To understand what is acceptable to Muslims in Scripture translation and format

Abstract

There are several questions that we need to answer before one can say what is acceptable to the people of other faiths in Scripture translation: What kind of person is our "target audience"? Is he/she a Sunni or a Shi'i, a Durzi or an 'Alawi, an educated or uneducated, urban or rural, Arab or non-Arab, Middle Eastern or South East Asian, North African or sub-Saharan Muslim? And when we speak of scriptures, do we mean the whole Bible, induding the Deuterocanonicals, the NT or portions of it? All of these questions make us think for whom, what and how should we translate. I will try to restrict myself to the educated, urban, Arab Muslim living in the Middle East. From there one could adapt and extend to those of the same faith living in other parts of the world. The people living in this region have been in touch with Christianity throughout their existence and know something about the Christian faith from their scripture, their education in Christian institutions and through their relation with their Christian neighbours. I shall take the NT as our base text to be translated.