“Bible Stories” in the Chukchi language
May 12, 2022

IBT has published "Bible Stories" in the Chukchi language together with a parallel Russian text. “Bible Stories” is a collection of 58 narrative passages recounting the major Bible events, from the creation of the world to the book of Acts. “Bible Stories” introduces the reader to the world of Scripture and is facilitated by color illustrations for each story.

The Chukchi language belongs to the Paleo-Asiatic language family, and is spoken primarily in the far east of Russia. According to the 2010 census, the Chukchi numbered just under 16,000, with only 4,563 (29%) indicating that they spoke the language. Newspapers, fiction, grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks have been published in Chukchi, but the standardized literary Chukchi language is still in the process of formation. The translation of biblical texts will undoubtedly contribute to its development. The Chukchi Bible translation project stands out among IBT’s northern projects due to the remoteness of the region and the scattered status of the translation team throughout the territory of Russia and other countries.

We hope that publishing the Chukchi and Russian texts together in this edition will reinforce comprehension by the readers. IBT plans to produce an audio recording of this text in 2022, which will be available for listening and downloading from the IBT website. In addition, there will be an app.

Previously published Chukchi Scripture portions include the Gospel of Luke (2004, 2017), the book of Jonah (2018) and Gospel Parables (2021). Readers can get acquainted with the PDF version of “Bible Stories” and the other Chukchi editions in the electronic publications section of the IBT website. There are also apps with the Chukchi Gospel of Luke (Android and iOS) and “Gospel Parables” (Android and iOS).