Society and church: The Bible in Tatar is published

Specialists of the research organization "Institute for Bible Translation" completed work on the first-ever complete translation of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament in the Tatar language.

This is the fifth full translation of the Bible into Slavic languages ​​of Russia after theChuvash, the Tuvinian, the Chechen and the Udmurt. The Bible has been translated already in 565 languages ​​of the world.

The work of translating the Bible into the Tatar language has a long and complex history. The first translations of individual books have been made in the XIX century. Then, after nearly a century break, the work on translating the Bible into modern Tatar language has been renewed by the Institute for Bible Translation. In the mid 80s of the XX century, the individual books of the Old and New Testament have been translated anew. Work in the Tatar project was carried out over a quarter century a large international team, which included experts in the field of philology and biblical studies. The translation team had a series of theological, linguistic and cultural problems. To maximize natural language the translation was edited by experienced stylists. An important part of the procedure was also meaningful testing with native speakers, necessary to check the understanding of the text to future readers. 

Translation passed scientific review in the Institute of Language, Literature and Art by G. Ibragimov of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, as well as at the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication, the Kazan Federal University. The book goes under the heading of the Institute of Linguistics, the Russian Academy of Sciences.   

Project participants are confident that the release of the Bible in the light of the Tatar language will be an outstanding event in the scientific and cultural life of Tatarstan and an important milestone in the development of inter-religious dialogue.