# Temptation (Christianity)



## scetis

The dictionary lists إغراء as the definition of temptation but the Arabic Bible uses تجربة to translate the english word temptation. 

I was wondering if someone could explain the difference between إغراء and تجربة and why the translators chose to use تجربة and not إغراء

Thanks kindly!


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## Mahaodeh

Are you sure that the Arabic Bible is translating from English? It might be translating from Aramaic, Hebrew, or even Greek. It seems to me that translating from English is unlikely as Arabs used the Bible long before any English speaking person did. They already had a Bible and didn't need any modern translations.

As such, I wouldn't only focus on why Arabic used this word, but also on why English used the other. What do older copies or at least other languages use? The original word might be something in-between.


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## analeeh

'Temptation' in the Bible often refers to an experience where someone's faith is tested by some kind of offer. I suspect this is why تجربة is used in the Arabic.


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## cherine

Actually I think all copies of the Arabic Bible currently in use are translated from English, not Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic.
As for the word, I did hear it at least once in a prayer by a Christian priest, he said something like لا توقعنا في التجربة it sounded strange to me, a Muslim used to words like فتنة، ابتلاء but at least I learned something new. 
As for إغراء it means temptation more in the sense of seduction.

 I'm sure @elroy can give a better answer, but I thought I'd share what I know.


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## Mahaodeh

cherine said:


> Actually I think all copies of the Arabic Bible currently in use are translated from English, not Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic.



Really? I didn't know that! I was told once that most of them are a translation from Greek. Maybe it depends on the sect or denomination.


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## elroy

I’m pretty sure at least the Van Dyke translation, which is one of the most widely spread, was translated from the original languages, not from English.

تجربة for “temptation” is one of those terms that you wouldn’t know the meaning of unless you’ve been exposed to the Bible and its Arabic terminology.  I doubt this meaning is even listed in dictionaries.  I believe this translation was chosen in an attempt to be as faithful as possible to the original.  I don’t know the original word(s) this was translated from, but even in English you can see that the word has the Latin root for “try,” also found in words like “attempt” and “tentative.”

This idea of “trying” or “testing” is, I believe, an important element of the original that the translators wanted to preserve by choosing تجربة.  In the context of the Bible and Christianity, temptation is not just about إغراء — it’s primarily about _testing_ one’s faith.  The downside to this translation, in my view, is that it’s not transparent to the uninitiated.  But I guess the translators valued faithfulness to the original over immediate accessibility and opted for the former when it wasn’t possible to achieve both.

Oops — I just realized analeeh already said essentially the same thing in much fewer words.   Oh well, I’ll leave my contribution anyway in case it’s useful in some additional way.


cherine said:


> like لا توقعنا في التجربة


 It must have been لا تُدخِلنا في تجربة, which is (the Van Dyke translation of) a line from the Lord’s Prayer (probably the most famous Christian prayer).  In the King James Version of the English Bible, it’s “Lead us not into temptation.”


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## scetis

Mahaodeh said:


> Are you sure that the Arabic Bible is translating from English? It might be translating from Aramaic, Hebrew, or even Greek. It seems to me that translating from English is unlikely as Arabs used the Bible long before any English speaking person did. They already had a Bible and didn't need any modern translations.
> 
> As such, I wouldn't only focus on why Arabic used this word, but also on why English used the other. What do older copies or at least other languages use? The original word might be something in-between.



Sorry everyone, I misspoke and got us all off track!.

The passages I referred to are translated from Greek (And yes, it's the Van Dyck elRoy!). However, the English word they use to translate the Greek word is _temptation_.

Since we all love languages and are talking about the original meaning, here's some details on the greek work used in Matthew 6:14 (from the Lord's Prayer). 

*GK G4280* | *S G3986* *πειρασμός* *peirasmos*   21x

_a putting to the proof, proof, trial,_ 1 Pet. 4:12; Heb. 3:8; direct _temptation_ to sin, Lk. 4:13; _trial, temptation,_ Mt. 6:13; 26:41; 1 Cor. 10:13; _trial, calamity, affliction,_ Lk. 22:28 *→* _temptation_; _trial_.

