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January 24, 2023

The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) has produced the first-ever translation of the complete Bible into the Karakalpak language. The project began in the mid-1990s and was carried out by IBT in partnership with the United Bible Societies and SIL International. During the preparation of the full Bible, the following trial editions were published in Karakalpak: the Four Gospels (1999), Stories of Jesus Christ (2001), the New Testament (2004, audio recording* 2011), the Children’s Bible (2007,  and Roman and Cyrillic script), Genesis (2009), and Ruth/Esther/ Jonah (2009, + DVD 2010).

December 20, 2022

IBT has published a Karachai translation of the book of Jonah. This is the first book of the Old Testament translated by IBT into the Karachai language. Prior to that, the Gospel of Mark (1978) and the Gospel of Luke (1999) were published in Karachai.

The translation of Jonah was published as an illustrated edition with artwork produced by an artist from the Caucasus and with a parallel Russian and English text, the latter for attracting the interest of young Karachais who are learning English.

December 8, 2022

IBT has published a new book in the Abaza language called  Solomon's Wisdom. The Abaza are a people of the Northwestern Caucasus who live primarily in the Karachay-Cherkess  and Stavropol areas of southern Russia. The Abaza language belongs to Abkhaz-Adyghe group of Caucasian languages. It is one of the five official languages of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. According to the 2010 census, the number of Abaza speakers in Russia is about 38,000.

The new edition is a collection of extracts from two Biblical books – 1 Kings and the book of Proverbs. The epigraph to the collection is the quote, "The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death" (Proverbs 13:14). It introduces the reader to the central theme of the collection: wisdom. Wisdom belongs to God; it is the moral law of the universe. It is woven into the foundation of things and everything in the world is subject to its laws. Whenever people do good deeds and make good decisions, they live in harmony with wisdom...

November 9, 2022

The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) has released Genesis and Exodus in the Yakut language.

The Yakuts (endonym: Sakha) are an indigenous people of eastern Siberia and the Far East region of the Russian Federation. The Yakut language belongs to the Turkic group of languages. According to the 2010 All-Russian population census, it is spoken by about 450,000 people.

Both of these books are distinguished by a variety of literary styles: sometimes it is a solemn narrative, at other times, a long genealogical list, or a beautiful blessing in verse. In order to convey the exact meaning of these two books in modern literary Yakut...

October 18, 2022

On October 10-14 IBT conducted a webinar for Bible translation teams from IBT and partner organizations on the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. 14 participants from seven Bible translation projects (Avar, Kyrgyz, Tabasaran, Khakass, Tsakhur, Yakut and a North Caucasian project) gathered online for this training event. The webinar was taught by Luka Manevich, a biblical scholar and exegetical adviser in several Scripture translation projects, already familiar to many of the students from his expert instruction at previous webinars.