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news of Bible translation 2010

25.05.10 I The award to the founder of IBT Dr. Arapovic, of an honorary diploma as a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

“May God Bless Russia” – those were the concluding words of Dr. Arapovic’s response speech at the ceremony of awarding him an honorary Foreign Member’s diploma of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Born in 1935 in Bosnia Hercegovina, and later an immigrant to Sweden, Borislav Arapovic became the initiator of the foundation in Stockholm in 1973 of the Institute for Bible Translation (IBT), with the aim of translating and publishing Bible texts in the mother tongues of the indigenous non-Slavic peoples of the Soviet Union. He was the IBT Director for 24 years (until 1997). On his initiative at the beginning of the 1990s a branch of the Institute was opened in Moscow and a cooperation agreement was signed between IBT and the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1997 with the blessing of the late Patriarch Alexiy II the Russian organization Institute of Bible Translation was able to move into offices on the premises of the former St. Andrew’s monastery, where it has remained until the present time. Over the years since then IBT staff have implemented a wide range of projects, translating different parts of the Bible into more than 80 non-Slavic languages of Russia and other countries of the CIS.

On behalf of numerous Russian colleagues and friends Dr. Arapovic was welcomed and congratulated by academician E. Chelyshev. The solemn ceremony of the award took place in the presence of many guests, including a representative of the Croatian Embassy Mr. Igor Prelovsek. During the days of his visit to Moscow Dr. Arapovic also visited the office of the Institute for Bible Translation where he had friendly meetings with colleagues.

On 13 May a roundtable discussion about the recently published New Testament in Khakas took place at the National Library in Abakan, the capital of Khakasia in southern Siberia. Members of the translation group, members of the Khakas writers' union and representatives of cultural, religious and educational life in Abakan were among the participants, as well as journalists from TV, radio and newspapers.

The event was conducted by translator Ilya Topoev. Several members of the translation group, among them Galina Litvinenko and Tatyana Borgoyakova, told about their work on the translation and several participants expressed their gratitude that the New Testament now also exists in the Khakas language. One participant said: “This book will give new life to the Khakas language”, and another continued: “This is a great achievement for our culture and for the spiritual life of our people. I would like to ask the administration of our republic to work for the propagation of this book. It is time for our people to rise above their shamanistic world view and turn to the supreme God.”

In the liturgy of the Georgian church the translation of the Psalms made in the 11th century is still used. Since this old text is difficult for people today to understand, IBT has made an adaptation of the Psalms for home reading. This project has been done with the blessing of the Georgian Patriarch Ilya II and in cooperation with the Georgian Orthodox church. The book, which came off press at the beginning of May, contains three parallel texts in Georgian: the Psalms of the 11th century in two different scripts and the adaptation of the Psalms into modern Georgian. The work on the adaptation began in the autumn of 2004. Many Georgian specialists have taken part in the project.

On 11 May a presentation of the Psalms in parallel texts took place at the Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox church in Tbilisi, in the presence of the Georgian Patriarch Ilya II. Members of the translation group, scholars from the University and Academy of Sciences and students from the spiritual seminaries and academies of Tbilisi were also among the participants, as well as representatives from the cultural life and mass-media. The event was conducted by Ketevani Gadilia, administrative coordinator of the project. The participants welcomed the new edition and mentioned that the new publication will give the readers new knowledge and help them to understand the Psalms better. The text will also be used in seminaries and for textual comparison.

