Hastening after the Glimmer of Dawn A Personal Judaeo Arabic Translation of Ecclesiastes Biblia Arabica (original) (raw)
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Three Fragments of a Judaeo-Arabic Translation of Ecclesiastes with Full Tiberian Vocalisation
Intellectual History of the Islamicate World, 2021
Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts with complete vocalisation are rare, a problem which makes reconstructing the pronunciation of the medieval language challenging. This study presents an edition of a Judaeo-Arabic translation of Ecclesiastes from the Cairo Genizah with full Tiberian vocalisation. This manuscript exhibits noteworthy features of dialectal medieval Arabic and a palaeographic style which places it in twelfth-century Egypt-Palestine. The transcription system provides specific evidence for the pronunciation of a type of medieval Judaeo-Arabic, while the translation offers a window into the culture of popular Bible translations and scribal activity in the medieval Middle East.
This article presents a study of Ezekiel 1 in five unpublished Christian Arabic manuscripts dated from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries. We will demonstrate that the manuscripts, in principal, represent two different versions. Both versions are based on the Syriac Peshiṭṭa but various degrees of influence from the Septuagint are evident. Our main aim is to examine the approach to translation exhibited in the manuscripts. In general, the earliest witness represents a literal translation which pays attention to structural affinity but allows for minor deviations, mainly omissions for the sake of the target language. In the younger manuscripts, an increasing number of additions are introduced as a means of commenting, clarifying and ornamenting the biblical narrative. It appears that texts in the traditional liturgical languages were still in use, which explains their non-literal and target-oriented character.
The Translation of the Bible Into Arabic 19 February
The pioneer missionaries who sponsored and worked on the translation of the Bible in Beirut, were churchmen and operated within confessional contexts. They adhered to the early Ecumenical Creeds, and to the Reformed Catechisms and Confessions of Faith. They were not innovators, but reformers. Part of being Confessionally Protestant (whether Lutheran, Reformed, or Anglican) is to believe that the primary means of grace is the preaching of the Word of God. While emphasizing the importance of the written text of the Bible, the missionaries realized that converts needed more than a Bible translation. A.A. Hodge’s book on Systematic Theology was translated, and commentaries on the Old and New Testaments were provided in Arabic. The Psalter was translated, and we sang it in a beautiful Arabic poetic style. Also, Arabic hymns were composed by Evangelical (Presbyterian) converts. One American missionary, the Rev. George Ford had the gift of composing Arabic hymns, a talent that I had coveted but never obtained!