A Literal Translation for Arabic Speakers
Blue Letter Bible has been blessed by God to reach all corners of the world with our tools and resources. It is immensely humbling to be used in such a significant manner for the spread of God’s gospel. Thusly, our ministry has desired to provide as many international and multilingual resources as possible. With that desire to expand our resources to include additional languages, we are excited to add the Smith & Van Dyck Arabic translation to our version library.
Work on this translation began back in the mid-1800s by Reverend Eli Smith. After thoroughly studying and learning the Arabic language, Smith began an effort to translate the entire Bible into Arabic in 1848. By 1851, the Syria Mission was fully supporting Smith’s efforts. Though he completed translating a vast majority of the Bible, Smith sadly passed away in 1857 after nine years of work.
Shortly thereafter, the mission appointed Dr. Van Dyck to continue the work. The translation had come under the purview of the American Bible Society, however, which according to the Arabic Bible Outreach Ministry website, “required a strict adherence to the Textus Receptus of Hahn’s Greek Testament.” This led to Van Dyck revising every verse in the New Testament, using the basis left by Smith to engage in re-translation. He also translated the remaining books from the Old Testament, consisting mainly of the prophetic books. He completed his work on August 22, 1864. The complete Arabic Bible went to print in March of the next year, nearly two decades after Smith began the work in the 1840s.
It is so amazing to see how God had His hand upon this thoughtful translation. To learn more about the Smith & Van Dyck Arabic translation, we highly recommend reading the history of the translation at the official Arabic Bible Outreach Ministry website.