At the end of March the first New Testament in the Tabasaran language came from the printer. This is the third NT that IBT has so far published in a language of Dagestan. New Testaments in Avar and Kumyk were published earlier.
The Tabasarans (132,000) live in south-western Dagestan. They are considered to be one of the aboriginal peoples of the Caucasus. References to them date back to the early Christian era. The Tabasarans adopted the Muslim faith in the 8th – 9th centuries following Arab conquests. Previously there were Christian elements in their culture. Stories from the Old Testament and even about Jesus remain in folksongs and proverbs. Pictures of the cross can be found in carpets and carvings in wood or stone. Tabasaran belongs to the Ibero-Caucasian group of languages.
The publication of the New Testament is the result of almost twenty years of work. Several prominent Tabasaran writers and specialists have taken part in the translation process during this time.
Earlier the Gospel of Mark (1997), the Gospel of Luke (2000) and the Four Gospels and Acts (2004) were published in Tabasaran, as well as “Stories of Jesus” at the end of 2009. The translation group is planning to continue their translation work on the Old Testament books.
With the publication of the New Testament in their language the Tabasarans have received a very important book which will open up a new world to them. Besides its spiritual values the text will help develop the Tabasaran language and enrich its lexical resources with new terms, concepts and idiomatic expressions. Our hope is that this book will be a blessing to the Tabasaran people.

In February Mark's Gospel in Nenets came from the printer and a few weeks later the audio-recorded CDs of the same text were delivered. The books and CDs have been shipped to northern Siberia and we hope that they will reach the Nenets area while the rivers are still frozen so that they can be distributed to far away villages.
The Gospel of Mark has been translated by Nenets people who live their traditional life in their own homeland. A growing group of Nenets believers is eagerly waiting for this Gospel, as they have themselves been engaged in the translation process by helping to test the translation and by using the texts in church services. Many have been praying and collecting money for the project. The text has been audio-recorded, because many Nenets are not so used to reading their language.
The exegetical advisor from South Korea says: “As the author of the Gospel of Mark did his best to help the Gentiles to understand the Good News, so we did our best to translate the Good News for the Nenets clearly and precisely into their daily spoken language.”
“It is a great joy for us to have the audio version of Mark together with the book. Listening while looking at the text will certainly help the Nenets to read it. The living Word of God will bring hope to the Nenets.”

At the beginning of February the first copies of the Khakas New Testament came from the printing house. So far the New Testament has been translated into almost 1200 languages of the world. Now the Khakas language is also among them.

The first steps towards the New Testament were the trial publications of Mark's Gospel (1995), Luke and Acts (1999), and a book containing John's Gospel, the letters of John, and Revelation (2004). An important stage in preparing the Khakas readers for the New Testament was the publishing of the Four Gospels in 2007 and the illustrated Children's Bible in 2008.

The Khakas New Testament is mainly intended for home reading. In the appendix there are maps of Palestine and the Middle East in New Testament times, photographs of biblical sites and a glossary with explanation of the most important words and expressions which are found in the New Testament.

At the presentation of the Children's Bible in the National Library of Abakan in October 2008 the forthcoming publication of the Khakas New Testament was announced and the reactions were very positive: ”This holy book will serve as the basis for our spiritual education, it will enlarge the range of function of the Khakas language. At the same time we will be able to use the translation for scientific and educational purposes, it will give the national language a higher prestige, and it will deepen and multiply the cultural wealth of the Khakas people”, said some of the participants.

A translation of the book of Psalms into Yakut was published by IBT in January 2010. The Psalms are the most loved and the most widely read book of the Old Testament. The Psalms give comfort in the sorrows and problems of life and through them we can express our suffering, hope, love, faith and joy in life with God.

The Psalms which were translated into Yakut from Greek in the 19th century through the efforts of zealous Russian Orthodox missionaries meant a great deal to the Yakut people. Unfortunately it is difficult for modern Yakut readers to understand this book, which was translated more than 100 years ago. The new translation, based on the Masoretic text, differs somewhat from the translation based on the Greek Septuagint. Some of these differences are explained in footnotes below the text on each page.

The team which translated the Psalms into their native language consisted of the well-known Yakut author D.K. Sivtsev and IBT's translator Sargylana Leontyeva. The philological editor was the Yakut poet S. Rufov and the translation consultant and exegetical advisor was Dr David Clark.

Earlier published translations into Yakut by IBT Russia/CIS are the New Testament (2004, 2008) and Hexapsalm (2007), a book with Six Psalms, translated from the Greek Septuagint for liturgical use.

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