The New Testament portion of the Children's Bible in Yakut
July 30, 2014

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in eastern Siberia recently received 3,000 copies of the hot-off-the-press New Testament portion of the IBT Children's Bible in the Sakha/Yakut language, ordered by the Yakut diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.This is a brand new type of publication for IBT, containing over 150 NT stories with familiar illustrations from the Children's Bible.

The first edition of the Children's Bible in Yakut was published in 1994. Several years ago the Orthodox bishop of Yakutia suggested that the time had come to publish a revised version of the Children's Bible. This was produced by IBT Yakut translator Sargylana Leontyeva based on the revised Russian text of the Children's Bible and taking into account recent Biblical and liturgical translations into Yakut.  The 2nd edition of the Yakut Children's Bible was dedicated in fall 2013, and was distributed among the Yakut people within two months, leading the diocese to order one more publication from IBT, this time a soft cover edition with only the NT portions.

In late July, the colorful new book was presented at an Orthodox book fair entitled "The Light of Christ enlightens all" in Yakutsk.  One of the main events at this fair was the presentation of this book, together with other Yakut Christian literature. Those who attended the fair were able to purchase these books and at the same time learn more about the history of Orthodox book publishing in the Yakut language.