Van Dyck Bible Manuscript






Van Dyck  Arabic translation of the Bible  published in the late 1850s

Cornelius Van Dyck (1818-1895), is known especially for his completion of an Arabic translation of the entire Bible that was begun by Eli Smith (1801-1857). Smith began to work on the translation in 1848. From the first, Boutros al-Bistany was associated with him in the work. Sheikh Nasif el-Yazijy had been employed by Smith to review and rewrite all books issued from the Mission Press. First, Boutros al-Bistany made a translation into Arabic from the Hebrew or Greek, with the aid of the Syriac. Then Sheikh Nasif rewrote what had been translated, Smith reviewed Sheikh Nasif’s MSS. by himself and made his own corrections and emendations. Then he and Sheikh Nasif knew no language but Arabic, there was no chance of a foreign idiom escaping, unless from the carelessness of the corrector, and Smith was careful not to let the meaning be sacrificed for a question of Arabic grammar or rhetoric and thus the work went on from year to year.

1855, April 3^rd, Smith reported that the New Testament, Prophecies of Jonah, Joel and Amos had been completed and that the printing of the Pentateuch had reached the end of the 6^th chapter of Exodus. 1856, April 1^st, he stated that in the translation of the Old Testament Scriptures after finishing Nahum he had taken up Isaiah and reached the 53^rd chapter, and that in printing the Pentateuch had advanced to the end of Exodus, and the New Testament to the 16^th chapter of Matthew.

Smith never resumed work. That summer he went to Europe and died Sunday morning, 11^th of January, 1857. By his death, Bistany and Nasif had any further hand in the work for reasons to be stated further on. It was voted that Dr. Van Dyck be designated to carry on the work. Smith did not give the work his final review until it was on the point of being sent to the compositor, and he left questions open for his final decision until then. Dr. Van Dyck took up the work from the beginning of the New Testament and it was finished March 9^th, 1860.

In April, 1860, the Mission directed Dr. Van Dyck to carry on the translation of the Old Testament (Mission record, date April 7^th, 1860). In August 23^rd, 1864, at the special meeting in Abeih, the translator announced the completion of the translation of the previous day, August 22^nd (Mission record, August 23^rd, 1864).

The manuscript of this work, which would become a standard Arabic version of the Bible in the modern period, is among the few hundred manuscripts that are now kept in our modern library at the NEST campus in Beirut. A number of the Arabic manuscripts are grammatical, lexicographical, or scientific works, which Smith and Van Dyck used in preparation of the Arabic Bible translation. 

Among these reference works for the Bible translation project we can mention :

Ø  Al-Misbah al-munir fi gharib al-sharh al-kabir = المصباح المنير في غريب الشرح الكبير / Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Fayyumi,

Ø  Kitab al-Mukhtasar fi sharh kitab talkhis al-miftah = كتاب المختصر في شرح كتاب تلخيص المفتاح / Sa’d al-Din Mas’ud ibn Umar al-Taftazani

Ø  Sharh al-Kafiyah al Hajibiyah (= Sharh al-Hindiyah) = شرح الكافية الحاجيبيه / Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Umar al-Ghaznawi al-Dawlatabadi

Ø  Sharh Mukhtasar al-ma’ani wa-al-bayan li-Talkihis al-Miftah  = شرح مختصر المعاني والبيان لتلخيص المفتاح / Sa’d al Din Mas’ud ibn ‘Umar al Taftazani

Ø  Mughni al labib ‘an kutub al-a’arib = مغني اللبيب عن كتب الاعاريب / ‘Abd Allah ibn Yusuf Ibn Hisham

Ø  Sharh Tashil al Fawayid (= Ta’liq al farayid ‘ala Tashil al-Fawayid ) = شرح تحصيل الفوايد / Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al Damamini

Ø  Mughni al-labib ‘an kutub al-A’arib = مغني اللبيب عن كتب الاعاريب  / ‘Abd Allah ibn Yusuf Ibn Hisham

Ø  Kitab al-Sihah fi al-lughah (= Kitab Taj al-lughah wa-sihah al ‘arabiyah) = كتاب الصحاح في اللغة / Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari

Ø  Manhaj al-salik ila Alfiyat Ibn Malik = منهج السالك الى ألفية ابن مالك / ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Ushmuni

Ø  Al-Qamus al-muhit wa-al-qabus al-wasit fi ma dhahaba min lughat al-‘Arab shamatit = القاموس المحيط والقابوس الوسيط في ما ذهب من لغة العرب شماطيط  / Majd al-Din Muhammad ibn Ya’qub al-Firuzabadi

Ø  Sharh Kitab Talkhis al-Miftah (= “al-Mutawwal”) = شرح كتاب تلخيص المفتاح / Sa’d al Din Mas’ud ibn ‘Umar al Taftazani

Ø  Bible, O.T. Pentateuch. Arabic Samaritan Version al-Tawrah = التوراة /

Ø  Sharh al-ma’ajiz : qissat Musa = شرح المعاجز :  قصة موسى / ‘Abdul ’Umarn (or. ‘Imran; or. ‘Amran ) ibn Salamah ibn Ghazzah ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim

Ø  Azhar al-afkar fi jawahir al-ahjar = أزهار الافكار في جواهر الاحجار  / Sharaf al-Din Ahmad ibn Yusuf al-Tifashi

Ø  Mala yasa’u al-tabiba jahluh = ما لا يسع الطبيب جهله  / Yusuf ibn Ismail al-Juwayni al-Kutubi