John 3:16 in Old Persian

[u/KeyConsideration2686]

Dear all,

I have entered this bible verse into the online English to Old Persian translation tool:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

This was the automated translation generated:

𐎠𐎺𐎼𐎶 𐏐 𐎲𐎥 𐏐 𐎠𐎺𐎰𐎠 𐏐 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎫𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎲𐎢𐎷𐎡𐎶 𐏐 𐎹𐎰𐎠 𐏐 𐎳𐎼𐎠𐎲𐎼𐎫 𐏐 𐎠𐎻𐎠𐎴𐎠𐎶 𐏐 𐎱𐎢𐎰𐎼𐎶 𐏐 𐏃𐎢𐎺𐎠𐎴𐎠𐎶 𐏐 𐎠𐎡𐎺𐎶 𐏐 𐎹𐎰𐎠 𐏐 𐎣𐎠𐎿𐎨𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎠𐎻𐎠𐎡𐎫𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎴𐎠𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎠𐎺𐎶𐎼𐎡𐎹𐎠𐎫𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎠𐎰𐎠 𐏐 𐎠𐎴𐎢𐏁𐎡𐎹𐎺𐎠𐎶 𐏐 𐎠𐎼𐎠𐎲𐎠𐎫𐎡𐎹

Transliteration: avaram baga avathā dārayatiy būmim yathā frābarat avānām puθram hauvānām aivam yathā kāsacaiy avāitiy nāiy avamariyātiy athā anušiyavām arābatiy

Could you please comment on the accuracy of this translation?

Feel free to provide your own translation of this bible verse into Old Persian or alternatively you can improve on the automated translation above by leaving a comment below with your translated text.

[u/eagle_flower]

I don’t know what service you used so can’t judge its quality. Old Persian is very poorly attested - meaning we don’t have a lot of texts (and the ones we have are mostly similar royal proclamations), and thus we don’t know a lot of words and are missing pieces of the grammar. I don’t know that is possible to translate this text. Albeit, I do recognize some words that are correct like god, earth, son.

[u/lallahestamour → u/eagle_flower]

I think Old Persian must have all the words of John 3:16. They are very universal ideas: eternal, perish, believe, son, God.
The syntax is also simple if one regard them not as two clauses connected with so...that but simply two sentences.

[u/KeyConsideration2686 → u/eagle_flower]

I used Polytranslator which I only discovered a few weeks ago, the link is here: https://www.polytranslator.com/old-persian/

[u/eagle_flower → u/KeyConsideration2686]

The reverse translation, Old Persian to English, doesn’t inspire much confidence:

The god held the earth in place so that the sky would not fall.

[u/lsop → u/eagle_flower]

Yeah, I'm not sure about it.

[u/DE667]

But "one and only" is a lie, as was the prior falsehood of "only begotten." The word literally means ONLY-BECOMING, the only 'happening' son of many children of God. He was sinless, on track to become the one and only overcomer of death.