news of Bible translation 2009

18.12.09 I Round Table discussion about the New Testament in modern Chuvash

On 18 December 2009 a Round Table discussion took place at the Chuvash Institute of Human Sciences in Cheboksary, capital of Chuvashia. Participants included Chuvash writers, linguists, journalists and historians and the topic was the New Testament in modern Chuvash, just published by the Institute for Bible Translation. The edition bears the imprint of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which is a guarantee that the translation is of good quality.

The participants discussed questions with regard to the accuracy of the translation, the problems of biblical terms, and the possibility of using the Children’s Bible (IBT, 2006) and the New Testament (IBT, 2009) in preparing a Chuvash school curriculum in religion. A subject for discussion was also the purpose of the new NT translation in Chuvash in view of the already existing New Testament translated by I. Yakovlev, and with the prospect of the full Bible in Chuvash soon to be published by the Russian Bible Society. This Bible will consist of a new Old Testament translation and a revised version of Yakovlev's New Testament.

The participants of the meeting valued the quality of the newly published translation, its natural language, its faithfulness to the original and the fact that it is easy to understand. The common view of the meeting can be expressed in the words of one of the participants: “Chuvash readers of the 21st century definitely need a new translation of the New Testament, together with the existing translation of I. Yakovlev and the full Bible which will soon be ready... The new translation shows how the Chuvash language has changed during the past one hundred years, from the time when the first New Testament was published. This is a testimony that the Chuvash language is developing and that it will survive.”

A second improved and enlarged version of the Short Dungan-Russian dictionary has been published with the participation and assistance of the Institute for Bible Translation in Moscow. The original dictionary was compiled by Yusup Yanshansin, whose 100th birthday was recently celebrated in Bishkek. The Short Dungan-Russian dictionary was the first example of a bilingual dictionary for the Dungan language. The material was taken from spoken and written sources, collected by Yanshansin over many years.

Dungan is a dialect of the Chinese language. At present the Central Asian countries are actively renewing their contact with China, and consequently Chinese words are being adopted into their languages. When this dictionary was being prepared for the second edition several Chinese words were included, as well as loan words from Arabic, Iranian, Russian and Turkish, as a rather high percentage of these are also used in modern Dungan.

The book bears the imprint of the Institute of Historical and Cultural Research of the National Academy of the Kyrgyz republic. It is aimed at students of the Russian and Dungan languages.

The New Testament was first translated into Chuvash by I. Yakovlev and published as early as 1911. This translation is still used by the Orthodox church. In addition to this, IBT has now published a translation of the New Testament in modern Chuvash, mainly intended for home reading. The book contains a glossary of key terms, maps and photographs of biblical places. The publication bears the imprint of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The translation team consisted of a large group of people, among them several well-known Chuvash authors and poets, as well as exegetical advisors and translation consultants from IBT and its partner organisations.

IBT Russia/CIS has earlier published two books in Chuvash: the Four Gospels in 2001 and the Illustrated Bible for Children in 2006. When these books were printed presentations to the wider Chuvash society were organised in co-operation with the Ministry of Culture. The feedback which was received from both specialists and ordinary readers of the books was taken into consideration in the work on the new NT translation.

IBT's annual International Fellowship weekend took place 21-24 November 2009 in Moscow. The event began on 21 November with the traditional “Open Day”, when all the co-workers of IBT Russia/CIS met with those who support their work. This time we had the joy of welcoming representatives of organisations from Denmark, Norway, England, Switzerland and USA. We were also happy to have team members from the Ossetic and Bashkir projects present. With the goal of bringing the organisations into closer contact with each other and with IBT Russia/CIS, an International Association was formed and had its first meeting on 22 November.

During the Open Day a Festschrift in honour of Marianne Beerle-Moor was presented to her. The title is "The people understood the reading" and the book contains nine articles written by IBT colleagues and representatives of partner organisations. The editors are David J. Clark and Andrei S. Desnitsky.

“Forever together” is the inscription on the medal which IBT Russia/CIS received on 16 November 2009 from the Kalmyk republic. The words refer to the 400 years that the Kalmyk people have lived in the Russian Federation, a jubilee which was celebrated widely in Kalmykia during 2009. On the 16th-18th November the anniversary celebrations moved to Moscow, where 400 Kalmyk artists and authors participated in concerts, exhibitions and meetings with their Russian colleagues.

