Translation update

Bringing Biblical teaching to the Russian speaking world

We are delighted to be able to give an update on our Russian translation of Michael Eaton’s Preaching through the Bible - Mark. 

Translating Biblical reading and teaching materials requires very specialist skills, so we are especially careful in the selection of our translators. We work with those who have proven skill and expertise. 

Our team of three experienced (but part-time) Russian translators has previously translated the first 17 chapters of Michael Eaton’s Preaching through the Bible book on Mark. They are currently completing the remaining chapters which will shortly be uploaded to our Slices website (www.slices.org.uk). 

Slices is our online resource for the Preaching through the Bible series for pastors across the globe. Several of Michael Eaton’s PTTB titles have been reformatted onto A4 pages chapter by chapter. Pastors can use these as resources for preaching and teaching or for personal and group study as they need them. They have proven very popular with pastors from many different nations. Other titles have also been translated into other languages including Somali, Hindi and Spanish. 

Translating for a Russian readership does carry some particular challenges. In the Russian speaking world, new Christians can either have very little knowledge of Christian teaching because of their Communist background or conversely they may have an Orthodox Church background, which is very traditional and uses a very old synodic translation of the Bible, their equivalent to our King James. 

Michael Eaton’s teaching comes with a fresh approach which is quite different and uses a more modern, universally accessible language. So the suitability for both readerships has to be born in mind. Translation is a collaborative exercise and there often needs to be a technical discussion find the best way to render a sentence. The whole process is not straightforward and to do it well requires time and considerable consultation. We feel it’s important to get a good result rather than a quick one! But we now are poised to release the next five chapters. 

Other translation programmes in the pipeline include Swahili and Chichewa.