www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Scripture and Patristic Writings Peshitta

Has anyone read or studied the Peshitta? The Syriac Churches (Syriac, Syro-Malankara, Syro-Malabar, Chaldean, and Maronite Catholics, Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac and Malankara Orthodox) believe this text to be the original text used by Churches. It is available online: http://peshitta.org/

Michael,

I am nearly completion of my Master of Arts degree in Theology with a concentration in scripture. The Peshitta is an important version of scripture in both the Old and New Testaments, but the origin of the translation is not known or likely ever to be established.

The Peshitta is the official version of scripture used in the churches you mention, but I think saying they call it original is not accurate. They use the Peshitta the same way we used Church Slavonic scripture in Church in the past. This is just a convention of liturgical language, not a statement of originality.

You can find a brief description of the various New Testament versions of scripture including the Peshitta here:

Metzger, Bruce Manning. The early versions of the New Testament : their origin, transmission, and limitations. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977.

For the Old Testament version see the relevant chapters in these two works:

Jellicoe, Sidney. The Septuagint and Modern Study. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1968. Reprint, Third reprint.

Wurthwein, Ernst. The text of the Old Testament : an introduction to the Biblia Hebraica. Translated by Erroll Rhodes. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979.

Steve Puluka
Cantor, Holy Ghost Church Mckees Rocks
MA Theology student
Duquesne University/SS Cyril & Methodius Seminary

Yes. I too have looked into it a bit. It is interesting - however the major site on the net offering the translation - taints that translation as well as anyone else does. There is no �primacy� of scriptures. Never has been and never will be. Several churches use several versions. And not every Eastern church uses the Septuagint either. So clearly the tradition of the entire church - is that there is no primacy of any one translation or version.

I was on their list for a time - but recently ceased as, as small as that list was, it seemed to be dominated by ex-evangelicals who came there for �scriptures along� reasons. So my whole experience with them was rather cultist.

So it is interesting to study - as one would study any other version - keeping in mind that the tradition of the entire church is that there is no version which has a primacy.

-ray