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news-20012024

From January 15 to 20, the Institute for Bible Translation held a practical seminar on oral Bible translation  (OBT) in Makhachkala.

Translators and exegetical advisers from the Tsudakhar, Godoberi, Chamalal andl Karata projects participated in this event. All four of these non-written languages belong to the Nakh-Dagestani language family. The oral nature of the use of these languages by their speakers determined the choice of the oral Bible translation methodology for them.

The workshop started with an introduction to the methodology of the translation process, providing the participants with a solid foundation for their practical exercises. The practical segment of the workshop focused on the 1st chapter of the book of Ruth, allowing the participants to apply the newly acquired knowledge and skills to a specific biblical text...

news-17012024

IBT released two editions in the Abkhaz language: the Book of the Jonah and "Gospel Parables".

The Abkhaz are the indigenous population of Abkhazia (122 2000 people, census 2011). According to the 2020 census 8,177 Abkhaz live in Russia. The Abkhaz language belongs to the Abkhaz-Adyg language family.

The book of Jonah has profound symbolic meaning. This short dramatic story of an Old Testament prophet who spent three days inside a large fish relates essential truths about human existence before God. This story applies equally to the prophet Jonah, individually to every human being, and collectively to the entire human race, and it raises such important issues as disobedience to God, repentance, and God's mercy...

news-25122023

After a rather long break IBT has released a new edition in the Nogai language - the Pentateuch, which includes a translation of the book of Genesis published in 2016 and new translations of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The work on these books was a multi-stage process of translation, exegetical checking, editing, comprehension testing and consultations that took about 5 years.

The Nogai language belongs to the Kypchak group of Turkic languages. Nogai people are settled quite widely in the North Caucasus and in the Southern Volga region. According to the 2020 census, more than 109,000 people speak the Nogai language...

news-01122023

The Institute for Bible Translation continues to release the books of the Old Testament translated into the Tabasaran language.

Tabasarans is one of the indigenous peoples of southern Dagestan. There are 151,466 Tabasarans in Russia (Census 2021), they speak the Tabasaran language, which belongs to the Lezghi group of the Nakh-Dagestan family.

Previously, the following translations have been published in Tabasaran: the Gospel of Mark (1997); the Gospel of Luke (2000); Four Gospels and the Acts (2004); Stories about Jesus Christ (2010); the New Testament (2010); Ruth, Jonah (2013); Esther, Daniel (2016); Genesis (2018) and Proverbs (2018).

news-26102023

IBT has published a translation of the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts in the Abaza language. According to the 2020 census, there are 43,793 Abazas in Russia. The Abaza language belongs to  the Abkhaz-Adyghe family of North Caucasian languages. The original homeland of the Abazas is Abkhazia, from where they migrated to the northern slopes of the Caucasus range in the XIII-XIV centuries A.D.  Most Abazas now live in the Abaza district of the Karachai-Cherkess Republic of the Russian Federation and in its capital city, Cherkessk.

news-09062023

The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT), in partnership with  the  Bible Society in Russia (BSR), SIL International and the United Bible Societies, recently published the complete Bible in the Bashkir language, titled (in translation from Bashkir) “Holy Scripture (Taurat, Zebur, Injil)”.

The full canonical Bible has by now been translated into about 728 languages (about 10% of the 7000 or so languages spoken in the world today). Bashkir, the fourth-largest language in the Russian Federation by number of speakers (approximately 1.3 million), is one of the official languages of the Republic of Bashkortostan in central Russia. It too has now joined the ranks of languages with a complete translation of the Bible, the Book of Books, the most translated text in the world...

news-22052023

The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) has printed the first translation of the Pentateuch into the Lezgi language. Prior Scripture publications in Lezgi include: Excerpts from Matthew (1990); Mark (1996); Luke/Acts  (2004); the Children’s Bible (2009); Ruth/Esther/ Jonah (2010); the Four Gospels (2014); and the New Testament (2018).

The Lezgi language belongs to the Lezgic group of the Nakh-Dagestanian family of Caucasian languages. It is spoken by more than 700,000 people in southern Dagestan and northern Azerbaijan.

The translation work was carried out by a highly qualified IBT team that includes experts in the Lezgi language, as well as exegetes and Bible scholars. The translation was tested with native speakers and reviewed at the Tsadasa Institute of Language, Literature and Art in Dagestan...

news-15052023

The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) has published the first-ever translation of the book of the prophet Daniel in the Avar language. The book of Daniel is one of the most widely read books of the Old Testament. It includes the well-known stories of Daniel in the lions’ den, the three young men in the fiery furnace, and the divine handwriting on the wall. It also contains many prophecies about the future.

The Avar language belongs to the Nakh-Dagestanian language family, with 956,800 speakers according to the 2021 census of the Russian Federation. It is also used as a language of interethnic communication by the Andic and Tsezic language groups. Avars live mainly in the Republic of Dagestan, where they constitute about 30% of the total population...

news-05052023

The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) has published a translation of the Pentateuch into the Kalmyk language. In ancient Hebrew, the first five books of the Old Testament that make up the Pentateuch are called "Torah," which means "instruction" or "learning." Kalmyk readers, most of whom come from the Buddhist tradition, will now be able to discover  for themselves the wonderful world of biblical history: the Pentateuch lays the foundation of Old Testament religion with its  moral principles, describes the creation of the world and humanity, and tells how sin and suffering came into our world and distorted the relationship between God and people.

The first book of the Pentateuch,  Genesis,  was previously translated into Kalmyk and published in 2005. The other four books (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) were translated between 2017 and 2022...

news-06042023

The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) has published the Dargi edition of the Injil, containing six New Testament books: the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Acts of the Apostles, and the book of Revelation. The title of this edition, Injil, is mentioned several times in the Qur'an and is familiar to readers from the Muslim tradition. This word is the Arabic equivalent of the Greek word "Evangelion" and means “Good News”.

The Dargis are the second largest ethnic group in the Republic of Dagestan,  constituting about 16.5% of the republic's population. The Dargi language (with 485,705 speakers in Russia) belongs to the Nakh-Dagestanian family of North Caucasian languages. Dargis traditionally adhere to Sunni Islam...

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