Persian (Farsi) is an ancient language spoken by over sixty million people, mainly in Iran, formerly called Persia. According to Acts 2:9 there were Persians, Parthians and Medes among the very first new Christian converts at Pentecost. Since then there has been a continuous presence of Christians amongst the Persians, initially as part of the Nestorian Church of the East. The Bible was translated into Persian by Henry Martyn, a contemporary of William Carey, who translated the New Testament. The complete Persian Bible translation was completed in 1838. A revision was published in 1896, now known as the Old Version (OV). A Common Language Persian translation was published in 1976. Persian Bible work is done by the Bible Society in Iran. Today’s Persian Version (TPV) of the Bible was produced in 2007 by the United Bible Societies
