Bible translations into Kurdish

Part of the Bible was first available in the Kurdish language in 1856 in the Kurmanji dialect. The Gospels were translated by Stepan, an Armenian employee of the American Bible Society and were published in 1857. Isaac Grout Bliss, of the ABS, translated the rest of the New Testament, and the entire NT was published in Istanbul by in 1872 in the Armenian Alphabet. A part of the Bible was first available in the Mukri dialect of Sorani Kurdish in 1909. In 1919, of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America finished those parts under the Arabic script under the title Injil Muqqades. Part of the Bible became available in Kermanshahi in 1894.

Modern translations are being done into many different dialects.

Sorani[]

The New Testament was first translated by Ludvig Olsen Fossum and published by the American Bible Society in 1919.

Kurdish Sorani Standard Bible (KSS) is a recent translation of the complete Bible in Sorani Kurdish by Biblica (International Bible Society). It was released in Arabic script version in April 2017.^[1]

Comparison of translations[]

Kurmanji[]

Komela Hêvî û Jiyanê released a translation of the whole Bible as "Kitêba Pîroz". This was translated into Kurmanji Kurdish by Resûlê Qereqoçanî and Seîdê Dewrêş. It was first published in Germany in 2004 by GBV-Dillenburg,^[2] and laterin Turkey by GDK (Gerçeğe Doğru Kitapları).

The Bible Society in Turkey published the New Testament in modern Kurmanji in 2005. The Psalms were added in a subsequent printing (2015). Since then, translation of Old Testament books has been continuing and translations that have been consultant-checked are uploaded to Bible.com^[3] (Also referred to as the YouVersion app).^[4] As of March 2021, 21 of the 39 books of the Old Testament are available for reading there. Audio readings of those books have been made available on SoundCloud^[5] to help oral learners, and to garner feedback on the translations for eventual printing of the whole Bible.

Institute for Bible Translation is translating the Bible for Kurds in the post Soviet Union. The New Testament was completed in 2000 and a revised edition was released in 2011. There is ongoing work on the Old Testament. There work is published in both Cyrillic and Latin editions.

Portions of the Bible have been translated into Behdini (Kurmanji of South Kurdistan): first John's Gospel, then Proverbs (independent of the KLA team), Luke/Acts and in 2019, the whole New Testament.^[6] This translation of the New Testament was completed by KLA (Kurdish Literature Association).

Comparison of translations[]

Zaza[]

The gospel of Luke has been translated into Zazaki Kurdish.^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• Kurdish Christians

External links[]

• Kurdish Bible Online
• 1857 Version
• 1872 Version
• 1919 Version
• Kitabi Piroz (Biblica's Kurdish Bible Online website)
• A KIRMAŞANÎ TRANSLATION OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Article by Mustafa Dehqan

References[]