Open New Arabic Version (ARBNAV)

Overview

The New Arabic Version (NAV), known in Arabic as Kitab al-Hayat (كتاب الحياة, "Book of Life"), is a modern Arabic Bible translation initiated in 1973 by Living Bibles International under the direction of Georges Houssney, a Lebanese Christian based in Beirut. [1] Houssney employed two key translators: Said Baz, who completed the New Testament in 1982, and Dr. Samuel Shahid, who completed the Old Testament in 1988. [1] The translation philosophy was modeled after the New International Version (NIV), and it was originally titled "Book of Life, an interpretive translation" (كتاب الحياة ترجمة تفسيرية). [1] When Living Bibles International merged with the International Bible Society in 1992, the translation was renamed the New Arabic Version (NAV). [1] [2] The NAV has achieved wide acceptance throughout the Arab world, with several million copies in circulation, making it one of the most popular contemporary Arabic Bible translations. It was revised in 1997 and again in 2012 and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license as the "Open New Arabic Version." [3]

Language and People

Arabic (ISO 639-3: arb) is spoken by approximately 350,000,000 people. [Glottolog: stan1318]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Biblica. The translation was originally produced by Living Bibles International (founded 1968 by Kenneth N. Taylor), which merged with the International Bible Society in 1992. [2] The merged organization was renamed Biblica in 2009. [2]

References