Glimpses of the Glassy Sea
October 2020

IBT has published a special English-language book dedicated to its silver anniversary of being a fullfledged Russian organization. The present volume is a compilation of IBT newsletters dealing with our various Bible translation projects, written by IBT staff member Tanya Prokhorova over the course of the past decade based on her interviews with project workers. The golden thread that runs through all of these newsletters is Tanya’s focus on the human face of IBT. It is not only about producing a good translation of the Bible into many languages (although this is undoubtedly a key part of the process), but about serving people – many people, different people, from a large variety of backgrounds, who happen to speak many different languages. In other words, the final goal of our work is human-centric, not book-centric. And this translation work is not only done for people, but by people – once again, many people, different people, from a large variety of backgrounds.

 

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Ruth, Esther, and Jonah in Dargi
September 9, 2020

According to the 2010 census of Russia, there are 485,705 speakers of Dargi. There are a number of Dargi dialects, with the literary dialect being taught in most schools in traditionally Dargi regions. Books, newspapers, magazines, and a regional theater all use this literary dialect, so it was chosen as the language of the Bible translation project.
Previously, IBT published the Gospel of Mark (2002, 2007), the Gospel of Luke (2010), the Gospel of Matthew (2013), and a collection of Gospel Parables (2017) in Dargi. For the translation of Ruth, Esther, and Jonah, a new translator joined the project.

Three Stories of the Prophets published in Tsakhur
June 30, 2020

The Tsakhur people are indigenous to the Caucasus region, historically residing in southern Dagestan and northern Azerbaijan (about 25,000 people in all, according to censuses taken in 2009 and 2010). They profess Sunni Islam. Their language belongs to the Lezgic family of the Nakh-Dagestanian group of North Caucasian languages.

Orthodox liturgical texts in the Kyrgyz language
June 15, 2020

IBT has published a unique collection of Orthodox liturgical texts in the Kyrgyz language, including musical notation for performance. This is IBT’s first-ever publication of this kind. Most of the 1,000 copies printed will go to the Kyrgyz diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in Bishkek, since this edition was produced in response to a request of Bishop Daniel of the Kyrgyz diocese. Translation of liturgical texts, which are designed for communal singing to melodies well known in the Orthodox world, demanded that the translation team acquire a completely new set of skills. Special attention had to be paid not only to accuracy in the translation, but also to sound collocations and rhythmic patterns...

Books of Ruth and Esther in the Abaza language
June 5, 2020

IBT is pleased to announce that the Old Testament books of Ruth and Esther have been published in the Abaza language in a single edition. The first IBT publication in Abaza came out in 2019 – an illustrated translation of the book of Jonah, with a parallel Russian translation.

The Abaza language belongs to the Abkhaz-Abaza branch of the Abkhaz-Adyge group of Caucasian languages. L.I. Lavrov, one of the first researchers of the history of the Abaza people, notes that they were once a large people, with their own centuries-old history. Scholars believe that the Abaza and Abkhaz languages...

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