Undefined
June 16, 2016

IBT has published the first-ever translation of the full Bible in Crimean Tatar, a Turkic language spoken by about a quarter of a million people, primarily on the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea (related but not identical to the Tatar language spoken in Kazan and the Volga region of north central Russia). The translation team included Crimean Tatar writers together with specialists in the field of Bible translation from IBT and IBT’s international partner organization, Pioneer Bible Translators. The Crimean Tatar language is now one of about 550 languages worldwide that has a full translation of the Holy Scriptures.

The first translations of Scripture materials into Crimean Tatar (previously known as the Cuman language) were done in the 1340s by Franciscan monks, who translated Gospel passages including the prayer “Our Father”.  These passages were added to the unique 13th century trilingual dictionary knows as the Codex Cumanicus...

Autumn 2015 Newsletter on Scripture Engagement

When the Apostle Paul came to preach about Jesus and the resurrection in Athens, he was brought to the Areopagus, since “all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21). By preaching in the Areopagus, Paul humbly implemented the idea of approaching people where they actually are, not where we as Christians would like them to be. People who are just seeking to hear something new are not necessarily seeking God, and there may in fact be just a few in a crowd who are truly ready to hear God. Nonetheless, Paul was not afraid of speaking in vain. He was simply doing the Lord’s work, and it was up to the Lord to do all the rest. There is no doubt that Paul was the most successful missionary among the Apostles.This principle of reaching people where they are was the foundation of the IBT seminar on Scripture Engagement in summer 2015...

June 2012 Newslatter on the Crimean Tatar project

It was an ordinary working day in our IBT office. Two translation teams had come to Moscow for consultations. For both teams it was the final stage of their work. Both Bibles are already fully translated. In one case the Bible is almost ready to be submitted to the publication department, and the last technical details are being discussed. In another case the team is working with the third and fourth drafts of different Bible books. I was intrigued by the similarity of these two situations and I wondered how the translators representing two great people groups, one from the Caucasus and one from the Crimea, feel after their tremendous work.