Arabic bible edition.

Submitted by zzazzeefrazzee (United States), Jan 1, 2008 at 17:53

Thanks for posting the Arabic, Greek, and Hebrew texts, as it is good to know that I can use Unicode on these boards.

This text is taken from the Smith, Van Dyke, & Bustani translation of about 1865, apparently the edition used by many American Protestant missions. Here is John 3:16:

لأَنَّهُ هكَذَا أَحَبَّ اللهُ الْعَالَمَ حَتَّى بَذَلَ ابْنَهُ الْوَحِيدَ، لِكَيْ لاَ يَهْلِكَ كُلُّ مَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِهِ، بَلْ تَكُونُ لَهُ الْحَيَاةُ الأَبَدِي

As far as the concept of names and that of a "greatest name", I think that this is also shared with Islamic traditions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Names_of_God_in_the_Qur%27an

In addition, I understand that "Allah" is an elision comprised of two parts , the definite article "al", and "ilah", meaning divinity, divine spirit etc. "Ilah" is the same as "Eloh"in Hebrew, which when given the plural ending "-im", becomes "Elohim". Arabic uses the definite article "the" to articulate the nature of "Allah" as an "only" God, whereas Hebrew uses the plural form used to show respect.

As to how Jews and Christians translate sacred texts into Arabic, you might consult the Mt. Sinai manuscript facsimile editions, or look into the Arabo-hebrew literature of Cairo Geniza or Karaite Jewish translations to see if they ever equated "Allah" in Arabic with YHVH or for Adonai, Ehieh, etc etc.

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