The tradition of Bible translations in Christianity in Russia begins with Slavic translations of the Bible and Old Church Slavonic.
Tsar Peter the Great felt that the Russian people needed a Bible in the vernacular and authorized Pastor Johann Ernst Glück in 1703 to prepare such an edition. Glück died in 1705 and nothing is known of his work.[ citation needed ]
Francysk Skaryna (ca 1490-1552?) was the first to attempt the translation and printing of the Bible in Ruthenian, based on the Slavonic and Czech Bibles. [1] August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) tried to produce a cheap Russian Bible. [2]
The first Orthodox Church Bible appeared in 1876. [3] It was left to the 19th century in connection with the establishment of the Russian Bible Society (founded in 1812 at Saint Petersburg, with the consent of Alexander I) to prepare a Bible in the vernacular. The work was undertaken by Filaret, rector of the Theological Academy of Saint Petersburg (afterward metropolitan of Moscow), and other members of the faculty of the academy.
The Gospels were published in 1818 and in 1822 the entire New Testament. In 1820 the translation of the Old Testament was undertaken, and in 1822 Philaret's translation of the Psalms was published. In 1825 the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth were issued. The year 1826 saw an end to the activity of the Bible Society in the ban put upon all kinds of private associations, even when non-political. Not before 1858 was the work of translation resumed. In 1876 the entire Bible was published in one volume. This translation is called the Synod Version. The Old Testament books, though based upon the Hebrew Bible, follow the order of the Septuagint and the Church Slavonic Bible. The Apocryphal books also form a part of the Russian Bible. The British and Foreign Bible Society also issued a Russian edition, omitting, however, the Apocrypha.
Since 1990 the Russian Bible Society and Protestants in Russia have produced newer translations into the Russian language. In September, 2000 the International Bible Society completed a Dynamic equivalence translation called Slovo Zhizny, the Russian equivalent of the English New International Version. In May 2015 the Bible Translation Institute (BTI) at Zaoksky Theological Seminary in Russia published jointly with St. Andrew's Biblical Theological Institute [ ru ] in Moscow a new translation of the Holy Scriptures from the original languages. This translation has been prepared by an inter-denominational team of scholars under the editorial direction of M.P. Kulakov and M.M. Kulakov. [4] [5] [6] Jehovah's Witnesses in 2007 have translated their New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures into Russian. [7]
The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures is a translation of the Bible published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society; it is used and distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses. The New Testament portion was released first, in 1950, as the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, with the complete New World Translation of the Bible released in 1961.
August Hermann Francke was a German Lutheran clergyman, theologian, philanthropist, and Biblical scholar. His evangelistic fervour and pietism got him expelled as lecturer from the universities of Dresden and Leipzig and as deacon from Erfurt. In 1691 he found his calling at the University of Halle, where he turned towards the education of underprivileged children; he founded an orphan asylum, a Latin school, a German school, a Gynaeceum, the first Protestant higher girls school, and a seminary for training teachers. Francke's schools provided a prototype, which greatly influenced later German education.
The Recovery Version is a modern English translation of the Bible from the original languages, published by Living Stream Ministry, ministry of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee. It is the commonly used translation of Local Churches (affiliation).
The Ostrog Bible was the first complete printed edition of the Bible in Church Slavonic, published in Ostrog in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by the printer Ivan Fyodorov in 1581 with the assistance of Konstantin Ostrogski. It was based on Gennady's Bible and was the primary source for the Moscow Bible published in 1663 under Alexis of Russia.
The Russian Synodal Bible is a Russian non-Church Slavonic translation of the Bible commonly used by the Russian Orthodox Church, Catholic, as well as Russian Baptists and other Protestant communities in Russia. The translation dates to the period 1813–1875, and the first complete edition was published in 1876. The first edition in modernized orthography appeared in 1956. The first digital edition was prepared by the Moscow Patriarchate in 2000.
Since the arrival of Christianity in China, the Bible has been translated into many varieties of the Chinese language, both in fragments and in its totality. The first translations may have been undertaken as early as the 7th century AD, but the first printed translations appeared only in the nineteenth century. Progress on a modern translation was encumbered by denominational rivalries, theological clashes, linguistic disputes, and practical challenges at least until the publication of the Protestant Chinese Union Version in 1919, which became the basis of standard versions in use today.
