In Ukraine, with its 1,000-year Christian history, the Bible Society has existed for the past decade
The Ukrainian Bible Society (UBC) recently marked its tenth anniversary, coinciding with Ukraine’s independence. The Teacher’s House hosted a solemn observance involving representatives of various Christian churches and confessions, scholars, secular dignitaries, and men of the arts.
The Bible Society, the first of its kind in Ukrainian history, is one of few actual manifestations of civil society in this country, in that it is truly independent of the state, an exercise in self-organization discharging a vastly important spiritual function — the translation, publication, and dissemination of the Old and New Testament, and literature necessary to correctly interpret the Scriptures (commentaries, dictionaries, encyclopedias, books for children, etc.) — because “The Scriptures must be read not only in church, but also among friends, in the family circle, and to oneself, being alone with The Book.” This quote from Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky was cited at the academy by the Rev. Master Taras Borshchevsky of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. He was echoed by Pastor Dr. Volodymyr Matviyiv of the Evangelical Christian Baptist Union: “Every school student must have The Holy Bible in his bag, and the president of this country must have a copy in his briefcase.”
Bible societies date from the late seventeenth century, when the first such organizations emerged in Britain to disseminate The Word. The British and Foreign Bible Society appeared in London in 1804, marking a quick spread of similar organizations in Europe and the United States. At present, the Association of United Bible Societies is made up of some 90 organizations representing 200 countries. At the time the first Bible societies appeared, the Scripture and parts thereof existed in 67 languages. Today, The Word is available in 2,123 languages (as translations into 6,500 basic languages and vernaculars used all over the world). The Holy Bible has long topped the list of all publications available. In 1996, UBC became an associate member of the World Association of Bible Societies.
During the anniversary festivities, UBC President Pastor Anatoly Hlukhivsky reminded those present of a historical injustice: “We are a people with a thousand-year Christian tradition, yet we could establish our own Bible Society only in 1991. The Scriptures were cited in Kyiv churches a thousand years ago, while other peoples were still denied the Light of His Teaching. The reasons are universally known. And I personally see a gesture of grace by the Mother of God in the fact that our Bible Society emerged at the dawn of revival of the Ukrainian national state; we stepped into Independent Ukraine with The Holy Bible in hand, carrying The Book for all to see, not concealing it under our clothes, as we had to during the ignominious totalitarian period. We have not been sitting back over the past decade, and we have something to state to our credit; in the years of Independence, the Bible Society has promulgated several times more copies of The Word and other biblical sources than was done in the previous millennium. To be precise, we have published almost 3.5 million copies of such literature.” These include Gospels in Braille. Sets of audiocassettes with the unabridged text of the New Testament are being prepared.
The UBC unites religious figures representing if not all Ukrainian churches, then all branches of Christianity: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, and Protestants of various denominations. This is a very important phenomenon now that Ukraine is living through a period of interfaith confrontation. In 1991, the UBC was founded by clergymen representing five churches; at present, it is made up of 15 collective members, including 14 churches. The UBC membership includes all the best represented churches, along with a multitude of adherents of small churches. The Evangelical Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland — EKD) is among its founding members. The only secular collective member is the National Academy’s Institute of Philosophy whose scholars are actively involved in the editing and verifying of translations. I might be wrong, but the Protestant churches — the Evangelical Christian Baptist Union, Evangelical Christians (Pentecostals), Seventh Day Adventists, et al. — seem the most active UBC members.
All this confessional heterogeneity notwithstanding, the joint UBC sittings, involving clergymen representing the split Orthodox churches, were invariably dominated by a businesslike atmosphere, implying friend liness, tolerance, and equality. Volodymyr Krupsky, president of the Seventh Day Adventists, summed it up: “His Word unites and never disunites people.”
UBC Vice President Prof. Dmytro Stepovyk told about the society’s first steps: “From the inception it was decided to reduce our efforts to three directions: modern Ukrainian translations of the Scriptures, publication, and promulgation of The Word. At the beginning we all had strong doubts about our actual possibilities in either direction. None was materially secure, and we had no reliable finance sources. Where could we find experts on Hebrew and Ancient Greek to do the translations? All the print shops were still controlled by the geriatric Communist leadership. We were desperate because we knew there was an acute shortage of copies of The Holy Bible in Ukrainian society. It is strange to recall, but not all of the UBC board members had copies, let alone texts in Ukrainian. But the Lord was on our side and we overcame all our fears quickly, as evidenced by almost 4 million copies of biblical literature.”
The UBC takes pride in its recent unabridged Ukrainian version of the New Testament. It should be noted that only three translations were previously done throughout the Christian history of Rus’-Ukraine. Translations from the Scriptures require more than profound knowledge of several languages, including ancient, “dead” ones. Translators of biblical texts have to be historians, linguists, theologians, and exegetes; last but not least, they must be experts on their mother tongue. The Holy Bible is a collection of original texts drawn up over centuries and in different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Ancient Greek. Both the realities and meaning of so many words have since undergone drastic change.