My question for Arab speakers would be, does the word تجربة carry the meaning of temptation (as we understand it in English i.e. seduction) or does it simply mean experience? If so, should this verse, in order to be understood by modern readers, be using إغراء? 

The reason I'm confused is because I was trying to translate the word temptation for him (resisting temptation) and the only word I know (from the Arabic Bible) was تجربة. However, my friend said it wasn't correct (he said it mean experience) and so we kept looking and found the word إغراء in WR. 

Thanks to everyone for their comments!


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## analeeh

_Tajriba_ does mean 'experience', but it also means something like 'test' (as in 'to test something out') which I think is the relevant meaning here.


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## elroy

scetis said:


> does the word تجربة carry the meaning of temptation


 Only in the context of the Bible.


scetis said:


> should this verse, in order to be understood by modern readers, be using إغراء?


 Well, this opens up a whole Pandora’s box of questions related to translation theory.  Who is your target audience?  What is the purpose of your translation?  What features of the original do you want to preserve?  Which ones are captured by إغراء?  Which ones are captured by تجربة? 

I just checked two other Arabic translations of the Bible (Easy-to-Read and كتاب الحياة) and they both use تجربة. 


scetis said:


> I was trying to translate the word temptation for him (resisting temptation)


 In non-Biblical contexts, I would not use تجربة.


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## Mahaodeh

analeeh said:


> but it also means something like 'test' (as in 'to test something out')


Yes it does. The word can also refer to an experiment (as in scientific experiment). I think this was not a bad choice of word if we considered the meaning to be conveyed and (probably) the original.


elroy said:


> Only in the context of the Bible.


I think you can say that about the English term also (temptation). Personally, I would not have understood it to mean what you explained earlier without further context. I would be more likely to understand تجربة, but maybe that is because Arabic is my native language.


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## elroy

Maha, you bring up an excellent point (as usual)! 

I’m realizing, thanks to your comment, that we are dealing with an interesting translation phenomenon:

The original Greek (probably) includes (at least) two features: F1|_seduction_/إغراء and F2|_testing_/تجربة.
The Arabic translation includes F2 but not F1.
The English translation includes F1 but not F2.
So something is lost in translation in each case, but it’s not the same in both cases.

A few more points of interest:

Interestingly enough, to people familiar with the Bible - and well versed in its terminology (pun intended ) - the full meaning is obvious in both languages.
The above analysis is purely from a synchronic perspective.  _Diachronically_, we can see in “temptation” the Latin root for “try” (as stated above), and there’s a clear semantic connection between “try” and “test” (for example, at an audition you _try out_ for a part, and at the same time this is a _test_ of your skills; a _trial_ version allows you to _test_ a product; when you _try_ a food item, you are _testing_ its flavor; etc.), so from a diachronic perspective the English “temptation” is not as opaque as it is synchronically.  In fact, its etymology suggests that “test” was originally the _predominant_ meaning, with “seduction” arising later!  (And, in fact, _replacing_ “test” in all contexts but the Biblical one.) As a matter of fact, now I’m wondering if F1 was even included in the Greek!  It’s not included in #7, but we’d need an Ancient Greek expert to tell us if it was perhaps a connotation (@fdb? @berndf? @Scholiast?).
In German, the word used is “Versuchung,” which has a patently obvious connection to “versuchen,” ‘to try’ (i.e. the connection is more obvious than in English).  That said, to my knowledge, “Versuchung” (like the Arabic تجربة) is not used for “temptation” except in this context.
Thanks, @Mahaodeh, for the _Anregung_!


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## berndf

elroy said:


> That said, to my knowledge, “Versuchung” (like the Arabic تجربة) is not used for “temptation” except in this context.


