Christians in Iran
In 2003 about 0.3% of Iran's population are Christians. In 1975 Christians numbered about 1.5% of the total population. The vast majority of Iranian Christians are Armenians.
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2 History 3 Current Situation 4 The Bible in Iranian languages |
Christianity in Iran has never had any significant presence and influence. In particular, in pre-Islamic Iran of the Sassanid dynasty, there was very little (if any) tolerance for Christianity in Iran. In fact, Shapur II, one of the strongest of the Sassanids kings, contemptuously said about Christianity: "A religion whose prophet can be slain by the Jews, is not worthy of praise." (in reference to Jesus Christ's crucifixion.)
There has been extensive academic debate why Christianity did not prevail to a larger degree in Iran after the Islamic conquest. The most important reasons mentioned are the use of Aramaic instead of Persian in liturgy and teaching and the absence of a Bible translation readable by lay people. (The Bible was not translated into Persian until the 18th Century.) Another explanation offered is the fatigue induced by the continuous political and economic pressure by the government and Islamic authorities.
Due to socio-economic conditions and political pressure in the years following the Iranian Revolution, periods of outright persecution and times of more latent discrimination many Iranian religious minorities have emigrated, mostly to the West.
Several churches suffered government intrusion, expropriation of property, forced closure and persecution, particularly in the initial years after the Iranian Revolution.
Several Christian ministers and lay people were martyred by the Islamic government and fundamentalist groups close to the government. Among these the most famous are Mehdi Dibaj and Haik Hovsepian, both martyred in 1994.
The Jamiat-e Rabbani churches and the Anglican Church both are readily accepting converts from Islam and are subsequently growing in membership. About 80% of Jamiat-e Rabbani's members are currently converts from Islam.
The majority of other Christian denominations continues to shrink due to emigration.
Armenian and Assyrian Christians use Bibles in their own languages.
There are several contemporary translations of the Bible available in Persian. The first Bible translation of modern times was conducted by Henry Martyn in the 18th century. Current commonly used translations are the "Tarjumeh-ye Tafsiri" (explained translation) and the more antiquated, but vastly more accurate Standard Version
Portions of the Bible are translated into Azeri (New Testament), Mazanderani (several gospels) and Kurdish (gospels).Main denominations
History
Current Situation
The Bible in Iranian languages