Working on such translations, the scholars have always relied on three universally recognized biblical versions, primarily the first Old Greek translation from Hebrew, done in BC- 3-2. It is said to have been done in Egypt, by seventy Judaic sages; hence the name Septuagint, from the Greek septuaginta, or seventy. The second unabridged Latin translation, known as the Vulgate (Latin vulgata editio, “popular edition”), was done by St. Jerome in the fourth century. The third, using Church Slavonic and being of special importance to the Slavic world, belongs to Sts. Cyril and Methodius, known as the Apostles of the Slavs.
The first Ukrainian translation of the Bible was done by Panteleimon Kulish, writer, historian, and ethnographer. Prof. Stepovyk believes that he was inspired by none other than Taras Shevchenko. Panteleimon Kulish spent many years doing his translation; it was a complicated, even dramatic process. Four Gospels translated by him came off the presses in 1872, but the author experienced a true disaster afterward; the only manuscript of his almost complete Ukrainian version of the Old Testament perished in a fire at his village of Motronivka (in the vicinity of Chernihiv). Despair, age, and his deteriorating physical condition notwithstanding, he set about restoring the text, but died before he could finish it. The task was taken over by two friends, writer Nechui-Levytsky and scholar Ivan Pulyui. The first unabridged Ukrainian version was published in 1903 — in Vienna, as all Ukrainian translations were now banned in the Russian Empire.
The second Ukrainian translation was done by Prof. Ivan Ohiyenko, Minister of Confessions of the Ukrainian National Republic (1920-21). He would later take the vows and become Metropolitan Hillarion, working on his Ukrainian version in immigration, completing it in 1940. His text is currently used by the Ukrainian Orthodox as well as Protestant churches conducting services in Ukrainian. In the second half of the twentieth century, the third Ukrainian version of The Holy Bible was rendered by Ivan Khomenko (an expert on the Scriptures, classical and modern languages), also in immigration. His translation is known as the “Roman” version of the Ukrainian Bible, markedly idiomatic and accurate. His texts are recited mostly in Greek Catholic churches. The UBC has succeeded in publishing all three Ukrainian versions of the Scriptures.
This summer Lviv witnessed the ceremony of presenting the fourth Ukrainian translation of the New Testament, made by Father Rafayil Turkoniak of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, a scholar and linguist, currently finishing work on the Old Testament. An important role in the project is played by theologians acting as copyreaders, particularly Sister Martha Rik, Ph.D. in theology, and Volodymyr Domashovets. The UBC plans to complete editing and publishing Turkoniak’s Ukrainian translation of the Bible (the Old and the New Testament) in 2003, marking the centennial of the Ukrainian Bible by the intrepid and long-suffering Panteleimon Kulish.
When presenting his New Testament, Father Rafayil said, “I started working on it in 1975, much earlier than the UBC was formed. I was a student in Rome, and the late P atriarch Joseph Slipij, aware of my knowledge of Greek, sent a letter that read in part, ‘You must translate the Scriptures!’ To all my objections I heard ‘You must and you will!’ When starting on the project, I could never imagine that the translation would be made available to the entire Ukrainian nation... Let me stress that this work is the result of combined efforts by our whole community, by all confessions. We will welcome all questions and suggestions... Translators are human and bound to make mistakes. Hard as we tried to keep our translation accurate, we couldn’t help but get ‘creative,’ perhaps adding things absent in the original text, maybe even distorting it in places. I cannot consider myself an exception to the rule, so I would be happy to know that people not only read translations, but also study Hebrew and Ancient Greek, so they can read the original text. The Word addresses one and all in His language, so we must make every effort to learn the Bible, for such is His will.”
I would like to express two thoughts. The first relates to the language of these versions. UBC statistics show that two-thirds of the Society’s printed matter is in Russian. This is understandable, considering that Russian is used in the divine cervices celebrated by approximately the same percentage of the houses of God in Ukraine. It is obvious, however, that the Russian versions of the Bible will be likely to keep the status quo, while an increase in the number of Ukrainian versions would, of course, help assert the national language in Ukraine. Suffice it to recall the impetus produced by Martin Luther’s seminal translation of the New Testament on the establishment of literary German in that country.
Secondly, many people are familiar with the celebrated biblical illustrations of Dore and Carolsfeld, reflecting the entire Divine History. Wouldn’t it be a good idea for the UBC to undertake an illustrated edition of the Bible, with newly translated texts and illustrations and captions contributed by a modern Ukrainian artist — or artists? There is every reason to expect such talent in Ukraine, people who will produce graphic images worthy of the Scriptures, and with a Ukrainian accent (just as Dore and Carolsfeld worthily represented their times and countries).
In conclusion, I would like to quote the UBC, words that might serve as the Society’s motto: “All the Scriptures were inspired by the Lord; they are useful, because they teach, admonish, guide, and educate us in the spirit of justice...” And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life fr eely . (Rev 22:17)
