Translation Landscape
Translation Landscape
History of Bible translation into Turkish
Turkish-language Bible translation has a long and layered history. The earliest known effort is Wojciech Bobowski’s (known in Ottoman service as Ali Bey) 17th-century Ottoman Turkish manuscript translation, completed around 1665 and eventually printed in the 19th century. Through the 19th and early 20th centuries, further editions circulated in Arabic and Armenian script, reflecting the multi-script literacy of the late Ottoman Empire, before Atatürk’s 1928 Latin-alphabet reform reshaped Turkish publishing entirely. The Ottoman Arabic-script Kitab-ı Mukaddes (Constantinople, 1878, American Bible Society/British & Foreign Bible Society) served as the standard Bible for Turkish-reading Christians into the 20th century. The Latin-script “Old Translation” of 1941 (Bible Society in Turkey) became the standard Protestant text for decades and remains in print and in active use among some readers today. The modern standard translation now in widest use is Kutsal Kitap Yeni Çeviri (New Testament 1989, full Bible 2001, revised 2008; Turkish Bible Society in cooperation with the Translation Trust), a deliberately contemporary-register translation that favors “öz Türkçe” vocabulary of Turkic origin over Arabic/Persian loanwords where possible, most notably rendering “God” as Tanrı rather than Allah.
Bible translations available in Turkish
| Translation Full Name | Denomination / Publisher | Source Texts | Translation Style | YouVersion Available | Age / Revision | Key Risks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kutsal Kitap Yeni Çeviri (New Translation, TCL02) | Turkish Bible Society / Translation Trust (interconfessional Protestant) | Critical Greek/Hebrew texts (inferred; not independently confirmed) | Moderate, contemporary-register formal-to-dynamic balance | Yes — bible.com/bible/170 | NT 1989, full Bible 2001, revised 2008 | None systematic; the recommended baseline for this Language Package family |
| Turkish Bible, Old Translation (KMEYA) | Bible Society in Turkey | Older textual base, likely Textus Receptus-influenced (inferred) | Formal, more archaic register | Yes — bible.com/bible/2028 | 1941 | Archaic vocabulary less accessible to younger/contemporary readers; still widely trusted by older-generation Protestants |
| Temel Türkçe Tercüme (“Basic Turkish Translation,” TTT) | Publisher not confirmed in research | Not confirmed (inferred: simplified-language edition) | Likely simplified/plain-language (inferred) | Yes — bible.com/bible/3763 | Year not confirmed | Publisher and translation philosophy unconfirmed; verify before citing as authoritative |
| Yorumsuz Türkçe Çeviri (“unannotated/literal Turkish translation,” YTC) | eBible.org | Not confirmed | Likely more literal/formal (inferred from name) | Yes — bible.com/bible/3844 | Year not confirmed | Limited independent verification of publisher and method |
| Kutsal Kitap ve Deuterokanonik Kitaplar (KKDEU) | Publisher not confirmed in research | Not confirmed | Includes deuterocanonical books, for Catholic/Orthodox readers | Yes — bible.com/bible/2308 | Year not confirmed | Publisher/year unconfirmed; deuterocanon inclusion means term choices may differ from the Protestant baseline |
| Cyrillic-script Turkish Bible | British & Foreign Bible Society (historical) | Not confirmed | Historical edition for Cyrillic-reading Turkic communities | Listed on YouVersion (version code in Cyrillic; deep link not independently re-verified) | 19th century | Historical/niche use only; not relevant to standard Latin-script Turkish readers |
| Kitab-ı Mukaddes (Ottoman Arabic-script Bible) | American Bible Society / British & Foreign Bible Society | Not confirmed | Formal, Ottoman-era register | Not on YouVersion | 1878 (Constantinople) | Historical; superseded by Latin-alphabet editions; Arabic-script literacy now rare among Turkish speakers |
| Wojciech Bobowski (Ali Bey) translation | Private manuscript; NT later printed by Bible societies | Not confirmed | Historical, earliest known Ottoman Turkish translation | Not on YouVersion | Manuscript 1665; NT printed 1819, full Bible 1827 | Historical interest only |
| Thomas Cosmades New Testament | Kutsal Söz Yayınları | Not confirmed | Independent evangelical translation effort | Not on YouVersion (unconfirmed) | 1997/1998, revised 2010 | Limited circulation; print only |
| Halk Dilinde İncil (simplified-language New Testament) | Yeni Yaşam Yayınları (New Life Publications) / World Bible Translation Center | Not confirmed | Simplified, plain-language | Not on YouVersion (unconfirmed) | 2012 | Aimed at accessibility; not the doctrinal-precision baseline for this Language Package family |
| Kutsal Kitap Yeni Dünya Çevirisi (Turkish New World Translation) | Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) | Watch Tower’s own revised text | Doctrinally biased, anti-Trinitarian | Not on YouVersion | 2008 | Must never be echoed; see Doctrinal-bias note below |
Doctrinal-bias note
The Turkish New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses) must never be treated as a reference text. Its most widely documented divergence is at John 1:1, where it renders the clause with a lowercase, indefinite “a god” rather than the full-deity rendering standard translations use, a direct doctrinal collision reflecting that group’s denial of Christ’s full deity, and part of a broader, well-documented pattern of anti-Trinitarian textual choices elsewhere in its New Testament. Any Turkish reference material a translator consults should be checked against this known divergence before its phrasing is trusted.
Recommended default version
The recommended default YouVersion version for this Language Package family is Kutsal Kitap Yeni Çeviri 2001, 2008 (version ID 170, code TCL02). It is the most widely used, most contemporary-register standard translation, carries no systematic doctrinal bias affecting core Trinitarian or soteriological vocabulary, and renders passages with full deity-affirming force where the Greek text does (e.g. John 1:1, 8:58), which this Language Package family requires as the baseline rendering wherever equivalent constructions recur.
Worked example — John 3:16:
https://www.bible.com/bible/170/JHN.3.16.TCL02
General hyperlink pattern: https://www.bible.com/bible/170/{BOOK_CODE}.{chapter}.{verse}.TCL02, using the standard three-letter USFM/YouVersion book code (e.g. JHN for John, GAL for Galatians, ROM for Romans). Citations in lesson text should use the Kutsal Kitap Yeni Çeviri book name (e.g. “Yuhanna 3:16” for John, “Galatyalılar” for Galatians), consistent across every curriculum in this Language Package family.