In his period of study, Shen concluded that the Chinese translation of the Gospel of John was not vernacular enough, lacking the emotional power of the English translation, and so he decided to re-translate the Gospel John.
一方面深受感動，另一方面卻認為約翰福音的中譯本不如 RSV 版的英譯本來的動人，所以他決定重新翻譯約翰福音，印行小冊分發。