The Institute for Bible Translation, in partnership with Granat Publishers, has just added a new Russian-language edition to its scholarly series on Biblical Studies. This is a collection of articles on the subject of intertextuality in the Bible.

The main premise of intertextuality studies is that any particular text necessarily exists in the environment of other texts written prior to it, and reflects them to varying degrees. This characteristic of texts in general also applies to the Bible, which by its nature is a compilation of books written at different times in different places by individuals who spoke different languages. The Bible is filled with self-citations and references and allusions. The authors of the New Testament frequently quote the Old Testament; however, the cited text often conveys a slightly different meaning from that of the original text in light of the new context in which it is being used...

According to the 2010 census, the number of speakers of the Abaza language in Russia is 37,831 people. The Abaza live primarily in the Karachay-Cherkessia region of the North Caucasus.

IBT’s Abaza translation project is working simultaneously on the books of the Old and New Testament. A bilingual Abaza/Russian edition of Jonah was published in 2019, and Ruth/Esther came out in 2020. An illustrated collection of "Gospel Parables" was printed in 2020. And now IBT has released the first full book of the New Testament - the Gospel of Matthew...

IBT’s Bible translation project in the Adyghe language continues its work with the recent publication of Gospel Parables. This edition had been previously published by IBT in many other languages of Russia, such as Agul, Bezhta, Dargi, Digor, Dungan, Even, Kabardian, Kumyk, Lak, Nenets, Nogai, Rutul, Siberian Tatar, Tatar, and Tsakhur.

Besides the collection of parables from Luke’s Gospel that IBT has used in previous editions -- the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:30-35), the Rich Fool (Lk 12:16-21), the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Lk 18:10-14), the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31), the Lost Sheep (Lk 15:3-7) and the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32) --  the Adyghe publication also includes several additional parables from Luke and Matthew: the Persistent Widow (Lk 18:2-8), the Sower and the Seed (Mt 13: 3-8, 18-23), the Unmerciful Servant (Mt 18:23-35), the Workers in the Vineyard (Mt 20:1-16), and the Talents (Mt 25:14-30).

The first book of the Old Testament, Genesis, has been translated into the Gagauz language.

Most of the Gagauz people (more than 100,000 speakers in all) live in south Moldova, particularly in the district of Gagauzia. The Gagauz, who are primarily Orthodox Christians, are already familiar with the biblical stories of the Creation, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel from worship and icon painting. Now, the book of Genesis will enable the Gagauz to get acquainted in full with these stories in their native language. Until now, the only Old Testament works available in Gagauz have been a summary of Old Testament stories published in 1907, the Psalter (1936), the IBT Children’s Bible (2010), six Psalms (IBT, 2011), and the books of Ruth and Jonah (IBT, 2017)...

IBT Russia has recently published a new edition of OT Scripture portions in the Kabardian language, spoken by over half a million people in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. This edition contains three books of the Bible. Proverbs was first published in Kabardian in 2017 and has proved to be quite popular with readers. Ecclesiastes was published in 2020 in a bilingual edition together with a translation of this book into the closely related Adyghe language. Esther has now been published in Kabardian for the first time. The edition also includes a glossary, a subject index, and a map of Biblical places found in the book of Esther. An audio recording of these books on CD comes with the printed edition, and can also be found in the Kabardian Scripture app “ФIыцIагъэ ЛъапIэ” in Google Play and AppStore.