Brock the Bible in the Syriac Tradition

7/23/2019 Brock the Bible in the Syriac Tradition

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/brock-the-bible-in-the-syriac-tradition 1/49

/ .



\

- 4 OCT 993

--

,

The

Bible

in

the yr iac Tradi t ion

Introducto

ry

notc :

Thi

s Course

covering the following topic::

IS

arrange d in eight sect ions

Page

Sec

ti

on

I I )

How

docs

th

e Bible re

ac

h u

s?

5

2) Biblical

tr

anslation so

me ge

neral problems 8

3

A hird s eye view

of

the

Syriac

Bible 13

Sec ti on

II

The Sy

riac

Bible - a

closer

loo

k:

17

I)

Old

Te sta ment

1

from

Heb r

ew

: Pcshitta

2. from Greek: Syro-Hexap la

2

Ne

w

Testament

(From

Greek)

25

1.

Diat

essaron(

H

ar

mony

of

the

Gos

pel

s)

2.

Old Syriac

.

3.

Pcshiua

4.

Phil

oxcn ian

5 -

I-Iarc lcan

Section

How docs

the Syriac Bible rea ch

us?

33

Sec tion

Sect ion

IV

V

1.

Bihlical

manusc ripts

2.

Lcc ti onarics

3.

Printed editiotl s

4.

Translati ons based on the Syriac Bible

Biblical interpretat ion

in th e Syriac Trauition

54

Bibli

ca

l

comm entaries

62

Section

VJ

Th

e usc

of

the Syriac B

ib

le

in pr

eac hing 68

Section VII The usc of the Syriac Bible in the li turgy 77

Sec

ti

on

VIII The

Pcs

hilla

as

a b

as

is f

ur

Sy

ri

ac spirituality

Q,ucslions

94

1

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/

Dear

SCC Pa r ticipant ,

v

Slom

Welcome to .participate in . th e SEERI. Correspondence

Cour se (SCC ) which now offers a ser ies of courses in Syriac

Christ·

ian heritage and in the Syr iac language .

Th e

' Syriac Chris

tian tr a

'clition is

an im por tant

s

tream of

Christian traqition 'di stiflct . from

the

We

stern (

Latin

)

and thc

' E

,\s

t

cr

n

n t i n e a d i t i o n s

Among

the Oriental

Christian

Churches

those within the Svriac liturgi -

I

.

• •

.." ..

• " \ • •

I · ··.. I

ca l tradition, may be said to hold pride of place, since ' they

ar

c

represe

ntative

of, a nd 'to some

degree, di r

ec t

h c i r

to the

Semiti

c

....: wo rld out

Qf

which Q hri st ianity sprang.

The

Semitic

world

wa s

•

. ' ,.

I I 1 : '

t

the cradle ,of;

l i a n i ~ y Th e

, e o p l

c ~ f I 1 p p g y :

hom·it was"

born

"

and

fir st spread

and

developed set the ma rk of their own gen iu s

on its fir st forms of

expressio

ll and natura

ll

y enough

they

have

·co

ntinucd to bc

·

the

mo

st

fit to

·

think

an d

·

J

ive

it

in

acc·

ordance

with wh at it wa s from the beginning. T he 'We st ha s lost 'a t least

something

of

the more

humanly

and re ligiously ample cha ra cter

.of early, i a r : t ~ c v e a ~ d

a r

expressi

on

or it s own original

fl

avour whic

h h ave bee l1 )bp.tter

co

nse

rvcd

in the

Scmitic

Christian

East.

'fhe

Bible

it

self

is built on th

e

Semitic tradition. Th

ere

fore

an

understanding of th e

Bible

in the Sy

ri a

c

tradition

is con

4

ductive to 'a better understanding of ~ h e

original Christian re

vel

at

ion and Chr istian

li f

e. So

we

begin our Correspondence

Cou rse with a course on '

Th

c Bible in

th

e Syriac Tradition' . We

believe

that wc ca

nnot ge

t a

morc

s

uitable

person to g

uide this

coursc th an the

Oxford

Pr o fessor of Semitic s

tudie

s Dr.

Seba

st

ian

1

.

Brock.

Auolll the AUlhor:

Seba

sti an P.

Hr

ock was bor n in Lond on,

U. K. in

1938.

Aft

er

hi

s ed u

ca

tion in

Cambridge

and Oxford, he

taught in

the

De

partment

of Theology at

the Univer

sit y

of

Birming

am

and

. later in

th

e

Faculty

of Or,

icntal Studies

at the University or Cam-

, .

