albanian

Albanian, called Shqip, is a Balkan language spoken mainly in Albania, Kosovo and western Macedonia. It is written in Latin (Roman) letters. Albania has had a Christian presence since the first century AD.

The Albanian New Testament was first published in 1827 in the Tosk dialect. In 1872 the New Testament was translated into the Gheg (Geg) dialect by Kristoferidhi. Under communism religion was officially banned until 1990. The first complete translation of the Scriptures was translated by Dom Filipaj in the 1970s. Albanian speaking Christians are mainly Catholic in northern Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, and mainly Orthodox in southern Albania, with evangelical Protestant minorities. A translation of the Italian Diodati Bible was completed in 1994, which is used widely in the evangelical churches.

Bible work is done by the Interconfessional Bible Society of Albania (Shoqeria Biblike). A translation of the whole Shqip Bibël (Bibla) by Dr Stephen Etches was produced in 2003. The Bible Society completed a new translation of the New Testament from the original Greek, called Dhiata e Re in 2007, which included a short concordance and names index. This has been accepted by the Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical communities. The Old Testament translation is underway.