Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavel, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, headed a solemn presentation of the new translation of the New Testament into Belarusian. The publication is the result of 25 years of labor, reports the site of the Belarusian Orthodox Church. The presentation took place in the ancient Belarusian city of Potolsk as part of the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Belarusian and Eastern Slavic book printing, the 1155th anniversary of Potolsk, and the Day of Belarusian Writing. The ceremony was attended by Archbishop Theodosy of Potolsk, Bishop Pavel of Maladzyechna, the chairman of the Publishing Council of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, and the director of the Belarusian National Library Roman Stepanovich Motulsky.

At the presentation, Met. Pavel noted that the translation of the New Testament in modern literary Belarusian is truly an historic event not only for the Belarusian Orthodox Church, but for the whole of the Republic of Belarus. The publication is the result of 25 years of work by the Biblical Commission of the Belarusian Orthodox Church. The beginning of this work was laid by the Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios, and Francisk (George in holy Baptism) Skorina.

The translation was completed on a high professional level by specialists in the field of theology, Biblical studies, and philology. The text was translated from Greek, and cross-checked with English, German, Czech, Romanian, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian and French translations, according to belsat.eu. The book was published thanks to the efforts of the Publishing Council of the Belarusian Orthodox Church and the Biblical Society.

Met. Pavel expressed his deep, heartfelt gratitude to all involved in the labor of the translation, and expressed hope that the New Testament in the Belarusian language would become a recognized asset of Belarusian national culture. (Quelle: www.orthochristian.com, 4. September 2017)