I. The polyglot Bible, printed at Paris, 1645, in which I chiefly compared the Arabic translation.
II. The Persian translation, published by the Bible Society in 1825.
III. The German Bible, translated by Martin Luther.
IV. The English Bible, appointed to be read in Churches, 1837.
V. The English translation from the original Hebrew, by John Bellamy, 1818.
VI. The French translation from the original Hebrew, by S. Cahen, 1831.
VII. The French translation, by Messrs. Glaire and M. Frank, 1835.
Here follow some variations which I have remarked in the Persian translation compared with the text of the versions just enumerated. (References are made to the respective copies, by repeating the Roman numbers prefixed to each.)
V. 2. II. III. IV. V. VI. read: “the spirit of God;” I. the Arabic translation has “the winds of God;” VI. “un vent violent (divin) agitait la surface des eaux;” the Dabistan,
“And the _wind of God_ blew upon the face of the water.”
VV. 6. 7. 8. I. the Arabic translation has جلد, _jeld_, “a skin, a volume;” II. پرده, _perdah_, “veil, curtain, fence;” both Arabic and Persian, only figuratively “heaven;” III. German, “veste;” IV. English, and VI. French, “firmament;” V. English, “expanse;” VII. French, “étendue” (atmosphere); the Dabistan رفيعه, “an elevation.”
V. 26. V. Mr. Bellamy objects to the translation of this verse by the words: “Let us make man in our image” (in which all the other versions agree), and he substitutes for it: “We will make man;” in the Dabistan we find, in support of Mr. Bellamy, بكنم آدم, “I will make man.”
V. 6. All the translations have: “a vapor _watered_ the face of the earth;” the Dabistan says: “covered, decked.”
V. 7. All the copies agree in: “he breathed _into his nostrils_ the breath of life;” the Dabistan translates: “into his body.”
V. 8. Every where we read: “God planted a garden _eastward in Eden_;” in the Dabistan: “from old times in Eden;” Mr. Cahen remarks that Onkelos (a Hebrew commentator before our era) interprets in the same manner: “in former times.”
V. 11. We read generally: “Pison: _that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold_;” Messrs. Glaire and Frank add: “l’or _de ce nom_;” in the Dabistan: