Canonical Christian scripture in Arabic

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larry
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Canonical Christian scripture in Arabic

Postby larry » Thu Jun 30, 2022 8:07 am

Dear friends,

Are there any canonical Christian scriptures or any other Christian writings translated into Arabic before the rise of Islam?

Warm regards,
larry

Jonah-admin
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Re: Canonical Christian scripture in Arabic

Postby Jonah-admin » Thu Jun 30, 2022 10:35 am

Interesting question! I personally have no information, but a Google search brought up https://truemeaningarabic.org/history-of-the-arabic-bible/ which says:
At the time of the emergence of Islam there is no evidence of a Bible in Arabic. Christian and Jewish communities used Scriptures in Hebrew, Aramaic, Ethiopic, and Greek in their worship. The earliest surviving Arabic Bible texts date from the 9th Century, but the translations themselves may be older.

Now of course, because the Christian Bible itself wasn't actually codified until 692, so a more general -- and possibly unanswerable -- Google search would have to be, were any writings of the early followers of Jesus translated into Arabic?

larry
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:04 pm

Re: Canonical Christian scripture in Arabic

Postby larry » Fri Jul 01, 2022 2:09 pm

Thank you Jonah for taking the time to respond. Your searching tip led to other scholarly sources regarding this subject of Christian scriptures being written in Arabic before the writing of the Quran. Gleaning some of these sources it seems certain that some Christian writings were written in Arabic before the emergence of Islam but as you pointed out in your example no Arabic Bible prior to Islam seems to have existed from current research.
There is a paper titled "When Did the Bible Become an Arabic Scripture?" by Sidney H. Griffith. This is an engaging read for those interested in this topic.


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