With immeasurable sorrow, the Institute for Bible Translation announces that on May 27, 2026, Dr. Marianne Beerle-Moor passed away at the age of 82 following an accident in Zürich. Marianne was a linguist who studied the cultures and languages of the Caucasus (specializing in the Lezgi language) and a biblical scholar. Her work made an invaluable contribution to Bible translation into the many languages of Russia and the surrounding countries.

Marianne led IBT from 1997 to 2013. She was a person who largely shaped the image of IBT in Russia — not only defining its strategic directions, but also the very atmosphere of our shared life. For IBT’s staff, she was more than a director; she was a close and cherished friend. Her warm and thoughtful involvement, her immense generosity of spirit, her wisdom and love — all of this was felt by the employees of the Moscow office and by all participants in the 65 translation projects in our part of the world. Everyone who ever had the privilege of working with Marianne will always remember her with deep gratitude and affection.

After stepping down as director in 2013, Marianne did not retire from active work. She continued to serve as a translation consultant — above all in her beloved Lezgi project, where her journey in Bible translation first began several decades earlier. In April 2026, she traveled to Makhachkala, where the Lezgi translation team gathered for a final consultant checking session before beginning preparations for publishing the first-ever full Bible in the Lezgi language. Marianne did not live to see the Lezgi Bible in print, but the work to which she devoted so many years of her life will be carried on and completed soon.

Another project of Marianne’s over the last decade was the multilingual edition of the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew  — a vast and painstaking work that involved collecting translations of the Lord’s Prayer into more than 100 languages and accompanying these with an extensive scholarly apparatus. This is the third polyglot edition of Scripture portions that Marianne coordinated over the past three decades. We, the staff of IBT, have vowed to see this book through to completion and publish it in Marianne’s memory.

We will miss her deeply. May her name and many deeds never be forgotten.