The celebrations in Moscow began with a meeting between Kalmyk and Russian writers, where the poet Vera Shugraeva, IBT's translator of the New Testament and Psalms into the Kalmyk language, was awarded an honorary diploma by the Writers' union of the Russian Federation “for her great contribution to modern multicultural literature in Russia”. On the decree of the Kalmyk president, IBT Russia's director Marianne Beerle-Moor was awarded a medal of the Kalmyk republic for IBT's work on Bible translation into the Kalmyk language.

From 30 September to 6 October IBT held a training course for new team members: translators, philological editors, exegetical advisors and field testers. All the participants were professionals and specialists in their languages: Andi, Dargin, Mari, Kumyk, Komi-Permyak, Kabardian, Lezgi and Tatar. Soon they will be able to put into practice what they learnt in the field of Bible translation.

The course was held within the framework of IBT's educational program and experienced teachers from IBT, the Institute of Linguistics (Russian Academy of Sciences), and the college “Legacy” lectured on a wide range of themes. The participants learnt about the history of Bible translation and received elementary knowledge of the Bible and the languages in which the books of the Old and New Testaments were written. Introductions to the more important books of the Bible revealed the exegetical peculiarities of these books, their structures and their literary genres. The participants were also informed about the basic problems that a translator may encounter when working on these books.

At the end of the course the participants expressed their appreciation for the understandable and consistent teaching and the interaction between theory and practice. They found especially useful the sessions in which translation theory was applied in practice.

Next IBT is planning a special course of introduction to the Old Testament for experienced team members who are in the process of working on the Old Testament and on the revision of the New Testament.

In September 2009 IBT published ”Tevrat” in Crimean Tatar, an edition containing three of the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus and Deuteronomy. At the request of readers it was decided to publish these three books now, and not wait for Leviticus and Numbers, which are in the process of being translated.

The first attempt to translate the Bible into Crimean Tatar took place during the period 1978-96. In 1999 a translation group was established locally and since then several Bible books have been published (“Stories of Jesus”, illustrated by a national artist, in 2002; a book on the prophets in 2005; a revision of Matthew’s Gospel in 2006, a book containing Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in 2007, and the Four Gospels and Acts in 2008). The work is done in cooperation with the Pioneer Bible Translators.

The Crimean Tatars were allowed to return to Crimea in 1989, after having been deported to Central Asia and other areas of the Soviet Union in 1944. Today more than 250,000 Crimean Tatars are back in their homeland, struggling to reestablish their lives and reclaim their national and cultural rights, including the use of their language, against many social and economic obstacles.

The Adygei (129,000) live in the Adygei Republic of the Russian Federation, north-western Caucasus. They are mainly Sunni Muslims.

1-2 Kings is the fifth separate book from the Old Testament that IBT has published so far in Adygei - the first, 1-2 Samuel, was published in 2002, Genesis in 2005, a book containing Ruth, Esther and Jonah in 2006, and the Psalms in 2007. The first New Testament in Adygei was published as early as 1991.

The new edition contains six illustrations, produced especially for this book by a well-known Adygei artist. The members of the translation team are continuing their work on the Old Testament. “I want my people to read this wonderful book and to get to know the goodness of God,” the translator has said. The work is done in cooperation with SIL.

IBT has published a new edition that includes the translation of Ruth, Esther and Jonah in the Kurdish language. These translations come within the framework of preparations to publish the complete Old Testament. The present edition will be distributed among the Kurdish diaspora in Nizhniy Novgorod, Bataisk, Yaroslavl, Krasnodar and other cities of Russia.

The New Testament in Kurdish was published by IBT in 2000. We received favourable reviews from readers and heard that it was also being used for learning their native language. Kurds have difficulty in becoming literate in their language because it is not taught in Russia or Armenia. 

The Kurdish people are an ancient people of south-west Asia. They have no administrative territory of their own and most live in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Substantial Kurdish communities can also be found in Lebanon, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. There are approximately 25-30 million Kurds in the world. They speak Kurdish, which belongs to the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages.

One of the major dialect groups in Kurdish is Kurmanji. This is spoken by the Kurds living in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Russia and other former Soviet republics. Approximately 50,000 Kurmanji-speaking Kurds live in Russia.

Historically the Kurds used Arabic script, still employed in Iran and Iraq. In the 1920s - 1930s Latin scripts were developed for Kurds in Turkey and the USSR. Then in 1946 the Soviet Kurds were made to use Cyrillic, which is still used in Russia and Armenia, whereas Kurds living in other former Soviet republics have returned to Latin script.

