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Chaldee
| The first translation of the Hebrew writings into any other language that
is recorded was in Chaldee. The original has been lost, but the oldest preserved copy is
that which was made at Alexandria in Egypt ( 200 B.C.), and is called the Septuagint. The
next writing in order of time was made by Onkelos, in Chaldee ( 150 A.D.). This author
(who’s Greek name was Aquila) also translated the Old Testament into Greek around 160
A.D. |
Phenician
Samaritian
| The Samarians were a group of people who separated from the Jews after
the end of their captivity in Babylon ( around 300 B.C.). Their group was composed of Jews
and Chaldaeans, and they built a temple on Mount Gerizim. There, they created a new creed
and copied the Pentateuch for their own use. |
Aramaic (on Egyptian Monuments)
Palmyrene
Rabbinic
Syriac Peshito
| The Syriac language bible was made from translations of the Hebrew and
Greek text around the year 200 A.D., and was obsolete by the beginning of the 4th
century. This work include the Bible and the Apocrypha. |
Arabic
Sample writings
Nischi Arabic
Ethiopic
Armenian
Egyptian:
Coptic
| Coptic is the common colloquial Egyptian. Its roots stem from the New
Egyptian Language and has a large similitude with the version of the Egyptian Language of
the 25th Kingdom (Saees Kingdom named after its Capital: Sa-ElHahgar). Samples
of Coptic writings on papyrus (large images)
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| In addition to the above letters, the Coptic language uses a special
symbol called the "Jenkem" as an apostrophe. The Jenkem looks like the Latin
Apostrophe. The Coptic Language makes use of abbreviations as well, especially with
words that are used frequently. An abbreviated word can be recognized by a bar on its top.
For example, the words for "Jesus Christ" (pronounced Isoos Pi'ekhrestos
in Coptic) are abbreviated as shown below (see also the Copt-Net Logo on top of this
Newsletter):
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IHC nXC (Abbreviated forms of the words "Jesus" and "Christ") |
Greek:
| Samples of Greek manuscripts can be found at
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Hebrew:
| The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters. The original characters are
now called Samaritan, those which appear on Hebrew coins. The present square characters
are of the Chaldee origin, and came into use after the captivity. In the original
writing most of the vowels were omitted. However, in latter years, the school of Masora
introduced vowel points and this derived the name Masoretic. By then, the language was no
longer spoken.
This point in history sees the Hebrew text read differently than the Greek
translations, and begins the separate paths of the Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant
renderings of the bible. |
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