• .JiJo j "

· · ·

,



1

i

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bridge. Since 1974 he is

prof

essor at the Orieintal Institute of

the University of Oxfol"d,

He

has written extcnsively in learned

j ourna ls on

Syriac

s

ubje

cts and ha s published s

everal article

s

and

books. Among his

works

are:

- Th e Harp or the Spirit:

Poem

s or

St. Ephrem

(1975, 1983).

- The Syriac

Vcr

ion of

the

Pscudo-Nonnos 'vlythol,

ogica

l

Sc ho-

lia (Cambridge, 1976)

- The Holy Spirit

in

the Syrian Baptismal

(Syrian Churches Series 9)

,The

Lumin

,

ous

Eye (

Rome

1985).,

Tradition

(Poona 1979).

- The Sy

rian

Fathcrs on

Prayer

a nd the SpIritual Life (Ciste rs

ian

Studies

Series

101) Michigan 1987.

- '

Thc Tea

chin g of

the Syrian

Fathers

on

Prayer

(Syriac Text)

(Bar

Hebraeus

Verlag, Holland

19

,87).

We hope

that

the SCC

will

lead

you to

the

thrill or

a

great

tra

dition of lea rning and spirituality.

"

Rev.

Dr.

GEEVARGHESE PANICKER

Director

or

SCC

:

SECTION I '

t.

,I 'Ho 'w do e 's the Bible "reach us?

\ ,:.' '. When

we

reau

thc

Rihle toda y

wc norm

:\ lly read it ill a

,I

f n b d c r n

priritc

"d

ed

iti on and in a modern

translation, whether

it

i" l:hc ' in

Engli

sh , or ;\·

Ldayalam, or

some o

th

er ~ a n g - u a g e .

I t s

worth

l c f l c c t i n g how lhcse printed ·editions and translations camc into

.being: what lies behind them , and how do they influence

our

"

un d

erstanding of what

the

t

Bible' cont

·ains

an

'd says?

Printed

-Bibles only go bacK to the sixteenth century. Pre

YlOUS

to that

,Bibles had

to be copied

by

hand,

a

la borio

us and

.sl

ow

proccss.

TIle invention

of printing ha,d two

im por tant con

sequences

for the

Bib

'le: in

the

first place, printing has made it

.possible for BiLles Lo be c

ir

culated mu

ch

mo re widely and much

.more cheaply; an d secondly, printing ha s - he lped to standardize

.the

arrang·

cmcllt and

c

on

·tents

of the Bible

\Ve s

hall be

looking

.at, Some of

th e ,co nsequences of

th i

s revolutionary invention

The manuscript Bible

wa

s rarely a complcte

Bible

, for

nor

,rnally

a

biblical

manuscript would

only

contain part of

the Bible,

'such

as

the Gos

pe l

s, or may

be

thc whcle New Testament . Each

, • book would bc

de

vidcd into

chapters,

but severa] ·different sy

. .stems

of

c

hap

ter divisions werc

current; thu

s, for example, the

I chapter division in

Syriac and

in

Greek

ma nuscripts

differs

from

rthat in

OUI'

printed Bibies. The

chapter divisiun

familiar

to

.us

today

in printed Bibles in

fact belon

gs to

the

Latin

translation

-by Jerome, known 'as tHe Vulgate;

though

'

the

sys tem was only

:devised in

the

~ - 1 i d d l e Ages, " t

was

adopted in ·

the printed

text

-of the Bible in all la nguages in the sixteenth centu r y, and so

th i

s

parti

c

ular

s·

ystem

·

ha

s

now

become universal. Manu

sc

ript

"Bibles

in lan

guages 'other than Hebrew

also lack

ed

any

form of

,.' verse

di

vision : our

present ver

se divisions in the Old Testament

'derive from the H ebrew Bible, and

these

were

introduced into

, printed Bibles in

all

languages in the r.oursc of the six teenth cen

tury. In the New

Testament

the ·verse divisions and numberings

wer e first illl

roduce

d in so

me

of

the

first printed editions of the

Gr eek te

xt.