Well, _Versuchung_ translates _temptation_ in all its uses et vice versa. But all of these uses, in both languages, are derived from the New Testament term. They both translate (in English indirectly via Latin) πειρασμός, the literal meaning of which is _trial_ or _proof_. Interestingly πειρασμός is also used is the LXX, in Deuteronomy 4:34. The term used in the _Lutherbibel_ there is _Machtprobe_.


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## elroy

berndf said:


> πειρασμός, the literal meaning of which is _trial_ or _proof_


 Are you saying that (to your knowledge) it doesn’t include F1 (“temptation”)?


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## berndf

elroy said:


> Are you saying that (to your knowledge) it doesn’t include F1 (“temptation”)?


You mean if it contains the meaning of _seduce_? I see nothing like that in the underlying verb: Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott,  A Greek-English Lexicon, πειράζω


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## elroy

Is this part (under II.2.) in reference to something else?

in bad sense, _seek to seduce, tempt_


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## djara

scetis said:


> If so, should this verse, in order to be understood by modern readers, be using إغراء?


As a modern (uninitiated) reader I would expect امتحان or اختبار rather than إغراء  or تجربة


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## berndf

elroy said:


> _*seek* to seduce_


The meaning remains _try_. It is like the roots _tempt_ or _versuchen_, the connection to _seduction_ as the object of the attempt is contextual.


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## elroy

Well, but you can _try_ to do all kinds of things.  This particular act was listed - as opposed to any number of other possible ones - and that seems relevant.


berndf said:


> It is like the roots _tempt_ [...] the connection to _seduction_ as the object of the attempt is contextual.


 Not in modern English (see above).

*Edit:* _I should clarify that I'm using "seduction" here as a shorthand label for the modern, non-Biblical meaning of the English word _tempt_ (as opposed to "testing [someone's faith]").  In actuality, "seduction" only applies in a limited number of cases (mostly sexual); it doesn't apply, for example, to a sentence like "I tempted him with a piece of chocolate."  "Tantalize" might be a better label._


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## berndf

elroy said:


> Not in modern English (see above)


Which is almost certainly NT influence and doesn't say much. The original meaning is preserved in the compound verb _attempt_.


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## elroy

My question is not about what the English word means.  My question is about what the original Greek verb meant.  You haven't addressed this:


elroy said:


> Well, but you can _try_ to do all kinds of things. This particular act was listed - as opposed to any number of other possible ones - and that seems relevant.


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## berndf

My point is that the literal meaning of _πειρασμός_ is _trial_ and all connection with _seduction_ is contextual in the NT and all shifts in modern European languages  (as well as in Late Latin) are rooted in this usage in the NT.


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## elroy

So why is that meaning specifically listed in the lexicon you cited?


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## berndf

The only pre-Biblical attestation I am aware of is the one by Apollonius of Rhodes. I doubt that this is sufficient to establish a stable non-contextual meaning. But to decide that question with confidence we would need someone with deeper knowledge of Greek than mine.


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## elroy

Thanks for your valuable input!  


berndf said:


> But to decide that question with confidence we would need someone with deeper knowledge of Greek than mine.


 I hope someone comes along to enlighten us.  I wonder if @Perseas might be able to help?

I'm really interested in this question now.  As someone who grew up bilingually with English and Arabic in a very religious Christian environment with heavy exposure to the Bible in both languages, I simply assumed, without giving the matter much thought, that the Greek original must have included both aspects that are included in the modern Christian understanding of the concept.  Now I'm not so sure!


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## berndf

I would also suggest inviting @apmoy70 to contribute to this discussion. He is a Greek native speaker and a Biblical scholar.


