Efforts to translate the Bible into modern Russian flourished with the establishment of the Russian Bible Society (RBS) in 1812. Prior to its establishment, the Bible was primarily available in the Church Slavonic recited in liturgical worship. A few efforts to translate the Bible into Russian exist before the establishment of the RBS, but these efforts were limited to only a few books and only reached a small audience. Following the closure of the RBS and a period of unofficial publication of the Russian text, the Holy Synod (the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church) received approval from Tsar Alexander II to resume translation efforts. Although there were disagreements within the Synod (in part, due to a desire to maintain Church Slavonic as the sacred language of the Russian Orthodox Church), a Synodal edition of the four Gospels in Russian was eventually published in 1860. This edition presents the Church Slavonic and Russian text in two columns, with the Church Slavonic on the left and the Russian on the right. The biblical text is followed by a table of lessons that lists the Gospel readings throughout the year.