The Kurmanji consider themselves descendants of the Midians (Midians were descendants of Abraham and his second wife Keturah. When Moses fled from Egypt into Midian he married a Midian).

At the beginning of the 8^th century AD the majority of Kurds were converted to Islam, while a minority adhered to the original religion of the Kurds, Yezidism (Kurmanji is the ceremonial language of Yezidism). There are also Kurdish minorities practising Christianity and Judaism.

09.08.09 I International Day of the World's Indigenous People, 9 August

International Day of the World's Indigenous People is commemorated each year on 9 August. This holiday was established in 1994 by the UN General Assembly in order to draw attention to the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain and strengthen their own cultures and traditions, and to pursue their development in accordance with their own needs and aspirations.

In the Russian Federation this day has been widely adopted and is actively celebrated every year, especially in the Northern regions – in an informal way, attracting many people. This year there were mass celebrations in Murmansk region, Primorie territory, in Kamchatka and Taimyr, and in many other regions. 

Indigenous languages serve to transmit cultural systems and express world views, identities and specific characteristics of entire communities. In addition, they convey irreplaceable traditions and knowledge. However, their survival is coming under increasing pressure in the twenty-first century owing to various processes linked to modern lifestyles as well as insufficient support for their protection and promotion. Experts tell us that more than half of all languages are endangered in today’s increasingly globalized world.

This holiday is a special day for our Institute too because we work especially for the indigenous peoples of Russia, and among our co-workers there are many representatives of them. Our editions in Dolgan, Koryak, Nanai, Nganasan, Nenets, Chukchi, Evenki, Even, and many other languages are a gift to these peoples. Basing our work on their language and spiritual heritage, we make our own impact on the revival and development of their languages and spiritual life. Bible translation opens up new horizons: it raises the functional status of a language, develops its grammar structure and enriches its vocabulary; it offers the opportunity to use Bible translations in education for teaching the language and literature; it provides opportunities for academic studies and research; it raises the status of the mother tongue; and it deepens and enhances the people’s cultural wealth.

We congratulate our colleagues in the translation projects on this holiday and wish them positive changes in their lives and achieving the desired results!

On 9 July the leadership and some co-workers of the Institute for Bible Translation met with the Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archbishop Ilarion of Volokolamsk. The following people took part in the meeting: executive secretary of the Patriarchal Synodal Bible Commission and director of the Synodal Library Archpriest Boris Danilenko, chief bibliographer of the Synodal Library and chairman of IBT Board Archpriest Alexander Troitskiy, director of the Institute for Bible translation Marianne Beerle-Moor, IBT deputy director N. Gorbunova, IBT consultant A. Desnitskiy and IBT exegetical adviser A. Somov.

During the talks the results of and plans for IBT activity were discussed. The Institute is a non-denominational organization founded in Stockholm in 1973. The Russian organization, the Institute for Bible Translation, was registered in Moscow almost 15 years ago. It has been located in Moscow on the territory of the Patriarchal Metochion in the former St. Andrew’s Monastery. It works in close cooperation with the Patriarchal Synodal Bible Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Institute is implementing numerous Bible translation and publishing projects in 65 languages of the non-Slavic peoples of Russia and other CIS countries. In this time IBT has developed a relationship of cooperation with many dioceses and synodal departments of the Russian Orthodox Church. 

Communication service of the
Department of External Church Relations of the ROC

Stories about Jesus Christ is the New Testament part of The Institute for Bible Translation's popular book The Bible for Children. It is a collection of retold Bible stories and direct quotations from the Bible.

Stories about Jesus Christ was first published in Russian, then translated into Kurmanji, Crimean Tatar, Karakalpak, Nenets and a number of other languages. In some of the publications, illustrations by local artists were used. In 2002, the book was translated into Georgian by Roin Kondzhariy and published with illustrations by David Popiashvili.

David Popiashvili created more than 30 complete paintings, reflecting the earthly life of Jesus Christ. The book became popular not only among the Georgian readers, but also among Russians and Europeans. The main concept of the project was to see the illustrations and the text as a whole, so for those who did not understand the Georgian text, one dimension was lost.

Thus, an idea was born to publish the text parallelly in three languages: Georgian, Russian and English. The English translation was made by Anna-Lena Hansson.