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## Perseas

According to Liddell-Scott _πειρασμός_ means _trial _and _temptation_. In the New Testament _πειρασμός _frequently means _temptation _("incitement to the sin")_, _and maybe it was there (Biblical context) that the word took on this second meaning. The online dictionary gives this example: Ev.Marc. 14.38. That is:
_γρηγορεῖτε καὶ προσεύχεσθε, ἵνα μὴ ἔλθητε εἰς *πειρασμόν*: τὸ μὲν πνεῦμα πρόθυμον ἡ δὲ σὰρξ ἀσθενής.
Watch and pray so that you will not fall into *temptation*. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Here's another example from Lord's Prayer (Κυριακή Προσευχή). 
 καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς *πειρασμόν*
and lead us not into *temptation*_
(I am not an expert in the Bible, but here I can recognize also some traits of the first meaning)

[In Mod. Gr. _πειρασμός_ means only _temptation_/_Versuchung_, but this is not the subject here]


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## Hemza

Is the word جذب used in any version of the Bible in Arabic? Because I feel like this word may be linked with πειρασμός or temptation?


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## elroy

That means “to attract” — different meaning.


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## Hemza

I didn't mean the verb but the مصدر. Can't it be used in such way? Attraction, temptation? Or is it my mind which is twisted?


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## elroy

Attraction, not temptation.


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## cherine

Maybe we should split the etymology/language comparisons discussion to a thread in EHL. What do you think, @berndf?


elroy said:


> I’m pretty sure at least the Van Dyke translation, which is one of the most widely spread, was translated from the original languages, not from English.


Thanks for the correction, Elroy. I can’t remember why I thought Van Dyke’s translation was from English.


> In the context of the Bible and Christianity, temptation is not just about إغراء — it’s primarily about _testing_ one’s faith.


For this, there is the word فتنة but maybe Van Dyke wanted to avoid a word used in the Qur’an? Or it’s maybe because he’s not a native Arabic speaker?


scetis said:


> My question for Arab speakers would be, does the word تجربة carry the meaning of temptation (as we understand it in English i.e. seduction) or does it simply mean experience? If so, should this verse, in order to be understood by modern readers, be using إغراء?


I believe fitna or ghiwaaya غواية are better translations, at least when the target audience is neither Christian nor has been exposed to some of the words used in the Arabic translation of the Bible. But تجربة is more prone to be (mis)understood as experience.


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## Mahaodeh

cherine said:


> For this, there is the word فتنة but maybe Van Dyke wanted to avoid a word used in the Qur’an? Or it’s maybe because he’s not a native Arabic speaker?


Or maybe he opted for words that Arab Christians already used prior to his translation. What translation did they use before Van Dyke's translation?


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## elroy

cherine said:


> فتنة


 Does this include the connotation of testing someone's faith?  (غواية I'm pretty sure doesn't?) 


cherine said:


> maybe Van Dyke wanted to avoid a word used in the Qur’an?


 I don't think so.  There are many words in the Van Dyke translation that are also found in the Qur'an.


cherine said:


> Or it’s maybe because he’s not a native Arabic speaker?


 I don't think Van Dyke himself actually did any of the translating.  As far as I know, the translation was done by native speakers of Arabic.


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## Mahaodeh

elroy said:


> Does this include the connotation of testing someone's faith?


Yes it does.


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## Ihsiin

elroy said:


> I don't think so.  There are many words in the Van Dyke translation that are also found in the Qur'an.



Naturally, since they're both in Arabic, though is there not a sense in which Van Dyke avoids terms that might be perceived as being Islamic? I have for example been struck by the use of الرب to represent the tetragrammaton (compare with KJV 'the LORD'), rather than ربِّ (ugh, formatting fail) which is commonly used in the Qur'an and also lines up more closely with the Hebrew אדני.



Mahaodeh said:


> Yes it does.



My feeling is that فتنة would refer more to having ones faith tested in the face of trail and tribulation rather than 'incitement to the sin', as Perseas puts it.


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## elroy

I don’t know the connotations of فتنة as an Islamic term (I only know the general meanings of the root فتن [“to charm,” “to enchant”]), so here’s a question:

One of the most famous examples of temptation in the Bible is the temptation of Jesus by Satan.  You can read the story here (Matthew 4:1-11) and here (Luke 4:1-14).

