The translation of the bible: an American-Arab cooperation
There were four actors directly involved in the first Bible translation of the 19th century. Eli Smith[1] was a missionary with the American Board of Commissioners For Foreign Missions (ABCFM). He spent some time in Malta in 1826 in the capacity of director of the American Mission Press, as that island was at the time thought to be the only place in the central or Eastern Mediterranean where a Protestant press could safely operate. In the Ottoman Empire, Protestant missionaries were confronted with radical opposition from the Muslim populations and the not infrequently violent hostility of the Catholic and Orthodox communities. Eli Smith, who was fluent in many languages, was appointed to run a new initiative. In 1834, he and his wife settled down in Beirut for good, tasked with the running of the printing house which had been moved from Malta four years before, there to operate in a society in which the means to reproduce the written word had been forbidden for several centuries. He had lived with country folk in the Mountain East of Beirut, as he needed to master Arabic both in its classical and demotic forms in order to be able to use it in every situation possible. However, he sought a native translator whose thorough mastery of Arabic would enable him to pass on the Biblical message more dependably. Butrus Bustani, his assistant was put in charge of the preliminary outline of the Arabic translation in the American Press' scheme of work.
Butrus al Bustani[3] became the Protestant missionaries' friend. After studying theology at the Maronite school of Ayn Warqa, he taught languages at the Jesuit College; he was recruited by Smith to collaborate with the Beirut Mission wherein he converted to Protestantism. He taught and wrote a number of Mission handbooks as well as some textbooks. Already proficient in Syriac, Latin, Italian and French, he acquired, while working at the translation of the Bible, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. His linguistic activity towards furthering the Arabic language and culture earned him the title of Mu'alim (master) among his many disciples. When he joined him in the framework of the American Press, Nasif Yaziji was already a distinguished scholar though speaking only Arabic. He did not embrace Protestantism and was at times slighted by his employers. But he happened to be alone in a position to help Eli Smith fulfil his ambition, to achieve the finest linguistic standard in order to earn Arab respect.
Belonging to Butrus Bustani's peer group, Cornelius Van Alan Van Dyck[5] was the youngest American to be sent to Ottoman Syria, he arrived on 2 April 1840 after medical training and with no theological formation. Over the following seventeen years, he came to master Arabic, Syriac, Hebrew, Greek, French, Italian and German. His facility for languages was backed by an exceptional memory which probably also contributed to his brilliance in medicine, astronomy, advanced maths and linguistics. At the Mission's yearly meeting a committee was set to evaluate and draft a report on the progress of the project he had directed. The committee was unanimous in acknowledging the truthfulness of the translation of the New Testament and in recommending the continuation of the work. It assigned Van Dyck to the ambitious and fundamental task of breaking into a society by taking part in the modernisation of its language while respecting its fundamental features. This mission would slot in the broad outline given, 150 years hence by Dr Krijn Van der Jagt, professor of Biblical theology and translation advisor to the United Bible Societies (UBS)
