campus Crusade for two years.  God’s truth and her learning to live out a Christian life built back the self-confidence and trust in God that had eroded in her early years.  She went on to prepare herself for full-time Christian ministry.  She decided to take the name of Cynthia as she began her studies so she could interact better in English while she studied theology.

After obtaining a Masters of Divinity from Singapore Bible College (SBC), Cynthia and her husband were called to plant a church in Malaysia, where they worked for five years before beginning her Th.M. in Old Testament from China Evangelical Seminary in Taiwan.  She was then called to TEDS to complete her Th.M. degree.

She became aware of JSM and applied for a scholarship to obtain her Ph.D. in Old Testament and Semantic Languages.  In addition to her studies, she is already making a difference back home.  During her application process with JSM, Cynthia writes, “I have also just completed a project of the revision of Chinese Living Bible (CLB) in the book of Zechariah. This project is held by International Bible Society and one of the main objectives of this project is to revise CLB into a more accurate Chinese version which is written in modern Chinese language.”

The strategic impact of this resource for China is invaluable, since the last translation of the Bible into Chinese was completed in the early 1900s.  This new translation not only updates the Bible into modern Chinese, but as Cynthia says, “It is updated into modern Chinese, so that those young Chinese Bible translators could use it as a main reference as they translate Bible into the many minor tribal languages in China.”

Cynthia plans to return to Singapore Bible College where she will be first faculty member with a Ph.D. in Old Testament. Cynthia writes, “I believe that God will use my future teaching ministry as a channel of missionary work all over the world, especially in Asia and Chinese-speaking contexts (SBC’s 400 students come from 22 different countries on four continents).”

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