Would it make sense to say, using Islamic terminology:

ثُمَّ أُصْعِدَ يَسُوعُ إِلَى الْبَرِّيَّةِ مِنَ الرُّوحِ لِيُفْتَنَ مِنْ إِبْلِيسَ (Matthew 4:1)

فَتَقَدَّمَ إِلَيْهِ الْمُفْتِنُ وَقَالَ لَهُ: «إِنْ كُنْتَ ابْنَ اللهِ فَقُلْ أَنْ تَصِيرَ هذِهِ الْحِجَارَةُ خُبْزًا» (Matthew 4:3)

أَرْبَعِينَ يَوْمًا يُفْتَنُ مِنْ إِبْلِيسَ (Luke 4:2)
More crucially, what about the part about tempting _God_?  Here Satan asks Jesus to jump down from a very high place, quoting a verse from Psalms that says that angels would protect him.  Jesus' response is that one should not "tempt God," meaning that one should not put God's promises to the test.  Here the meaning is _only_ "put to the test"; there is nothing about "seduction" or "tantalization."  I'm fairly certain it would not be possible to say

قَالَ لَهُ يَسُوعُ: «مَكْتُوبٌ أَيْضًا: لاَ تُفْتِن الرَّبَّ إِلهَكَ» (Matthew 4:7)

فَأَجَابَ يَسُوعُ وَقَالَ لَهُ: «إِنَّهُ قِيلَ: لاَ تُفْتِن الرَّبَّ إِلهَكَ» (Luke 4: 12)
Right?

So it seems that the translation choice was motivated by the predominant (maybe even exclusive) sense of "testing" in the Greek original.  The "tempting God" examples show that "tempting" in the sense of the Greek word can be done without "seduction attempts/tantalization/إغراء", but the sense of "testing" (تجربة) is found in all instances.


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## Ihsiin

Just a note, the Qur'an uses فتن when it talks about testing someone's faith, not أفتن. As far as I'm aware, أفتن can only mean 'to seduce'.



elroy said:


> I don’t know the connotations of فتنة as an Islamic term (I only know the general meanings of the root فتن [“to charm,” “to enchant”]), so here’s a question:
> 
> One of the most famous examples of temptation in the Bible is the temptation of Jesus by Satan.  You can read the story here (Matthew 4:1-11) and here (Luke 4:1-14).
> 
> Would it make sense to say, using Islamic terminology:
> 
> ثُمَّ أُصْعِدَ يَسُوعُ إِلَى الْبَرِّيَّةِ مِنَ الرُّوحِ لِيُفْتَنَ مِنْ إِبْلِيسَ (Matthew 4:1)
> 
> فَتَقَدَّمَ إِلَيْهِ الْمُفْتِنُ وَقَالَ لَهُ: «إِنْ كُنْتَ ابْنَ اللهِ فَقُلْ أَنْ تَصِيرَ هذِهِ الْحِجَارَةُ خُبْزًا» (Matthew 4:3)
> 
> أَرْبَعِينَ يَوْمًا يُفْتَنُ مِنْ إِبْلِيسَ (Luke 4:2)


I feel not (though I'm not sure). I feel, if we're talking about Qur'anic style, I'm not aware of an instance where the Qur'an uses فتن like this. For example, in سورة طه God tells Moses: فتناك فتونا in reference to Moses' years of exile in Midian - this is not implying that God is inciting Moses to sin (as Lucifer incites Jesus in the passages you have quoted), but that his faith is being tested by years of hardship. On the other hand, later on in the chapter the Samiri is asked to give his account as to why he made the Golden Calf, and he says: كذلك سولت لي نفسي. Here سول is used in the same sense as the Bible passages, to incite to sin. This is my feeling though, and I don't pretend to be an expert; it may be that elsewhere فتن is used in this sense as well, I'm not sure.