Modern information technology gives room for creative fantasies and one more aspect was added to the initial idea — to make audio recordings of the texts. It is now possible not only to enjoy the pictures and read the text in English, Georgian and Russian, but you can also listen to text in the different languages.

The Forum of Bible Agencies International (FOBAI) launched FindABible.net, 

an innovative and interactive website that gives easy access to 15,000 Scripture products in more than 2,000 languages.  The FindABible.net site provides the most comprehensive and current database of Bibles and portions in majority and minority languages available. Many Scripture products noted on the site have never before been listed on the web. Through FindABible.net, users now have a single place to search, download, view, or listen to these Bibles through links to Forum member agency websites.

Prior to the release of FindABible.net, people wishing to find Scripture in a particular language had to browse through a variety of web sites that offered a limited number of Scripture products for purchase or online viewing. Users had to guess which agency might have the product, then contact them to find out if it even existed and how to obtain a copy.  Now, through FindABible.net, with just the name of a language and a click of the mouse, links to Scripture products are within reach. 

In addition, the global community is growing ever more dependent on the Internet.  If a web search for a Bible in a given language turns up nothing, or turns up a translation but offers no way to obtain it, people will assume it does not exist, and give up trying. Recognizing this gap, and utilizing the latest technology, the Forum mounted an unprecedented data collection effort and built a website that opens up a new wealth of information to the general public. 

FindABible.net

The Kabardians (520,000) live in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic of the Russian Federation in the northern part of the Caucasus.

The New Testament in Kabardian was published by IBT in 1993 and has been widely used. A slight revision of the text was published in 2007. The believers felt a need to make the NT text more understandable. Therefore IBT initiated a thorough revision of the Gospel of Luke into a more comprehensive style. This new edition has now been printed in 1,500 copies.

Translation of portions of the Old Testament into Kabardian is also in progress. This text will be important for the Kabardians as they will find many similarities with their own traditions there. A book containing Ruth and Jonah has been published in 1,500 copies.

The first copies of both these editions were delivered to IBT Moscow at the end of June.

In April 2009 IBT Russia/CIS published the Children's Bible in the Lezgi language. So far this book has been translated into 39  languages (35 of them in the former Soviet Union). This is the first translation of it into one of the many languages spoken in the North Caucasian republic of Dagestan by the Caspian Sea in southern Russia.

The 500,000 Lezgins are the second largest people group in Dagestan. About half of them live in the neighbouring republic of Azerbaijan. The translation was made in the literary Lezgi language, which is based on one of the dialects spoken in Dagestan. However, the translation has been        made in such a way that the text will be understood also by speakers of other dialects, even when they don't have contact with the standard dialect or have been able to learn the literary language at school.

The Children's Bible contains the most important biblical stories from the creation of the world to Revelation. The book first appeared in Russian 25 years ago, and for many people it has been the first step in getting to know the Holy Scriptures. Each story is illustrated in colour. At the end of the book there are maps and photographs of biblical places. The first page of the book has a greeting from the former Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexei II, who died earlier this year.  A Lezgi woman, working as a teacher in one of the schools in Makhachkala, has been using the Russian Children's Bible in her teaching and has found it to be an excellent school book.

The comparatively small first edition of 2,000 copies will reach Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, in the next few days. There the books will be distributed to churches, libraries and schools so that as many children and adults as possible will become familiar with this beautiful book and its message. 

The first copies of a book containing Genesis and Proverbs in Kumyk arrived from the printing house on 26 March. Kumyk is a Turkic language, spoken by about 423,000 in Dagestan on the western shore of the Caspian Sea in southern Russia. The Kumyks received their first New Testament in March 2007, and Genesis and Proverbs are the first Old Testament books ever published in the Kumyk language. Work on the Psalms is in progress.

Since other books printed in Tatar for children were distributed very quickly, we believe that this new book also will be sought-after. 3,500 copies have been printed. The Children's Bibles will be distributed by the churches, and some of the books have already been delivered to all the libraries and prisons in Tatarstan.

The translation work on the Tatar Bible is continuing. Besides the Injil (New Testament), and the Taurat (Pentateuch), published by IBT in 2001 and 2007, the whole Bible will be ready for printing within a couple of years.

Since the publication of the first edition of the Yakut NT the translation team has continued working on the book of Psalms. IBT is planning to publish this significant Bible book by the end of 2009.