1

i

I



i

I

I

j.1

"

6 The Bible in

the Syriae Traditio

n

t>.1anu

sc

ript

Bibles in

all lan

guages exce

pt Hebrew

were in

book, 0 1 ' codex', form. For purposes of st ud y the Jews

would

a lso write out the H ebrew Bible in codex form , but

for

liturgic,d

Uji C in S)'nagoguc they always wrote

out the

text on scrolls . ( ~

Jl"""'lcticc

which

still exis ts). The scroll is in fac t a m u c ~

older

in

4

vcntion than the codex. The

codex

only came to

be Widely

used

for

literal'\" texts in

the

early ce nturies of th e Christian era, I

and

it seems tltat Ch r ist ian s httipcd popularize

the

new

format

by

fir

st

employing i t ~ f o r writing Oll t

bibli

cal texts

in

Greek .

The

codex

ha s many adva ntages oyer the scro ll : in particular, the c o d c ~

is much cas ier to usc, and it can hold vcry

much

more tC:<,

than

a scroll.

J3cforc the invention of th e codex pcoplc h ad . n ~ a r i a b J y

used

the

scrolt; thus, for exampl e .

the

biblical manu sr.;ripts in

Hebrew fo und

at Qumran

,

on the

DcaCl

Sea,

arc a ll in s

cro

ll form

(they da tc from

ab

out the second c

entury BC the c ~ n t ~ r

A D). 'I'his mea ns

that

the origina l a uth

or

s of the variOUS blbhcal

books wi

ll

havc fir st writtcn thei r h')oks down on scro lls,

rather

than

in

book

form, jn cod ices. T his a

lm

ost certainl y

applie

s

to

the

au t

h

or

s

of

the New Test

a

ment

books

as

we ll

to

those

of

the

Old

Te stament.

, ..

I : : :

Th c Liblica l from Qumran , whi ch com e fro m ...

a collect ion

of

texts often known as

the

" D

cad

Sea Scro

ll

s , are

the

·o ldest · surviving bibli ca l manu scripts · in H

eb

rcw . vI.ost, of

them ar c · very frag mentar y, and th e 'earliest r:ompletc b lbh ed l

manuscripts in . Heb rcw date fr om very · mu ch later, from the

t

en t

h century .

). . ,

\"" Th e - uooks of the Hebrew lible (the .Christ ia n O ld r e s t a ·

menr) were

tran

sl

ated

by

Je

ws

ilt

to ·

Grcek

in· t he third and ,sccond

cen

turies B C. T his c o llection of tran slations

ca

me to

be

known

'as

the

.

Septua

g

in

t

(Seven

ty) since

an

ea

rl y

tradition

clai

m

cd.

th at

th e · Pentateuch had

bee

n trans lat ed into ·Greek a t Alcxandna .b)'

seventy tr a nslators frOln Palestine . Th e G

;'cek

-spt::aking p

ar

t

of

the C hur ch took on: r t hi s tran s

la

tion from

[he Je w

s, :and

, I '- d d , \ few

sma

ll

in du e course th e Je ws them s\: v cS auan onc 1 ...

f

I

d

ld f lrst

ccnturie

s

.fra jpuent s of th e Septuagint rom t \c sceon

al.

I

e Ip tS :irc Christian

.n

U

surv i, 'c , but the earl i

est co

m p etc manus I

olles

of

the f

our

th ,and fifth centur i

l.:

s ~ n d later.

.

..

How does the Bible reach us 7

{ .

Je w

s al so transla ted th c Hebrew Bible in to Aramaic·,

and

th

ese tr a ns

latio

ns a

rc

kn own to

da

y a s

the

Ta rg

um

s. Fr agments

. of-a pre-Chris

tian

Targum to J

ob

h

ave

be

en found at

Q umran,

but

the ot her Ta rgum s whi ch survive probably ori ginatcQ in th e

31 early centuries of the Christian era , a nd the manu scr ipt s contai n

•

ing

them are "almost all la te

medieval

(twclfth

to

·' si

xteent

h cen

l-ur.y) .

Je w

s ma y a lso

have

translated some ·. book·s ' of the

Bible

" , into

an Aramaic

di ,tlc c.t resemblin g Syriac (Syriac or iginated :

as

, loca l

Aramaic

diale

c t

of

Edcs

s

a),

l

and

these were then

·t

aken

'

Qve l' by

the :

early Syriac-

spcaking

·_Cllri

s

tian

-

:

comm unity -

to

:

form

t he beg innings ·of thc ·

Peshitta

Ol d 'Tc stamen, . The earliest

comp lete manuscript of the Syriac · Old Testament belongs to the

x t h or scven

th

century. -.

' .

