The Institute for Bible Translation is continuing its translation work into the Even language of eastern Siberia in partnership with SIL International. 2018 saw the publication of Stories from the Holy Scripture, and now IBT has published Gospel Parables. The book contains four parables from the Gospel of Luke: the Good Samaritan, the Wedding Feast, the Prodigal Son, and the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

The parables found in the Gospels are allegorical lessons, figures and examples, borrowed from nature and everyday life. Jesus Christ widely used such short stories in his sermons to communicate profound spiritual truths about God's Kingdom. The new Even publication includes illustrations which closely follow the plot of the parables.

The Even translation was produced by V. S. Elrika and R. P. Kuzmina, professional linguists and faculty members of the Altaic Languages Department of the Institute of the Peoples of the North at Herzen State Pedagogical University.

The Even language belongs to the northern subgroup of the Manchu-Tungus languages and is closely related to the Evenki language. Even is spoken by some 5,656 people (according to the 2010 census), who reside for the most part on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, in Kamchatka Oblast, Okhotsky District of Khabarovsk Krai, and also in the neighboring regions of Magadan Oblast and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

Gospel Parables (2019), Stories from the Holy Scripture (2018) and the Gospel of Luke (2001) are all available for downloading as pdf files on IBT’s electronic publications page.