Andriy Desnitsky: "This is a matter for professionals and readers, not for the prosecutor's office and the court"

"I have been engaged in one way or another in the practice and theory of Bible translation for the past 24 years. These works were carried out at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I have a lot of questions about the New World Translation, and I have spoken and written about this more than once. I consider it unfortunate. But I believe that this question should be decided among themselves by colleagues - orientalists, philologists, and that it has nothing to do with the prosecutor's office, the court and everything else. Here at the Institute of Oriental Studies, behind my back, they study, translate, study the Bible, the Koran, and traditional texts of Buddhism. Then it turns out that at any moment any of our texts, translations, any of our studies can be declared extremist simply because it does not coincide with someone's understanding of these texts. Therefore, for me it is categorically unacceptable. This is a question for professionals and for readers who can choose what to read. But to impose on them a certain unified interpretation as universally binding, in the end, is against the Constitution of Russia, where no religion can be considered a state religion.

Andrey Desnitsky, Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bible translator, biblical scholar.