Institute for Bible Translation
Encyclopedia
The Institute for Bible Translation was founded in Stockholm
, Sweden
in 1973 by Borislav Arapovic, its main task being to publish Bibles for "non-Slavic peoples in Slavic countries." These 85 million people in non-Slavic ethnic groups living in the former Soviet Union - now CIS
, including Russia
- represent a tremendous diversity of language (at least 130 different languages) and religion (Islam
, Buddhism
and Shamanism
).
Initially IBT also republished 19thC BFBS versions which had fallen out of print, such as the Psalms in Yakut (1897, reprinted IBT 1975).
Since 1995 IBT Russia/CIS has been registered in Moscow
. The staff members are from various Christian denominations. The current director is Marianne Beerle-Moor. IBT's Moscow office coordinates the work of 65 translation teams, whose members may live in different areas or even in different countries. It arranges training courses for them and organizes seminars and conferences. The Bible texts are prepared there for printing. The Institute also produces Scripture books for children, Bible reference works and language-related research material. IBT in Russia/CIS cooperates with churches and religious organizations of all Christian denominations, national Bible Societies, scientific (academic) institutions and the state authorities.
The IBT office in Helsinki
was opened in 1983. It coordinates the translation projects in 12 Finno-Ugric languages spoken in Russia. In 1988 IBT supplied 150,000 copies of the Lopukhin Bible
free of charge to the Orthodox Patriarchate. At the time this, and an earlier shipment of 100,000 copies, almost doubled the number of Bibles in circulation in the USSR.
IBT is a member of the Forum of Bible Agencies International. In some translation projects the Institute works in partnership with other international Bible agencies, such as the United Bible Societies, the SIL
/Wycliffe Bible Translators
and Pioneer Bible Translators
.
The aim of IBT is to produce accurate and faithful translations that reveal the Bible's message to modern readers. So far IBT has translated and published the Bible, or portions of it, in more than 70 languages, including 3 complete Bibles and 26 New Testaments. IBT's Children's Bible has been published in 36 languages. Languages in which IBT works include:
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in 1973 by Borislav Arapovic, its main task being to publish Bibles for "non-Slavic peoples in Slavic countries." These 85 million people in non-Slavic ethnic groups living in the former Soviet Union - now CIS
CIS
CIS usually refers to the Commonwealth of Independent States, a modern political entity consisting of eleven former Soviet Union republics.The acronym CIS may also refer to:-Organizations:...
, including Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
- represent a tremendous diversity of language (at least 130 different languages) and religion (Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and Shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
).
Initially IBT also republished 19thC BFBS versions which had fallen out of print, such as the Psalms in Yakut (1897, reprinted IBT 1975).
Since 1995 IBT Russia/CIS has been registered in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. The staff members are from various Christian denominations. The current director is Marianne Beerle-Moor. IBT's Moscow office coordinates the work of 65 translation teams, whose members may live in different areas or even in different countries. It arranges training courses for them and organizes seminars and conferences. The Bible texts are prepared there for printing. The Institute also produces Scripture books for children, Bible reference works and language-related research material. IBT in Russia/CIS cooperates with churches and religious organizations of all Christian denominations, national Bible Societies, scientific (academic) institutions and the state authorities.
The IBT office in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
was opened in 1983. It coordinates the translation projects in 12 Finno-Ugric languages spoken in Russia. In 1988 IBT supplied 150,000 copies of the Lopukhin Bible
Aleksandr Lopukhin
Aleksandr Pavlovich Lopukhin was a Russian Bible commentator best known for the Lopukhin Bible ....
free of charge to the Orthodox Patriarchate. At the time this, and an earlier shipment of 100,000 copies, almost doubled the number of Bibles in circulation in the USSR.
IBT is a member of the Forum of Bible Agencies International. In some translation projects the Institute works in partnership with other international Bible agencies, such as the United Bible Societies, the SIL
SIL International
SIL International is a U.S.-based, worldwide, Christian non-profit organization, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages,...
/Wycliffe Bible Translators
Wycliffe Bible Translators
Wycliffe Bible Translators is an interdenominational organization mandated to making a translation of the Bible in every living language in the world, especially for cultures with little existing Christian influence. Wycliffe was founded in 1942 by William Cameron Townsend and is associated with...
and Pioneer Bible Translators
Pioneer Bible Translators
Pioneer Bible Translators is a non-profit, 501 mission organization. It has received Charity Navigator's highest ranking for financial accountability...
