A historic project has been launched in Tartu University’s School of Theology and Religious Studies, namely creating a new translation of the whole Bible into Estonian.
Over the next decade, the Bible will be retranslated from its original languages in a cooperative project involving the Estonian Council of Churches, The Estonian Bible Society, and other Theological Higher Education Institutions.
The Bible 2039 project is made up of three phases: a new translation of the Bible for the general public, an academic translation with commentary, and a new approach to the history of Bible translation.
A Bible translation task force was formed in January of 2025, which is made up of nine translators and multiple advisors. BTMS is also involved in this work, with our teachers Anne Saluraid, MA, and Hindrek Taavet Taimla, MA, being on the task force. Two meetings have already taken place, discussing primary principles for the translation, and work has begun on the Gospel of Mark, Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, and the books of Jonah, Proverbs, and Esther.
At the February 27 meeting of the Estonian Church Council, a committee for the Bible translation was announced, headed by Erkki Tamm and Priit Rohtmets, that has members from the Estonian Bible Society and various Estonian Theological schools. Although the translation will be created in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at Tartu University, it is a cooperative project with a wide scope and dozens of specialists and faith practitioners contributing to it.
The task force will be aided by the Estonian Church Council committee in their task to complete and publish the new translation by the 2039 deadline, which is also the 300-year anniversary of the first Estonian translation of the Bible. Test translations will be published in the coming years as they come out on the Estonian Bible Society’s Scripture-reading webpage piibel.net, whose task it will also be to publish the paperback editions of the complete new translation.
Sources: School of Theology and Religious Studies at Tartu University, Estonian Church Council