Einboden/Qur'an and Kerygma, 4. “Adheres to the Arabic Idiom”

Reaching up to early-modern Europe in Chapter 3, Chapter 4 of The Qur’ān & Kerygma stays centered in this era and area, offering a sustained case study involving the 17th-century papal confessor and Qur’ān translator, Ludovico Marracci. Now known for his Alcorani Textus Universus – a Latin rendition of the Muslim scripture published in 1698 – Marracci’s career also included another scriptural translation which forms Chapter 4’s primary focus, reading the 1671 Biblia Sacra Arabica. Translating the Vulgate for Middle Eastern Christians, the Biblia Sacra Arabica emerges as a mirror for Marracci’s Alcorani Textus Universus, not rendering Qur’ānic Arabic into Latin, but rendering Latin into Qur’ānic Arabic, ironically infusing Muslim idioms into this proselytizing Christian translation.