SELECT TEXTS, MSS.  AND PRINTED EDITIONS OF THE PERSIAN  BIBLE / BIBLICAL BOOKS.

IN PROGRESS 2007-8

An Annotated Bibliography of (lost) texts,  mss. and printed editions of the Persian Bible / Biblical books partly based on Darlow and Moule vol II Pt. III (pp.1201-9 = Persian  [+1209-1211 = Judaeo-Persian])  and Encyclopedia Iranica art. 'Bible' (I:XXX) with select Additions and Images.  

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Stephen Lambden (Ohio Univrsity)

 

Parisot, i.,

• Aphraatis Sapientis Persae Demonstrationes (PS I: 1), Paris 1894, (PS I: 2), Paris 1907.

 

XXX Cent. CE  The Persian translation (from the Syriac?) of the Diatesssaron (c. 170s CE?) of Tatian (d. 173 CE)

The Diatessaron (Greek: “From Four,” or “Out of Four”), is a New Testament Gospel Harmony of the Christian apologist and ultimately encratitic ascetic Tatian (d. c.  173 CE).  The extant Persian version -- apparently translated from the Syriac -- exists  

"Persian Harmony, apparently translated from a Syriac predecessor no later than the thirteenth century (the sequence of harmonization in this Persian Harmony shows that it is a new creation; nevertheless, because its variant readings sometimes agree with Diatessaronic readings, there appears to be some indirect link with the Diatessaron)" (from Petersen's  Review of  R. F. Shedinger, Tatian and the Jewish Scriptures).

Metzger, B.M. 1950

•  ‘Tatian’s Diatessaron and a Persian Harmony of the Gospels’ JBL 69 (1950) 261-280;

G. Messina, 1951

• Diatessaron Persiano (BO 14; Rome, 1951). The manuscript (Laurentian MS XVII) was copied in 1547 by Ibrahim ben Shamas, from an original
  from the thirteenth century; which was translated from a Syriac base...

Higgins , A. J. B. 1952

• `The Persian Gospel Harmony as a Witness to Tatian's Diatessaron' in The Journal of Theological Studies 1952 III (1):83-87.

There  also exists an Arabic version of the Diatesssaron extant in around seven mss. dating from the 11th/12th  centuries CE until  the 19th century. There may be earlier lost earlier Arabic translations of the Diatessaron... A few  Islamicists and biblical or Semitic scholars have associated the Greek- Syriac-Arabic diatessaron with the Injil (Gospel[s])...

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1546 +1547 CE  See D&M No. 7364 cf. 1417-1418 cf. 1745, 1634. 

Fourfold Polyglot Pentateuch including the Judaeo-Persian version of Jacob ben Joseph Tawus ( ADD).

Istanbul (Constantinople] Polyglott Bible, Persian Pentateuch set in Hebrew type, Judaeo-Persian. "Includes a Persian version of the Penateuch made by Jacob ben Joseph Tawus  professor of Persian at the Jewish college founded in Constantinople" (D&M II/3 No. 7364 pp.1209-1210).

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Constantinople: E.G.B. Soncino, 1546. Contains the Pentateuch in Hebrew, Chaldee [Aramaic], Persian and Arabic.

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[1653/5-] 1657 CE = D&M Polyglotts No. 1446.  (The London Polyglot) Contains the Four Gospels in Persian in volume V: add.

 Bishop Brian Walton ( 1600-1661) by Pierre Lombard 

• 1657  Biblica Sacra Polyglotta...Bibliorum Sacrorum Tomus Quintus: Sive Novum D.N. Jesu Christi Testamentum Vol. 5.  ed. Brian Walton. London. Contains the Arabic and Persian New Testament texts.

• 1655-7. 6 Vols. Biblia sacra polyglotta, complectentia textus originales, Hebraicum, cum Pentateucho Samaritano, Chaldaicum, Graecum, [edited by Brian Walton in 6 vols.], Londini: Imprimebat Thomas Roycroft, 1655-7. The Walton or London Poylglot includes the Biblical text in 9 languages:  Hebrew, Greek, Samaritan, Aramaic, Latin, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic and Persian. though the full biblical text is not always reproduced in all of these languages. Full original copies exist, for example, in many universities worldwide including Newcastle University Library (= Robinson Library) and the University of London, King's College London (=  Marsden Collection FOL. R1  and Rare Books Collection FOL. BS1 W17 C).

• Biblia sacra polyglotta, complectentia textus originales, Hebraicum, cum Pentateucho Samaritano, Chaldaicum, Graecum, versionumque antiquarum … cum textuum & versionum Orientalium … Edidit Brianus Waltonus. London: Thomas Roycroft, [1653]-57

• 1655-1657. London: Thomas Roycroft Complectentia textus originales, Hebraicum, cum Pentateucho Samaritano, Chaldaicum, Graecum; versionumque antiquarum, Samaritanae, Graecae LXXII Interp., Chaldaicae, Syriacae, Arabicae, Aethiopicae, Persicae, Vulg. Lat., quicquid comparari poterat. Edidit Brianus Waltonus. 1655-1657. 6 volumes complete, total of 2,938 leaves in large folio format. Frontispiece portrait by P. Lombart; added engraved t.p., maps, and plans by Wenceslaus Hollar. Modern brown half-leather with brown cloth; gilt lettering and trim on the spine.

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1812 CE  Henry Martyn (           ) Persian New Testament. 

• 1st edition St. Petersburg 1812

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1837  The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Translated from the original Greek into Persian by the Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D [fourth edition]  London: Richard Watts for the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1837. 628pp. Presentation copy with Gold edges and Coverwork.