Good Bible translation is not a simple process. Each translated text goes through at least four drafts with various checks at each stage (exegetical checking, internal reviewing, philological editing, field-testing, consultant checking, external reviewing, etc.). But even after the translation is completed and the book has been published and delivered to the region, it still needs to be somehow distributed among its potential readers, which is not an easy task either. Distributing the Bible in areas with a predominantly Muslim population may be dangerous because many people are prejudiced against the Bible and see it as a tool of westernization or russification – a real threat to their ethnic culture and to the worldview foundations of their community.
IBT has published the Old Testament book of the prophet Jonah in the Yakut (Sakha) language of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The text of the story is presented in three languages – Yakut, Russian, and English – in order to meet the needs of younger generations of Sakha speakers. IBT hopes that this trilingual edition will help Sakha readers to understand the biblical text better and will also aid them in language study.
IBT has published a Kabardian-language version of the illustrated Gospel Parables. This is the tenth language to get this book. The series was begun in 2007 with the Agul edition, followed in 2015-2018 by Bezhta, Dargi, Dungan, Kumyk, Nogai, Rutul, Tatar and Tsakhur.
Good Bible translation is not a simple process. Each translated text goes through at least four drafts with various checks at each stage (exegetical checking, internal reviewing, philological editing, field-testing, consultant checking, external reviewing, etc.). But even after the translation is completed and the book has been published and delivered to the region, it still needs to be somehow distributed among its potential readers, which is not an easy task either. Distributing the Bible in areas with a predominantly Muslim population may be dangerous because many people are prejudiced against the Bible and see it as a tool of westernization or russification – a real threat to their ethnic culture and to the worldview foundations of their community.
