Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan Bailey" <jonathan.bailey AT gmx.de>]

I am just getting in to this area and don't know much about the Van Dyck
bible, though I have heard that it is in 'biblical Arabic'.

I am not really sure what you mean by a bible in Classical or Koranic
Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic, with very, very few exceptions is classical
Arabic. The single difference that I have run into is that in the Koran and
classical literature, only broken inanimate plurals of both genders of nouns
are modified by singluar feminine adjectives, while in MSA all plurals of
inanimate nouns are modified by feiminine singular adjectives.

I used the term biblical Arabic above because Arabic bibles tend to be
literally translated from the Greek and Hebrew, particularly the Hebrew, and
has a number of qualities unique to a product translated from the Hebrew,
such as the use of the conjunction fa'ith, which is not common in the Koran
or modern literature, but used constantly in Arabic bibles to represent the
vav relative.

Van Dyck claims to be in Modern Standard Arabic, but it is in a style unique
to bibles and not found in the Koran or modern literature. But I don't know
what the big deal is. There isn't much difference between classical Arabic,
biblical Arabic, and modern Arabic. Nobody writes anything in dialect
anyway.

Just why do you need classical Arabic? Could you be confused about what you
need?

I myself have been looking for an older Arabic bible to supplement my
collection of ancient version translations, and have been recommended to
look for the keter taj, apparently a Yemenite bible containing both the
Hebrew and the Arabic translation of Saadia ben Yusuf, a Jew from the Middle
Ages. Apparently this is hard to find. I have not been able to find a Jewish
bookstore that could get it for me. Contacts in Israel might be helpful.

This version will not be terribly different from other, more easily
available versions, however.

Jonathan Bailey

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: Arabic Bible
> From: "Ray Clendenen" <rclende AT lifeway.com>
> Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 14:15:09 -0600
> X-Message-Number: 7
>
> Does anyone know what the Van Dyck Arabic Bible is? I'm looking for a
Bible
> in classical Arabic. Thanks.
>
> Ray Clendenen