First Gospel of Mark in Khanty

HELSINKI, Finland — The Khanty people of western Siberia have been celebrating receiving the first complete book of the Bible in their own language.

The launch of the Gospel of Mark took place recently in St Petersburg as part of a week-long conference for linguists and teachers of Northern languages.

Mansi

The event also saw the launch of the first new translation of the same Gospel into the Mansi language since the 19th century. Very few people nowadays can speak the old dialect because the language has changed so much since then.

The Khanty and Mansi projects form part of the translation of Scriptures into the 12 Finno-Ugric languages which is one of the main continuing projects of the Finnish Bible Society.

The project was a long one involving many people. Anita Laakso, of the Institute for Bible Translation, likened the translators to explorers undertaking an expedition.

“In translating into Khanty and Mansi we have had the privilege of working with our language-gifted brothers and sisters,” she said. Although the message itself was universal, “all peoples have their unique way of expressing the Bible truths in their own language.”

Juhani Makkonen, an exegetical checker, said his Khanty colleagues had taught him a lot about their traditions, culture and moral principles. Their three most important principles were respect for older people, honesty and harmonious co-existence with nature.

“Western society could learn much from the Khanty and Mansi peoples regarding sustainable development and an ecological way of life,” he said.

Khanty and Mansi students were among the many groups who contributed to both the translation projects, particularly in giving comments on the intelligibility of the translation. Diana Gerasimova, a teacher at the Faculty of Northern Peoples at the Herzen University in St Petersburg, reminded the students at the launch that only one book had so far been completed.

“The work continues and there is plenty to do – for you and your children!” she said.

Free

Everyone present was given a free copy of both Gospels. The translation teams asked for further comments, in return, about the language and spelling since all books published before the completion of the New Testament are treated as trial versions. Some official statistics reckon there are 21,000 Khanty and 8,000 Mansi. (WR 366/5 - 1/2.02) [PHOTOS].