The Institute for Bible Translation, in partnership with Granat Publishers, has just added a new Russian-language edition to its scholarly series on Biblical Studies. This is a collection of articles on the subject of intertextuality in the Bible.

The main premise of intertextuality studies is that any particular text necessarily exists in the environment of other texts written prior to it, and reflects them to varying degrees. This characteristic of texts in general also applies to the Bible, which by its nature is a compilation of books written at different times in different places by individuals who spoke different languages. The Bible is filled with self-citations and references and allusions. The authors of the New Testament frequently quote the Old Testament; however, the cited text often conveys a slightly different meaning from that of the original text in light of the new context in which it is being used.

The idea to publish such a book first appeared in 2014 following a translator-training seminar on “The Old Testament in the New Testament,” which was jointly held by IBT, UBS and SIL International. The goal of the seminar was to help Bible translators to better understand how Old Testament images, quotations and allusions are used in the context of the New Testament. This topic has not received much attention from Biblical Studies scholars in Russia, so IBT decided to supplement the collection with a number of articles written by leading foreign specialists.

The first part of the book includes theoretical works on intertextuality and the interpretation of Old Testament quotations and allusions in the New Testament in general. Here one can find articles by Alexey Somov and Olga Zaprometova, as well as Russian translations of articles written by Steve Moyise, Richard B. Hays, and Leroy A. Huizenga. The second part presents research on the interpretation of specific OT quotations and allusions. The third part focuses on the practical task of translating biblical quotations and allusions into other languages, presented in articles by Henk Jan de Jonge, Lenart de Regt, Marijke de Lang and David Gray. The collection was edited by IBT’s translation consultant Alexey Somov.

IBT hopes that this publication will be useful for Bible translators, students of ancient texts, and all who are interested in the topics of intertextuality and the Bible.

The book can be purchased online here.