Bible translations into Icelandic


The New Testament was the first book printed in Icelandic. It was translated by Oddur Gottskálksson and published in 1540. The first complete Bible in Icelandic, the Guðbrandsbiblía, was published in 1584 thanks to Guðbrandur Þorláksson, a Protestant bishop at Hólar.
Afterwards, a number of other translations followed, such the Waysenhússbiblía, a reworking of a 1644 Bible from Hólar and printed by G. F. Risel in Copenhagen. In 1813, in the same city, the British Bible Society published the Grútarbiblía, just two years before the founding of the Icelandic Bible Society by the British Bible Society's Ebenezer Henderson.
There came out a new translation in 1841, which was revised in 1863 by Professor Pétur Pétursson and Sigurður Melsteð, who compared it with the Greek and Hebrew originals and with the Norwegian, Danish, English and French versions. This edition was edited by Eiríkr Magnusson and was reprinted in 1866, now as one volume with just the New Testament and Psalms and also another with the entire Old and New Testaments. Both the 1863 and 1866 editions were printed by the "Brit. Bible Soc." at Oxford, and this seems to be the translation in the illustrated New Testament of the Scripture Gift Mission in 1903. By at least 1906, the British Bible Society put out a new New Testament translation based on the original texts, by Haraldur Níelsson, and by 1908 released the entire Bible.
The current publisher of the Icelandic Bible is the Icelandic Bible Society. In 1859 they printed the so-called Reykjavíkurbiblía, essentially the Viðeyjarbiblía from 18 years earlier. By at least 1899 they were printing the Old Testament translations of Þórir Þórðarson, which they used beyond the start of the 21st century. Their latest full translation, a new one by Guðrún Guðlaugsdóttir, was published in 2007.
TranslationJohn 3:16
Hið Nýa Testament Jesu Christi Því að svo elskaði Guð heiminn að hann gaf út sinn eingetinn son til þess að allir þeir á hann trúa fyrirfærust eigi, heldur að þeir hafi eilíft líf.
"Lundúnabiblían" Því svo elskaði Guð heiminn, að hann gaf sinn eingetinn Son, til þess að hver, sem á hann trúir, ekki glatist, heldur hafi eilift lif.
Nýja Testamentið Því að svo elskaði Guð heiminn, að hann gaf son sinn eingetinn, til þess að hver sem á hann trúir glatist ekki, heldur hafi eilíft líf.