Bulgarian

In God’s sovereign purposes (which at times are mysterious to us) our Bulgarian reviser, Spassimir Stantchev, passed away on Friday 2 April 2021 at the age of 46. He had been increasingly unwell for the past couple of years. It is hoped to pay tribute to Spassimir in a later edition of our Quarterly Record magazine.

In 2014 Spassimir began to revise the first Bulgarian Protestant Bible, widely known as the ‘Constantinople’ or ‘Slaveikov’ Bible, which was first published in 1871 in Constantinople (Istanbul). In 2018 5,000 copies of the revised Bulgarian John were printed, these continue to be distributed both in print and online (the text is available here on the Society’s online Bible). In addition, with Spassimir’s help, we were able to publish a Bulgarian Words of Life calendar for 2022, the first one in this language.

While we have a native proofreader who is supportive of the Society’s textual and translational position, as yet we do not have someone suitably qualified to take on Spassimir’s revision work. We pray for the Lord’s overruling in this sad situation. ‘And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them’ (Revelation 14.13).