Bible translations into Persian Languages have been made since the fourth or fifth century, although few early manuscripts survive. There are both Jewish and Christian translations from the Middle Ages. Complete translations of the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament from original languages were first made in the 19th century by Protestant missionaries.
The only physical survival of pre-Islamic Persian Bible translations are two fragments of Psalms found by Albert von Le Coq found in the Shui pang monastery north of Bulayiq in 1905.[1] These earliest translations into Persian are in the Pahlavi script.
Parts of the Gospels were first translated into Persian in the Persian Diatessaron in the 13th century. Then more sections of the Gospels were translated by the 16th Century Muslim scholar and critic of Christianity Khatun Abadi.[2]
In 1845, translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew by William Glen and Mīrzā Moḥammad Jaʿfar was published in Edinburgh.[3] In 1846, a complete Bible consisting of this Old Testament and Martyn's New Testament was published.[3]
This translation was later revised by Robert Bruce to utilise Persian language that was more current.[5] This was published in 1895,[3] although it is also said to have been published in 1896. This is commonly used and known as the Old Persian Version (OPV), Standard Version or Tarjome-ye Qadim (ترجمه قدیم).
Although it is currently illegal to distribute Christian literature in Persian, Persian Contemporary Translation, also known as Tarjome-ye Tafsiri (Interpretative Translation, ترجمه تفسیری) was published by the International Bible Society in 1995. It is a thought-for-thought translation.[7] It is another commonly used translation. The version was revised and republished in 2003.[8]
Today's Persian Version (TPV)
A new thought-for-thought New Testament translation, Common Language Translation, was first published in 1976.[3] It is also known in Persian as Injil Sharif (Noble Gospel, انجیل شریف) and Mojdeh Baraye Asre Jadid (Good News for A New Age, مژده برای عصر جدید).[9] It is largely based on Henry Martyn's work.[citation needed] Translation of the Old Testament was not completed until much later. When it was finished, it was published by United Bible Societies in 2007.[10][11] This complete translation is known as Today's Persian Version (TPV) and Today's Farsi.
New Millennium Version (NMV)
This version is called "New Millennium Version" (NMV) or "Tarjome-ye Hezâre-ye now" (ترجمه هزارۀ نو). This translation of the Bible in Persian was completed and published in 22nd of Sep 2014.[12] This translation was made and published by the UK-based Elam Ministries,[13] This translation is also available on E-sword[14] and a mobile version has also been made.[15][16]
New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
A translation of the New Testament in modern Persian was released by Jehovah's Witnesses in 2014.[17]
Pirouz Sayyar
A non-missionary version of New Testament (2008), Old Testament (2014) and Deuterocanonical books (2003) is translated by Iranian translator and researcher, Pirouz Sayyar and published in Tehran.
"Dayspring" (سپیده دم) is a translation project of the "New Testament" from the original Greek text into Persian. As of now only the translation of the Gospel of John has been completed and published online. This version emphasizes Persian words and terms while avoiding foreign words and terms, particularly those from Arabic, as much as possible.[18]
Dari (Afghan Persian)
Dari (Persian: دری, Darī, pronounced [dæˈɾi]) refers to the version of Persian language spoken in Afghanistan, and hence known as Afghan Persian in some western sources.[19][20] As defined in the Constitution of Afghanistan, Dari is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. Spoken by almost half of the population as first language,[19] it also serves as the lingua franca in Afghanistan.[21] The Iranian and Afghan dialects of Persian are mutually intelligible to a relatively high degree. Differences are found primarily in the vocabulary and phonology.
Dari, spoken in Afghanistan, should not be confused with Dari or Gabri of Iran, a language of the Central Iranian sub-group, spoken in some Zoroastrian communities.[22][23]
Scripture portions were published in Dari for the first time in 1974.[24] In 1982 the complete New Testament was published for the first time by the Pakistan Bible Society in Lahore.[24] This translation had been translated by an Afghan convert to Christianity, Zia Nodrat using Iranian Persian, English and German versions. Its third edition was published by the Cambridge University Press in England in 1989. Zia Nodrat was working on a Dari translation of the Old Testament, when he disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The complete Bible in Dari was published for the first time in 2008 titled "Today's Dari Version" (TDV08).[25] New revision efforts are underway to modernize this volume. As of September 2022, the NT is available online as TDV22.[26]
In 2021 during the CoVID-19 pandemic Jehovah's Witnesses released virtually the Tajik New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. Some translator's from several countries worked 4 years to complete the translation. [29]
^Kenneth J. Thomas -A Restless Search: A History of Persian Translations of the Bible 2015 1944092021 p.2 "They were in an abandoned Christian monastery located in Shui-pang, north of Bulayiq (nearly a hundred miles southeast of Urumqi).1 In what had evidently been a library, fragments of over nine hundred Christian manuscripts in the Greek, Syriac, Soghdian, and old Turkish languages were discovered. ... One deteriorating fragment of twelve leaves contains several Psalms in Pahlavi Persian, written in the Pahlavi script.,"
^Ometto, Franco, «Khatun Abadi, the Ayatollah who Translated the Gospels», Islamochristiana, 28 (2002), págs
^7.6 THE PERSIAN BIBLE REVISION PROJECT In 1870 Robert Bruce, a Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionary who had recently come to Iran, reported to BFBS that it had been drawn to his attention that some modifications to the New Testament translation by Mirza Seyyed Ali and Henry Martyn would be desirable.
^Kathryn Spellman -Religion and Nation: Iranian Local and Transnational Networks in Britain 2005 1571815775 "The Iranian Christian Fellowship is directly associated to Elam Ministries, and many members of the congregation are either employed by them or in training to become pastors at their headquarters, which is located near Shackleford, Sussex."
^Kenneth J. Thomas -A Restless Search: A History of Persian Translations of the Bible 2015 1944092021 "10.2.4a Elam Ministries. The New Millennium New Testament (A.9.7) is the first Persian translation to be sponsored, translated, and published by an established independent Iranian Christian organization.58 The organization, Elam Ministries, ..."
^Peoples on the Move: Introducing the Nomads of the World - Page 321 0878083529 David J. Phillips - 2001 - The UBS reported that 1,000 copies of the Tajik Bible were distributed in 1993. 65
^ Jehovah's Witnesses official website. Virtual Release of the New World Translation in Tajiki, JUNE 17, 2021 GLOBAL NEWS
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Relevant literature
Thomas, Kenneth with Ali-Ashghar Aghbar. 2015. A Restless Search: A History of Persian Translations of the Bible. (History of Bible Translation, 3.) American Bible Society.
