I Jan. 07 I  

January 2007

“Having the New Testament without the Old is like having a sword without the handle”

“You cannot imagine what it meant to me to read the Acts of the Apostles in my native language,” said a young man from Central Asia, who recently visited IBT’s office in Moscow. “I had of course read it in Russian, but somehow I did not understand it completely. Therefore when I read Acts in my language, it was as if light entered my soul. For the first time I really understood, and I felt as if I was one of the disciples. I could understand how they thought and how they acted - and I suffered with Peter when he denied the Lord. I really wanted to do the same work as they did when they served the Lord here on earth. To read this in my language was a revelation for me!”

“We don’t have a registered church in our area any more. The authorities took away our registration, but that even turned out to be something good, because now at least five churches have developed in our town instead. The believers gather in homes, and therefore it is almost impossible to tell how many Christians there are. But people are coming to faith all the time and they are growing in the Lord. People love to read the New Testament, which was published some years ago, and we need more books!  It would also be very good to have an audio recording of the NT for people who are not so used to reading.”

“Also, we really need the Old Testament in our language. We are longing to get it! There is so much that we should understand about faith but we don’t, because we have not been able to read it in our language. We just don’t understand the Russian text well enough.”

This young man is not the only one waiting for the Old Testament in his language. According to recent statistics, of the 2,400 language groups in the world that have portions of the Bible, 1,115 have the New Testament. Only 426 have a full Bible, including the Old Testament. “Having the New Testament without the Old is like having a sword without the handle,” said one translator.

So far IBT has published translations of the New Testament in 21 languages of Russia and the CIS, but the full Bible in only three languages. At present IBT is involved in 22 Old Testament projects. Muslims are already familiar with characters such as Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, and to them the Old Testament may become a bridge to the New Testament. For instance, a recent publication in Crimean Tatar contains selections from Genesis, Exodus and other OT books and tells the stories of biblical characters known in both Islam and Christianity, accompanied by relevant New Testament excerpts. Other ethnic groups share the ancient Israelites’ tribal lifestyle of sacrifices, patriarchy and agriculturalism. The Old Testament is important to any culture!

Project of the month

Of the 22 Old Testament projects in progress IBT’s goal is to publish the full Bible in five languages by 2010 – in Chechen, Tajik, Tatar, Tuvin and Uzbek. Please support the translation work with your gift this month!

Here you can sign for the IBT Russia/CIS monthly English Newsletter

Archive:
 
 I Dec 06 I Nov 06  I Oct 06 I Sept 06 I Aug 06 I
 June-July 06  I May 06 I April 06 I March 06 I Feb. 06 I Jan. 06
I Dec. 05  I Nov. 05  I  Oct. 05 I