.
The aim of IBT is to produce accurate and faithful translations that reveal the Bible's message to modern readers. So far IBT has translated and published the Bible, or portions of it, in more than 70 languages, including 3 complete Bibles and 26 New Testaments. IBT's Children's Bible has been published in 36 languages. Languages in which IBT works include:
- Ibero-Caucasian: AbazaAbaza languageThe Abaza language is a language of the Caucasus mountains in the Russian Karachay-Cherkess Republic by the Abazins...
, AbkhazAbkhaz languageAbkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken mainly by the Abkhaz people. It is the official language of Abkhazia where around 100,000 people speak it. Furthermore, it is spoken by thousands of members of the Abkhazian diaspora in Turkey, Georgia's autonomous republic of Adjara, Syria, Jordan...
, AvarAvar languageThe modern Avar language belongs to the Avar–Andic group of the Northeast Caucasian language family....
, Adygei, AgulAghul languageAghul, also spelled Agul, is a language spoken by the Aguls who live in southern Dagestan, Russia and in Azerbaijan. It is spoken by about 28,300 people .-Classification:...
, AndiAndi languageThe Andi language is part of the Avar–Andic branch of the Northeast Caucasian languages. The Andi population was about 8,000 in 1926. In 2002 approximately 21,800 speakers were identified. There are four dialects, Munin, Rikvani, Kvanxidatl, and Gagatl, which appear quite divergent. Speakers...
, BezhtaBezhta languageThe Bezhta language , also known as Kapucha , belongs to the Tsezic group of the North Caucasian language family...
, DarginDargwa languageThe Dargwa or Dargin language is spoken by the Dargin people of Dagestan. It is the literary and main dialect of the dialect continuum constituting the Dargin languages. The four other languages in this dialect continuum are often considered variants of Dargwa...
, GeorgianGeorgian languageGeorgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...
, KabardianKabardian languageThe Kabardian language, also known as East Circassian , is a Northwest Caucasian language, closely related to the Adyghe language. It is spoken mainly in the Russian republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia and in Turkey and the Middle East...
, LakLak languageThe Lak language is a Northeast Caucasian language forming its own branch within this family. It is the language of the Lak people from the Russian autonomous republic of Dagestan, where it is one of six standardized languages...
, Lezgi, RutulRutul languageRutul is a language spoken by the Rutuls, an ethnic group living in Dagestan and some parts of Azerbaijan. It is spoken by 29,400 people in Dagestan and the remaining 110 in Azerbaijan...
, TabassaranTabasaran languageTabasaran is a Northeast Caucasian language of the Lezgic branch. It is spoken by the Tabasaran people in southern part of the Russian Republic of Dagestan. There are two main dialects: North and South Tabasaran. It has a literary language based on the Southern dialect, one of six in the Dagestan...
, TsakhurTsakhur languageTsakhur is a language spoken by the Tsakhurs, an ethnic group, which populates northern Azerbaijan and southwestern Dagestan . It is spoken by about 13,000 people in Azerbaijan and by about 9,770 people in Dagestan...
, TsezTsez languageTsez, also known as Dido is a Northeast Caucasian language with about 15,354 speakers spoken by the Tsez, a Muslim people in the mountainous Tsunta district of southern and western Dagestan in Russia. The name is said to derive from the Tsez word for "eagle", which is most likely a folk etymology... - Iranian language group: BaluchiBalochi languageBalochi is a Northwestern Iranian language. It is the principal language of the Baloch of Balochistan, Pakistan, eastern Iran and southern Afghanistan. It is also spoken as a second language by some Brahui. It is designated as one of nine official languages of Pakistan.-Vowels:The Balochi vowel...
, Digor, KurdishKurdish languageKurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....
(Kurmanji), Ossetic, Rushani, ShugniShughni languageShughni is one of the Pamir languages of the Southeastern Iranian language group. Its distribution is in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan....
, TadjikTajik languageTajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...
, Tat, WakhiWakhi languageWakhi is an Indo-European language in the branch of Eastern Iranian language family and is intimately related to other Southeastern Iranian languages in the Pamir languages group.-Classification and Distribution:...
, Yasgulyam, - Isolates: KetKet languageThe Ket language, formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak, is a Siberian language long thought to be an isolate, the sole surviving language of a Yeniseian language family...
