1 jan 1824 ano - Gospel of St.Matthew Translated in Albanian by V.Meksi

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Pinkerton, who in 1816 was the BFBS's representative in Moscow, had met that year with a community of Albanians in Vienna, then capital of the Austrian Empire. They assured him that a translation of the New Testament into Albanian was indeed possible.[8] In a letter to his superiors at the BFBS, dated August 28, 1816, Pinkerton wrote that the Albanian nation occupied a large part of the ancient Illyria, that they spoke a language completely different from Slavic, Turkish, Greek, or Latin, and that for the Albanian Orthodox the mass was recited in Greek, a language that believers and even some of the priests did not understand. According to Pinkerton, the translation could be done by one or more Albanians from the Ionian islands under the supervision of an Albanian bishop.[8]

In 1819, apparently with the blessing of his superiors at the BFBS, Pinkerton met with Meksi (referring him as Evangelos Mexicos)[9] in Istanbul.[10] Meksi, who was then a teacher in Serres, had been recommended to Pinkerton because of his Albanian grammar book.[8] Pinkerton also relates in one of his letters to the BFBS that Meksi was well regarded by the Albanian community, the Greek Orthodox Church, and by Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople.[6] Gregory, according to Pinkerton, also offered to find two suitable clergymen to assist Meksi in his endeavor.[6] Lastly, Pinkerton recommended that the Greek alphabet be used as the most suitable for the Albanian language.[6] On October 19, 1819, Pinkerton and Meksi concluded a contract to translate the New Testament into Albanian on behalf of the society. It was agreed that the Bible would have to be translated into the Albanian dialect of Yanina.[10] Meksi completed the work in two years,[11] ten months earlier than the contract's deadline.[12]

Early in 1821 Mr. Leeves of the BFBS visited Thessaloniki to supervise the translation. On February 8, 1821 he wrote that the work had been completed, and that the only outstanding task was a final review by a competent person, who had already been assigned to the task.[13] In 1822 the revised manuscript was sent to Malta to be printed, and in 1823 Leeves sent from Malta to the representative of the society in Corfu the first copy of a printed New Testament in Albanian.[13] Meanwhile, the New Testament had had a final revision performed by the Archimandrite of Euboea, Grigor Gjirokastriti, an Albanian who subsequently became Archbishop Gregory IV of Athens.[13] Archimandrite Grigor had recommended that the Bible be printed in a large typeface in two columns, one in Albanian and the other in modern Greek, because Albanians would rather read modern Greek than Koine.[14]

On March 16, 1824 Mr. Lowndes, the BFBS's secretary in Corfu, sent a letter to the society in which he mentioned that the sum paid to Meksi for his work was 6,000 piastras and that Archimandrite Grigor was paid 60 crowns.[14] On September 5, 1824 the Saint Matthew's Gospel was published in Albanian. According to Lowndes' letters, the Albanian community of Missolonghi was extremely excited when mass was said with a piece from Saint Matthew, as since its translation they had been impatient to hear it in Albanian.[15] In July 1827 the form in which the first 500 copies of the New Testament were to be bound was decided in London.[16] The entire edition amounted to 2,000 copies.[17]

Although Gjirokastriti's edition of the New Testament was written in Albanian, it used the Greek alphabet.[18] It is not known which alphabet Meksi used in his own manuscript.[18]

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was not against the work of Meksi or the Bible Society at that time. On the contrary, for the translation the British missionaries successfully appealed to Gregory V and enlisted the help of an Orthodox bishop, Gjirokastriti, for the final edition of the New Testament in Albanian.[10]

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