> More crucially, what about the part about tempting _God_?  Here Satan asks Jesus to jump down from a very high place, quoting a verse from Psalms that says that angels would protect him.  Jesus' response is that one should not "tempt God," meaning that one should not put God's promises to the test.  Here the meaning is _only_ "put to the test"; there is nothing about "seduction" or "tantalization."  I'm fairly certain it would not be possible to say
> 
> قَالَ لَهُ يَسُوعُ: «مَكْتُوبٌ أَيْضًا: لاَ تُفْتِن الرَّبَّ إِلهَكَ» (Matthew 4:7)
> 
> فَأَجَابَ يَسُوعُ وَقَالَ لَهُ: «إِنَّهُ قِيلَ: لاَ تُفْتِن الرَّبَّ إِلهَكَ» (Luke 4: 12)
> Right?
> 
> So it seems that the translation choice was motivated by the predominant (maybe even exclusive) sense of "testing" in the Greek original.  The "tempting God" examples show that "tempting" in the sense of the Greek word can be done without "seduction attempts/tantalization/إغراء", but the sense of "testing" (تجربة) is found in all instances.



Yeah, that's clearly not right, even if you say لا تَفتن.


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## Mahaodeh

Ihsiin said:


> My feeling is that فتنة would refer more to having ones faith tested in the face of trail and tribulation rather than 'incitement to the sin', as Perseas puts it.


فتنة is used in Islamic terminology to refer to both. 


elroy said:


> I'm fairly certain it would not be possible to say
> 
> قَالَ لَهُ يَسُوعُ: «مَكْتُوبٌ أَيْضًا: لاَ تُفْتِن الرَّبَّ إِلهَكَ» (Matthew 4:7)
> 
> فَأَجَابَ يَسُوعُ وَقَالَ لَهُ: «إِنَّهُ قِيلَ: لاَ تُفْتِن الرَّبَّ إِلهَكَ» (Luke 4: 12)
> Right?


No, most certainly not.


Ihsiin said:


> I feel not (though I'm not sure). I feel, if we're talking about Qur'anic style, I'm not aware of an instance where the Qur'an uses فتن like this.


I don't recall an instance in the Quran, but I do know that it's used in this context in the Hadith.


elroy said:


> (I only know the general meanings of the root فتن [“to charm,” “to enchant”])


Yes, but that is actually an acquired meaning that came later. In classical times, فتنة was originally used to refer to refining metal. فتنة الذهب is to heat it on a very strong fire until it melts and the pure gold is separated from the impurities. The important point here, is that the word فتنة in Islamic terminology, in its basic sense, has the purpose of separating the good people from the bad: that is, you know this is a good or bad person based on how they react to certain conditions that they are faced with, be they good or bad. Based on the examples you gave (Matthew 4:7, Luke 4:12) it seems to me that this is not included in the meaning of تجربة as a Christian terminology. If my guess is right, then the use of فتنة as an alternative word for تجربة is not valid.


elroy said:


> I don't think Van Dyke himself actually did any of the translating. As far as I know, the translation was done by native speakers of Arabic.


I think this is an important point here. There have been Arab Christians since at least the first century AD, it's not a new religion to Arabs nor are the concepts in it new to them. They must have already had certain terminology long before Van Dyke or the Quran. If he enlisted native Arabic speakers for the translation then they would probably have opted for terminology that was already used.

Classical Arabic is based on the Arabic of the 7th century, and a handful of poems written not more than a couple of hundred years earlier. The fact that the word تجربة today means almost exclusively 'experiment' or 'test' or 'experience' does not mean that it didn't have more complex meanings in the first or second century AD. These meanings may have been lost because there is no known documentation of them. Even the origin of the word فتنة would have been lost had it not still had that meaning in 7th century was very soon after that documented. Today, outside of Islamic terminology, the word فتنة almost exclusively means 'charm'.

Of course I don't really know the origin of the word, but I believe that we shouldn't underestimate the very long history of Arab Christians as well as the fact that words change meanings sometimes in a short a time span as 50 years, and they have a 2000 year history, in the first 500 or 600 of which no one really documented Arabic as a language. But they still spoke Arabic in their daily lives, and even if (I don't know, but if) there was no Arabic Bible at the time, they were still using terminology.