, NivkhNivkh languageNivkh or Gilyak is a language spoken in Outer Manchuria, in the basin of the Amgun , along the lower reaches of the Amur itself, and on the northern half of Sakhalin. 'Gilyak' is the Manchu appellation...
, Yukagir, - Mongolian: BuryatBuryat languageBuryat is a Mongolic variety spoken by the Buryats that is either classified as a language or as a major dialect group of Mongolian. The majority of Buryat speakers live in Russia along the northern border of Mongolia where it is an official language in the Buryat Republic, Ust-Orda Buryatia and...
, KalmykKalmyk languageThe Kalmyk language , or Russian Oirat, is the native speech of the Kalmyk people of the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal subject of the Russian Federation. In Russia, it is the normative form of the Oirat language , which belongs to the Mongolic language family...
, - Manchu-Tungus: NanaiNanai languageThe Nanai language is spoken by the Nanai people in Siberia, and to a much smaller extent in China's Heilongjiang province, where it is known as Hezhe...
, EvenEven languageThe Even language is a Tungusic language spoken by the Evens in Siberia. It is spoken by widely scattered communities of reindeer herders from Kamchatka and the Sea of Okhotsk in the east to the River Lena in the west, and from the Arctic coast in the north to the River Aldan in the south...
, Evenki - Paleo-Asiatic: ChukchiChukchi languageThe Chukchi language is a Palaeosiberian language spoken by Chukchi people in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug...
, Itelmen, KoryakKoryak languageKoryak is a Chukotko-Kamchatkan language spoken by circa 3,000 people in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in Koryak Okrug. It is mostly a language spoken by Koryaks. Its close relative, the Chukchi language, is spoken by about twice that number. The language together with Chukchi,... - SamoyedicSamoyedic languagesThe Samoyedic languages are spoken on both sides of the Ural mountains, in northernmost Eurasia, by approximately 30,000 speakers altogether....
: EnetsEnets languageEnets is a Samoyedic language spoken by the Enets people along the lower Yenisei River in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. There are two distinct dialects - Forest Enets and Tundra Enets - which may be considered separate languages. There are only about seventy speakers in total, with slightly more...
, Nenets, NganassanNganasan languageNganasan language is a language of the Nganasan people... - Sino-Tibetan: DunganDungan languageThe Dungan language is a Sinitic language spoken by the Dungan of Central Asia, an ethnic group related to the Hui people of China.-History:...
- TurkicTurkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
: AltaiAltay languageAltay is a language of the Turkic group of languages. It is an official language of Altai Republic, Russia. The language was called Oyrot prior to 1948. There were ca...
, Azeri, Balkar, BashkirBashkir languageThe Bashkir language is a Turkic language, and is the language of the Bashkirs. It is co-official with Russian in the Republic of Bashkortostan.-Speakers:...
, Crimean TatarCrimean Tatar languageThe Crimean Tatar language is the language of the Crimean Tatars. It is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea, Central Asia , and the Crimean Tatar diasporas in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria...
, ChuvashChuvash languageChuvash is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages....
, Dolgan, GagauziGagauz languageThe Gagauz language is a Turkic language, spoken by the Gagauz people, and the official language of Gagauzia, Moldova. There are two dialects, Bulgar Gagauzi and Maritime Gagauzi. This is a different language from Balkan Gagauz Turkish....
, Karachai, KhakasKhakasThe Khakas, or Khakass , are a Turkic-speaking people, who live in Russia, in the republic of Khakassia in southern Siberia. They speak the Khakas language.The origin of the Khakas people is disputed...
, Kumyk, NogaiNogai languageNogai , is a Turkic language spoken in southwestern Russia. Three distinct dialects are recognized: Qara-Nogay , spoken in Dagestan; Nogai Proper, in Stavropol; and Aqnogay , by the Kuban River, its tributaries in Karachay-Cherkessia, and in the Mineralnye Vody District...
, ShorShor languageThe Shor language is a Turkic language spoken by about 10,000 people in the Kemerovo Province in south-central Siberia. In the history of the Turkic states and China, Shors played an important role, mostly connected with their offshoot Shatuo. Presently, not all ethnic Shors speak Shor, and the...
, Tatar, Tuvin, YakutSakha languageSakha, or Yakut, is a Turkic language with around 360,000 native speakers spoken in the Sakha Republic in the Russian Federation by the Sakha or Yakuts.Sakha is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony.-Classification:...