By Anthony S. G. Baldwin, TGC.
Last year at the Vatican Library, I had the chance to see a portion of the Bible with an incredible history. It wasn’t the famous Codex Vaticanus but a translation of the Gospels into Persian from the 1740s.
While a translation of the Gospels into the language of a Muslim empire is itself noteworthy, the history behind this particular text is even more remarkable. It represents one of two times when the ruler of Iran (or Persia, as it was called by the West before 1935) praised the Bible and furthered its spread in the region.
At a time when Iran is often associated with hostility toward Christianity, these episodes remind us that God can work through unlikely and even evil leaders. I find encouragement—and a prompting to pray—when I reflect on unexpected ways God used infamous Iranian leaders to spread the gospel. Let me introduce you to two of them.
Nader Shah (1688–1747)
Iran’s most ruthless leader in its history arguably was Nader Shah, who ruled Persia from 1736 to 1747 and led a constant stream of military campaigns. His sack of Delhi in 1739 perhaps best demonstrated his military might and brutality. After taking the city, a revolt arose that the shah crushed, resulting in the deaths of up to 20,000 civilians.
The shah, characterized as a “notorious despot and mass murderer who wrought destruction on a large scale and ruined his country,” also brought together Jewish, Catholic, and Armenian scholars in Persia to translate the Old and New Testaments. This included the copy of the Gospels that Catholic missionaries sent to the Vatican Library.