Or am I mistaken?


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## Malki92

Mahaodeh said:


> Of course I don't really know the origin of the word, but I believe that we shouldn't underestimate the very long history of Arab Christians as well as the fact that words change meanings sometimes in a short a time span as 50 years, and they have a 2000 year history, in the first 500 or 600 of which no one really documented Arabic as a language. But they still spoke Arabic in their daily lives, and even if (I don't know, but if) there was no Arabic Bible at the time, they were still using terminology.
> 
> Or am I mistaken?


You're quite right. There were Arabs from the earliest days of the Christian faith (Acts 2:10 for instance). Also, much of Christian-Arabic terminology comes from Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Levant prior to Arabic. For example, in Christian theology when speaking of the Persons of the Trinity (hypostasis in Greek) the Christian Arabs use أقنوم. When referring to a "chapter" in the Bible, the Christian Arabs use أصحاح. Another word for "the law" or "the Torah" in Christian Arabic is الناموس. 

I was reading a translation of the gospels into Arabic, done around the 10th-11th centuries. And the word for "temptation" in the Lord's prayer is التجارب. So this has quite a historic basis and has been understood (and is still used) by Arabic-speaking Christians for centuries. This is evident by prayers, commentaries, liturgies/sermons and etc, that all incorporate the word تجربة in them. Which all assume the very basic point that the given audience understands what it means.


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## Hemza

elroy said:


> Attraction, not temptation.



Got it.



Malki92 said:


> You're quite right. There were Arabs from the earliest days of the Christian faith (Acts 2:10 for instance). Also, much of Christian-Arabic terminology comes from Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Levant prior to Arabic.



Let's not forget about Christians of Western/Southern Arabia. They certainly used a terminology for their faith but I can't assert it was Arabic.


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## WadiH

I think it's clear that what the Qur'an refers to as فتنة is what the Gospels refer to as 'temptation'.  Whether Arabic Christianity used this term or not I don't know, but I think most of what we consider 'Islamic' or 'Quranic' religious terminology or renderings (including _naSraani, 3iisaa, yaHyaa_) come from pre-Islamic Arabic Christianity, so فتنة could be similar.  What word did Syriac Christian writings in that period use for 'temptation'?



Ihsiin said:


> I feel not (though I'm not sure). I feel, if we're talking about Qur'anic style, I'm not aware of an instance where the Qur'an uses فتن like this. For example, in سورة طه God tells Moses: فتناك فتونا in reference to Moses' years of exile in Midian - this is not implying that God is inciting Moses to sin (as Lucifer incites Jesus in the passages you have quoted), but that his faith is being tested by years of hardship. On the other hand, later on in the chapter the Samiri is asked to give his account as to why he made the Golden Calf, and he says: كذلك سولت لي نفسي. Here سول is used in the same sense as the Bible passages, to incite to sin. This is my feeling though, and I don't pretend to be an expert; it may be that elsewhere فتن is used in this sense as well, I'm not sure.



*وَاتَّبَعُوا مَا تَتْلُو الشَّيَاطِينُ عَلَىٰ مُلْكِ سُلَيْمَانَ ۖ وَمَا كَفَرَ سُلَيْمَانُ وَلَٰكِنَّ الشَّيَاطِينَ كَفَرُوا يُعَلِّمُونَ النَّاسَ السِّحْرَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَى الْمَلَكَيْنِ بِبَابِلَ هَارُوتَ وَمَارُوتَ ۚ وَمَا يُعَلِّمَانِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ فِتْنَةٌ فَلَا تَكْفُرْ*  (2:102).


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## Romeel

As I remember that قتنة in Quran came in seven different meanings.


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## WadiH

Romeel said:


> As I remember that قتنة in Quran came in seven different meanings.



Yes, Arabic فتنة has a wider range than English 'temptation'.


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