Arabic scripture after speaking in tongues

[Sam_777]

Since the Bible (Acts 2:11) mentioned some people were speaking in tongues through the Holy Spirit, which included Arabic, so why no one wrote an Arabic scripture following that incident? also does anyone know when the first Arabic Bible was written?

 

[William_Pitts]

The Smith and Van Dyk*e (SVD) version is what I have in eSword. I believe the date of publication is 1865. There are other translations. When I find more information I will post it.

In the meantime here’s John 3:16

Joh 3:16 لأَنَّهُ هَكَذَا أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ الْعَالَمَ حَتَّى بَذَلَ ابْنَهُ الْوَحِيدَ لِكَيْ لاَ يَهْلِكَ كُلُّ مَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِهِ بَلْ تَكُونُ لَهُ الْحَيَاةُ الأَبَدِيَّةُ.

 

[William_Pitts]

This is from a site called translations hub.

translationshub.com/arabic-translation/arabic-bible.html

“The history of Arabic Bible translation starts off with the translation of ‘Tanakh’ by Saadia Gaon in 10th century. The translation was named ‘Tafsir’.The second translation of Bible in Arabic appeared in 1671, done by the Roman Catholic Church. But the most talked about Arabic Bible is the translation by Van Dyck. The American Bible Society and the Syrian mission funded this translation project. Till date this Van Dyck translation of Arabic Bible is the most popular amongst the Arabic Bible translations.”

 

[Mintaka]

The Bible was translated into Syriac pretty early on, and Syriac is somewhat close to Arabic. But of course, anybody who was interested in trading with the wider world would have known Greek, and there were plenty of Greek copies of the Bible around. Also, Jewish Arabs read Hebrew just like any other group of Jews, so they just read their OT in Hebrew.

It is likely that there were earlier attempts at Arabic translations of all or parts of the Bible, however, and that those were just destroyed. (According to Muslim history, Mohammed had some kind of big birthmark, and had heard that the Bible talked about somebody important like the Messiah who would have a big mark on them. So he desperately wanted to find this passage. He kept going around to Jewish Bible possessors who could only say it was the Mark of Cain he was talking about, and Christian Bible possessors who could only think about Cain and the Mark of the Beast. So Mohammed kept accusing them of lying and hiding stuff from him, or that the Bible had been changed to remove the prophecy about him.)

 

[Claire_from_DE]

In Acts 2 Peter and the apostles were proclaiming the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and all heard them in their own languages. The gospel was preached and spread by word of mouth in the early days of Christianity; there was no urgent rush to put the news about Jesus into writing. Perhaps the Arab believers in Jesus were more interested in living the gospel than they were in writing down what they had heard.

 

[Sam_777]

"The history of Arabic Bible translation starts off with the translation of ‘Tanakh’ by Saadia Gaon in 10th century. The translation was named ‘Tafsir’.

Thanks for this information.

The Bible was translated into Syriac pretty early on, and Syriac is somewhat close to Arabic.

Do you know which year that was?

In Acts 2 Peter and the apostles were proclaiming the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and all heard them in their own languages. The gospel was preached and spread by word of mouth in the early days of Christianity; there was no urgent rush to put the news about Jesus into writing. Perhaps the Arab believers in Jesus were more interested in living the gospel than they were in writing down what they had heard.

I agree with you about spreading the words of Jesus by mouth for few years, but I think after 100 years or so, some sort of Arabic scripture would be more practical specially when preaching for remote countries.

 

[jbuttrey]

Aramaic must have had some written text for all the middle eastern people.

 

[NHInsider]

Thanks for this information.

Do you know which year that was?

Earliest copies extant are from the fifth century, but indications from citations are that the translation dates to the late second century.

I agree with you about spreading the words of Jesus by mouth for few years, but I think after 100 years or so, some sort of Arabic scripture would be more practical specially when preaching for remote countries.

Keep in mind that the canon of the New Testament wasn’t even set until the mid-fourth century, and the latest books that were determined to be canonical were written at the very end of the first century, possibly even the beginning of the second.

Also keep in mind that the vast majority of people were illiterate, so the proclamation of the Gospel was by word of mouth, not by “print” (books were not, of course, printed, they were hand-copied on vellum, costing 3 years’ wages and far too large tuck under your arm while going door-to-door . . .) those who were literate were able to read Greek, as it was the language of the empire, the way that people from far-flung regions communicated with each other.

 

[Sam_777]

Earliest copies extant are from the fifth century, but indications from citations are that the translation dates to the late second century.

Keep in mind that the canon of the New Testament wasn’t even set until the mid-fourth century, and the latest books that were determined to be canonical were written at the very end of the first century, possibly even the beginning of the second.

Also keep in mind that the vast majority of people were illiterate, so the proclamation of the Gospel was by word of mouth, not by “print” (books were not, of course, printed, they were hand-copied on vellum, costing 3 years’ wages and far too large tuck under your arm while going door-to-door . . .) those who were literate were able to read Greek, as it was the language of the empire, the way that people from far-flung regions communicated with each other.

Thanks.