Example of praise for the Arabic translation of the Bible

(2) Translation of the Old Testament

Al-RAWDA HASSAN AFANDI NASSOUH. Is the late Dr Cornelius Van Dyck first in translating the Old Testament into Arbic or had this already been done?

Answer: It is likely that the Old Testament and the Gospels had been translated into Arabic before Islam because Christians were numerous in Arab countries and their language was Arabic. So their priests and theologians translated the Old Testament and the Gospel in their language. It has been proven that John, Bishop of Seville had translated the Bible into Arabic in 750 AD, that is 1146 years ago. Furthermore, in the 9th century AD, Rabbi Saadia Gaon had translated the Bible into Arabic at the famous Talmudic Academies in Babylonia. A part of this translation was printed in Constantinople in 1546 and in Paris in 1645. We mentioned in page 367 of the eighteenth book an ancient Arabic version of the bible found at mount Sinai in the year 438 Hijri, that is some 900 years ago.

In 1620, Archbishop Sergius Risi, Archbishop of Damascus brought together many Arabic versions of the Old Testament and compared them to the Hebrew and Greek versions then produced a modified version that was printed in Roumieh in 1671. Moreover the renowned Ahmad Faris Shidyaq translated the Old Testament and the Gospel with the help of the English society known as the Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and this version was printed in 1857. As for Dr Van Dyck's effort it has been considered by scholars as the most apt of all the translations of the Old Testament.