Arabic BIBLES.—In the year 1516, Aug. Justinian, bishop of Nebio, printed at Genoa an Arabic version of the Psalter, with the Hebrew text and Chaldee paraphrase, adding Latin interpretations. There are also Arabic versions of the whole scriptures in the Polyglots of London and Paris; and we have an edition of the Old Testament entire, printed at Rome in 1671, by order of the congregation de propaganda fide; but it is of little esteem, as having been altered agreeably to the vulgate edition. The Arabic Bibles among us are not the same with those used with the Christians in the East. Some learned men take the Arabic version of the Old Testament, printed in the Polyglots, to be that of Saadias, who lived about the year 900; at least in the main. Their reason is, that Aben Ezra, a great antagonist of Saadias, quotes some passages of his version, which are the same with those in the Arabic version of the Polyglots; yet others are of opinion, that Saadias's version is not extant. In 1622, Erpenius printed an Arabic Pentateuch, called also the Pentateuch of Mauritania, as being made by the Jews of Barbary, and for their use. This version is very literal, and esteemed very exact. The four Evangelists have also been published in Arabic, with a Latin version, at Rome, in 1591, folio. These have been since reprinted in the Polyglots of London and Paris, with some little alterations of Gabriel Sionita. Erpenius published an Arabic New Testament entire, as he found it in his manuscript copy, at Leyden, in 1616.
There are some other Arabic versions of late date mentioned by Walton in his Prolegomena; particularly a version of the Psalms preserved in Sion College, London, and another of the Prophets at Oxford; neither of which have been published.