Moscow, January 17, 2025

Photo: ibt.org.ru The Institute for Bible Translation, dedicated to translating Holy Scripture into the languages of the non-Slavic peoples living in Russia, continues its blessed work with a translation of the Pentateuch in the Karachay-Balkar language.

The new edition is the result of many years of work “and a careful approach to preserving and transmitting the cultural heritage of the Balkar people,” the Institute reports.

The Balkars are a Turkic people, indigenous to Kabardino-Balkaria. Being one people with the Karachays who live in the neighboring Karachay-Cherkess Republic, the Balkars speak the Karachay-Balkar language, which belongs to the Turkic language group. According to the 2021 census, 274,038 people in the Russian Federation speak Karachay-Balkar. This language has official state status in two North Caucasus republics: Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia.

“The translation of the Pentateuch into the Balkar language will make a significant contribution to the culture of the Balkar people and the development of literature in this language,” the Institute writes, “and will also provide an opportunity to become more deeply acquainted with Biblical texts for numerous speakers of this language who live not only in Russia but also abroad—in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan—and are descendants of Balkars who survived deportation in the 20th century.”

Previously, the New Testament (2000), Ruth, Esther, the Book of Daniel (2020), and the Book of Jonah translated into Turkic Karachay-Balkar languageThe Balkars are a Turkic-speaking people, living mainly in the central part of the North Caucasus in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, with a population of 112,924 according to the 2010 census.