The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) has recently released a new edition: a translation of the Gospel of Mark into the Siberian Tatar language. Prior to this, IBT published three Old Testament books in Siberian Tatar: Jonah in 2019, and Ruth and Esther in 2022. Additionally, portions of the New Testament were made available through selected parables from the Gospel of Luke, which were included in the 2022 publication of “Gospel Parables”. The Gospel of Mark is the first full New Testament book to be translated into Siberian Tatar . As the shortest and earliest of the four canonical Gospels, it is characterized by a smaller number of parables than the others, as well as by the brevity and dynamism of the narrative...

The Institute for Bible Translation has recently published a new edition in the Avar language — Tavrat (the Pentateuch). The translation has been reviewed by scholars and received a stamp of approval from the Tsadasa Institute of Language, Literature and Art of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This foundational biblical text, the initial part of the Old Testament, consists of five books traditionally attributed to Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They contain the key events of biblical history, including the creation of the world, the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and the laws of sacrifice and priestly service...

A seminar for translators on key biblical terms was held in Baku, Azerbaijan on February 17-20, 2025. Translation team members from 22 oral and written Bible translation projects participated. Most of the projects represented at the seminar are translating Scripture into Caucasian languages, while one of the projects is focusing on the Evenki language of Siberia. Key terms are words that bear a heavy load in conveying the unique cultural and theological meaning of the biblical text...

The Institute for Bible Translation is pleased to announce the publication of a new book, Taurat (the Pentateuch) in the Balkar language. The Balkars are a Turkic people, the indigenous population of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic in the Russian Federation. Closely related to the Karachays living in the neighbouring Karachay-Cherkess Republic, the Balkars speak the Karachay-Balkar language, which belongs to the Turkic language group. According to the 2021 census, the Karachay-Balkar language is spoken by 274,038 people in the Russian Federation.