New Russian Good News Bible
Russian Bible Society Grants Permission for Distribution of New Russian Good News Bible on Bibliologia Reference CD
On March 4, 2002, Bibliologia Bible Reference CD made a significant step forward. For several months we had been trying to get permission to put the newest and most accurate Russian Bible translation on the CD. Our good friend and digital publishing partner, Alexei Bychkov, interceded on our behalf with the Russian Bible Society. He told them of the validity of our purpose and the great need of remote Bible students to be able to access a good translation of the Bible. At long last we were granted permission. Dr Bychkov is the president of Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary and a board member of the Bible Society. He had previously gotten us permission to put the Barkley New Testament Commentary on our CD.
The Bible Society has a rich history in its goals of bringing the Word of God to the Russian-speaking world. The following is a history of the Bible Society and the history of this new translation as given by Dr. Anatoly Rudenko, executive director.
The Russian Bible Society was founded in St Petersburg with the permission and support of Tsar Nicholas the First and help from the British Bible Society in 1813. This was three years before the founding of the American Bible Society. In 1824 the first Russian modern language New Testament was published. The society also published partial Bibles in 24 other non-Slavic languages. Due to pressure from religious and political groups the Bible society was closed in 1826.
Even though the work of this initial Russian Bible Society was the foundation for the later published Russian Synodal Bible, the Society was not allowed to exist as an organization again until 1991. In that year a small group of Orthodox and Protestant leaders gained permission to reestablish the society. Full information about its current projects and activities can be found at its website www.biblia.ru.
In 1986 a well known Greek and Russian scholar, Valentina Kuznetsova, started a new translation of the New Testament from the Nestle Aland 27 Greek text. In 1991 she was hired by the Bible Society to continue and intensify her efforts to complete the work. In 1994 she spent a year at Aberdeen Scotland to improve her knowledge of New Testament Greek and improve the quality of her translation work.
In 1998 after a long editing and review process the text and textual notes were completed. The notes are extensive and are nearly as large as the New Testament itself. Although Valentina is the sole translator of the work; it was edited by a foremost stylistic editor, and a team of Biblical Scholars and UBS consultants. After working through 9,000 text issues in a very thorough commenting and reconciling procedure, this team has released the translation to the Society to be published as a trial version. They are asking for feedback to further improve its accuracy and readability in a future release.
We are very privileged to have this outstanding work on Bibliologia. We also received permission to put all 8 of the RBS completed Old Testament books on our Bible reference CD. The society expects to complete the Old Testament by 2008. Even though this Good News Bible is relatively new, it has already won wide approval and accounts for nearly a third of current Russian language New Testament purchases. Only the Russian Synodal exceeds it in current popularity.
We are the first publishing group to be granted permission to distribute the new Good News Russian translation. The text had to be reformatted to be useable on our Bible Quote search and display program. The Bible Society elected to do this 6-week project for us at their expense. We praise God for His provision in this breakthrough to get the very best translation of His Word for our Bibliologia digital publishing project. This Bible reference study CD will soon be in the hands of most pastors and Bible students in the Russian-speaking world.
