A method, apparatus, and computer program product for message receipt version management in a distributed computing environment including a plurality of nodes is provided. At least one translation vector is received in at least one additional node of the plurality of nodes from a first node. The translation vector provides information for the at least one additional node to translate between multiple message versions. A message is translated between versions according to the at least one translation vector. The translated message is forwarded to an application program. In one embodiment, the at least one translation vector is stored for future use.