Eastern Armenian Bible reproduced by photography from the 1896 edition of the Eastern Armenian Bible. The Armenian Bible was first translated into the two modern dialects of Armenian—Eastern and Western —in the mid-1800s. Classical Armenian (Grapar) was no longer generally understood by the mid-1800s, and translations were needed for the two great literary dialects of modern Armenian. The first translation of the New Testament into Eastern Armenian was made in 1835. A full translation of the entire Armenian Bible was finished by 1896.