New Russian Scripture to boost evangelism

MOSCOW, Russia — A new translation of the Russian New Testament, entitled Radostnaya Vest (Joyful News), is set to boost the efforts of churches and evangelists in their outreach to new believers and non-Christians. The new Scripture, published by the Bible Society in Russia (BSR), was officially launched during the International Christian Bookfair, held in St Petersburg from October 24-27.

Translated by Valentina Kuznetsova of the BSR from the original Greek into modern Russian using the dynamic equivalence method, and edited by a committee of scholars, philologists and historians, the New Testament is easy to understand and is proving an ideal tool in evangelism.

Well known

The translation is already well known among the Christian community because a number of Scripture Portions were published, to critical acclaim, during the late 1990s by the BSR and other publishers. One woman who leads a Bible study for non-Christians said that the participants in her group asked her if they could use the new translation, because it contained “normal language.”

The Bible currently used in most churches in Russia is the Synodal Version, published in 1856 and based on the Old Church Slavonic text – the official Bible of the Russian Orthodox Church. Many people find the language in this version difficult to understand but it is still preferred by some as the traditional biblical text. In general, however, churches have embraced the new translation and are actively using it in their evangelism activities.

Assassinated

The New Testament translation project was initiated in the 1980s by Father Alexander Men, a prominent priest and scholar of the Russian Orthodox Church who was assassinated in September 1990. He strongly felt that the Christian Church in Russia needed a Bible that would clearly reveal the Word of God to believers and those who sought Christ.