The 1971 Revision of the Thai Bible

The 1971 Thai Bible was a revision of earlier Thai translations that took almost twenty years to complete. It was used by the majority of Thai Protestants for forty years before it was further revised and published in 2011 as the Thai Standard Version. This article examines the 1971 revision, looking at its background, the people and processes involved in the translation, and the obstacles it faced. Being primarily a description of the translation process, this paper does not attempt to evaluate the quality of the 1971 translation (or the translation choices made by the translators) but concludes with a brief examination of the legacy of this translation which shaped a generation of Thai Christians.