The Elizabeth Bible is the authorized version of the Bible used by the Russian Orthodox Church. The Elizabeth Bible was the third complete printed edition of the Bible in Church Slavonic, published in Russia in 1751 under and with the assistance of the Elizabeth of Russia, the previous ones being the Ostrog Bible of 1581 and the Moscow Bible of 1663.
The royal Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander is an illuminated manuscript Gospel Book in middle Bulgarian, prepared and illustrated in 1355–1356 for Tsar Ivan Alexander of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The manuscript is regarded as one of the most important manuscripts of medieval Bulgarian culture. The manuscript, now in the British Library, contains the text of the Four Gospels illustrated with 366 miniatures and consists of 286 parchment folios, 33 by 24.3 cm in size.
The known history of Bible translation into Ukrainian began in the 16th century with Peresopnytsia Gospels, which included only four Gospels of the New Testament.
Traditionally Russia used the Old Church Slavonic language and Slavonic Bible, and in the modern era Bible translations into Russian. The minority languages of Russia usually have a much more recent history, many of them having been commissioned or updated by the Institute for Bible Translation.
Freemasonry in Russia started in the 18th century and has continued to the present day. Russian Freemasonry pursue humanistic and educational purposes, but more attention is given to ethical issues. It was a spiritual community of people united in an effort to contribute to the prosperity of the Motherland and the enlightenment of the people living in it.
Mikhail Petrovich Kulakov was a Russian adventist pastor, social and religious activist, and Protestant Bible scholar and translator. He was co-founder of the Russian Branch of the International Association for Religious Freedom (1992), founder of the Institute for Bible Translation in Zaoksky, an honorary board member of the Russian Bible Society, and the head of the Church of Seventh-day Adventists in the Soviet Union (1990—1992). Kulakov's work on translating the Bible into modern Russian language has been lauded by biblical scholars, philologists, theologians and various representatives of Orthodox and Protestant churches in Russia.
Mihail Ciachir was a protoiereus and educator in the Gagauz language, and first publisher of Gagauz books in the former Russian Empire.
The Kórmchaia Book, also known as the Books of the Pilot (Russian: Ко́рмчая книга, Ко́рмчая from кормчий, Church Slavonic: кръмьчии 'helmsman, ship's pilot'; Pidalion or Nomocanon, are collections of church and secular law, which constituted guide books for the management of the church and for the church court of Orthodox Slavic countries and were also the transmission of several older texts. They were written in Old Church Slavonic and Old East Slavic.
Merílo Právednoye or Just Measure is a Russian collection of writings from the late 13th or early 14th century, preserved in the copies of the 14th to the 16th centuries. The name was given in modern literature, taken from the first words of this text: "this books is just measure, true weighing...". Just Measure was written in Church Slavonic and Old Russian.
Archbishop Tikhon, is the archbishop of Podolsky and the primate of the diocese of Berlin and Germany of the Russian Orthodox Church; he holds the title of "Archbishop of Berlin and Germany".
The Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (DECR) is one of the synodal institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church. It was established on 4 April 1946.
Metropolitan Ignatius (Deputatov) (Russian: Игнатий (Депутатов), secular name Alexei Mikhailovich Deputatov, Russian: Алексе́й Миха́йлович Депута́тов; born 22 January 1977), is a Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church. He presently holds the title of "Bishop of Saratov and Volsky" as well as being the head of the Saratov Metropolitanate.
Evenki orthography is the orthography of the Evenki language.
The Karelian language is a Baltic Finnic language spoken mostly in the Republic of Karelia (Russia) and Finland. The earliest book of the Bible to be translated in Karelian dates to the 19th century, however the Lord's Prayer is known to have been translated already in the 16th century into Karelian. There have been recently new efforts to create translations into the Karelian language, and there exists two full New Testament translations in Karelian: "Uuzi Sana" in Livvi-Karelian and "Uuši Šana" in Northern Karelian.