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 in little estimation, from having been altered agreeably to the vulgate edition. The Arabic Bibles among us are not the same with those used by the Christians of 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, or at least principally so. 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; but others are of opinion that Saadias's version is not extant. In 1622, Erpenius printed an Arabic Pentateuch, called also the Pentateuch of Mauritania, from having been made by the Jews of Barbary, for their own use. This version is quite literal, and esteemed very exact. The four Evangelists were also published in Arabic, with a Latin version, at Rome, in the year 1591, folio. These have since been reprinted in the Polyglots of London and Paris, with some small 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 recent 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 has been published.