Bible translations into Persian 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 In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Complete translations of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

from original languages were first made in the 19th century by Protestant missionaries.

Middle Persian

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. These earliest translations into Persian are in the

Pahlavi script Pahlavi is a particular, exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The essential characteristics of Pahlavi are: *the use of a specific Aramaic-derived script; *the incidence of Aramaic words used as heterograms (called '' ...

Medieval translation into New Persian

Parts of the Gospels were first translated into

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

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.

Modern translations

Persian Old Version (POV)

More recently, Henry Thomas Colebrooke's Four Gospels appeared in Calcutta in 1804. A major figure in this work was

Henry Martyn Henry Martyn (18 February 1781 – 16 October 1812) was an Anglican priest and missionary to the peoples of India and Persia. Born in Truro, Cornwall, he was educated at Truro Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge. A chance encount ...

, a contemporary of William Carey. In 1811 he journeyed into

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

(now

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

). Together with Mīrzā Sayyed ʿAlī Khan, he translated the New Testament, completing it in 1812.Persian Bible Translations - Encyclopaedia Iranica
/ref> There he sent a copy of his translation of the New Testament to the Shah. It was published in 1815. In 1845, translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew by William Glen and Mīrzā Moḥammad Jaʿfar was published in Edinburgh. In 1846, a complete Bible consisting of this Old Testament and Martyn's New Testament was published. This translation was later revised by Robert Bruce to utilise Persian language that was more current. This was published in 1895, 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).

Persian Living Bible (PLB)

This is possibly a 1979 translation from the Living Bible by

Living Bibles International Living Bibles International (LBI) (1968–1992) was an American religious publisher dedicated to producing modern language translations of the New Testament in around 100 languages worldwide. The foundation was started by Kenneth N. Taylor as a ...

Contemporary Translation (PCB)

Although it is currently illegal to distribute Christian literature in Persian, ''

Contemporary Translation'', also known as ''Tarjome-ye Tafsiri'' (''Interpretative Translation'', ترجمه تفسیری) was published by the

International Bible Society International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

in 1995. It is a thought-for-thought translation. It is another commonly used translation. The version was revised and republished in 2003.

Today's Persian Version (TPV)

A new thought-for-thought New Testament translation, Common Language Translation, was first published in 1976. 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). It is largely based on Henry Martyn's work. Translation of the Old Testament was not completed until much later. When it was finished, it was published by

United Bible Societies The United Bible Societies (UBS) is a global fellowship of around 150 Bible Societies operating in more than 240 countries and territories. It has working hubs in England, Singapore, Nairobi and Miami. The headquarters are located in Swindon, Eng ...

in 2007. 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. This translation was made and published by the UK-based Elam Ministries, This translation is also available on E-swordانجیل عیسی مسیح – هزارۀ نو
/ref> and a mobile version has also been made.ترجمۀ هزارۀ نو/برای تلفن همراه
/ref>

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

A translation of the New Testament in modern Persian was released by Jehovah's Witnesses in 2014.

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.

Dari (Afghan Persian)

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

(

: , ''Darī,'' pronounced ) refers to the version of

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken a ...

spoken in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, and hence known as Afghan Persian in some western sources. As defined in the

Constitution of Afghanistan Afghanistan is a totalitarian theocracy and emirate in which the Taliban Islamic Movement holds a monopoly on power. Dissent is not permitted, and politics are mostly limited to internal Taliban policy debates and power struggles. As the govern ...

, Dari is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. Spoken by almost half of the population as first language, it also serves as the lingua franca in Afghanistan. The

ian 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

or Gabri of

, a language of the Central Iranian sub-group, spoken in some

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...

communities. Scripture portions were published in Dari for the first time in 1974. In 1982 the complete New Testament was published for the first time by the Pakistan Bible Society in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

. 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). New revision efforts are underway to modernize this volume. As of September 2022, the NT is available online as TDV22.

Tajiki (Persian of Tajikistan)

Versions in the

Tajik language Tajik (Tajik: , , ), also called Tajiki Persian (Tajik: , , ) or Tajiki, is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by Tajiks. It is closely related to neighbouring Dari with which it forms a continuum of mutually intelligi ...

have appeared since the breakup of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

into the independent republics of

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

.Китоби Муқаддас 1992 (KM92) -
/ref>

Comparisons table

References

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.

External links

New Millennium Version Bible (Online), Kalameh
*
Today's Persian Version (TPV)(Online)

Old Persian Version Bible (Online), Wordproject

Old Persian Version Audio Bible (Online), Family Radio

The Old Testament
(London, 1856)
HathiTrust

New Testament in Persian
Revised by Rev. Robert Bruce (London, 1882)
HathiTrust

Today's Dari Version (TDV), AfghanBibles
{{Christianity in Iran

Christianity in Iran Christianity in Afghanistan Persian language Persian literature