H1

o d ~ r 't ra nslations

of

the Bible ~ a d e from

particular

d i t i o n

of

th

e

Hebrew

,

Old

T e s t a ~ e n t and ·,Greek New

Tc

sta

i,: ent. Su rviving manu scr ipt s of t h ~ Hc

br c

·w

Bible

' ·I

;ave

a re

. a r k ~ b l y uniform text,

and

so there is very little 'differe 1ce bet

' ,veen one edition ·ofthc

Hebrew

Bible and

ano

ther; ·it is

likel

y

Ith

e

{ha t

prec

ise form

of the Hebrew

h

ex

t as we k

no

w it

g<?

cs back

to

An au t horit ative

ed

it ion p rodu ced abou t th e end ,.of

~ e n

tury

A

D.

Defore th

at date th

ere wa

s

evidcntly

·'

a

cer

ta

in amount

Ft varia tion .betwcen

diff

<;

rent

ma nuscri ~ s . , : I . .

, In

contra

st to the Hebrew Bib le, manus

cripts

of

Greek

Tes' - ment (Septuagi

nt)

and t he Greek New. Testament ' ma y

;fr o.u ' one ano

th

erlconsiderably in details lof lwording; ' and

'i

modern

e

dit

ors

havc

' used

the ea

rliest

ava

ila

ble

:

manu

sc ripts ·

to

providc

' their readers

with

a .text ,as close as

l

possible , .

. the text w ritten down

by

the original a uth ors.

·;

This is·by (10

means a simple task, and

as

a result diffcrent editions of the

qreck New Testament will often have s

li

ghtly diffcFent texts.

. In

most

cases these modern

editions will differ

in many sma ll Vays

J r om sixteenth -ce nt u ry editions, wh ose editors Jnostly relied on

;'·a'

th

cl·

late

manu

s

cr i

pt

s.

These

differcnces

arc

t:e

fl

ected

various English tr anslations:

one

ca n eas ily

discover

thi s by· com:

p ~ r i n a pass

age

in the King James

ve r

si

on,

~ a d c in the sevcn:

.teen

th

ccntUl·y, with any

twentieth

centu ry English tr anslation :

t

1 • , •

I •

:-

:' , ' As

we

shall s e e ~ manu scr ip ts of the standard Syriac

Bible

;t re

re mar kably in cha r

actci

·;

in

th is respect

th

ey a re .com-

pa r,

able

to H c

brew

.biblical

manuscripts,

. and unJike Gr

ee

k

ones.

,


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/brock-the-bible-in-the-syriac-tradition 6/49 I I

8 The

Bi

b le in

the Syri.c Tra

di t

io

n

2.

Biblical

translation

some

general

problems

F

as

hions in biblical transaltion chan ge Q\"cr

the

course o f

time.

Twentieth-

ce ntury

bibli

cal tran s

lat

ors

appr

oach

their ta

sk

very

differ

e

ntl

y from t.

he way in

whi ch

th

e

anci

ent

tran

slatol'3 '

went ahout th e ir work. The aims and th e sc lf:'undcrstanding of

an cient and of mo

dern

biblical transla tors were radic

allr d i r r

cnt.

One

c

an

genera lize a nd

sa

y

th

at the a ncient tran slator wa s

o

rient

e d tow;rrcls

th

e

ori

gina l t

ex

t, while

th

e mo

dern tr

a ns

lator

is

ori ent ed towa rd s th e read er. As a result of thi s differe

nt r i C l l t ~

a l ion

the

anc ien t tran sla to r transla tes with g rea t deference to

wards

t,he

original

text, striving

to

re

nder

it (word for

word

' ,

eve n

if th i

s may some tim es result in fIlOnSCIl iC tran slations'; in

co ntr

as

t , the m ode rn tran sla tol see ks to rend er the te x t intelli

gible to hi s reader and a s a conseq uence he '

translate

s 's en se ror

rather

thap 'word

for word

'; and

he will avoid

at

a

ll

costs

allY nonsellse translations. Anc ient tl'anslati9 ns

will

thus tend to

he morc litcral , and m ode rn ones more rree

and

interpreta tive.

\Vithin eac h

t\

' pe or

trall

slation.

th

e more literal

and

the more

fr

ee,

th

ere is in '

fa

ct

th

e po

ss i .,ili

ty o i' va riet

>·,

as we

-

hall see

I:Her 0

11

, in con nec tio n with th e Sy riae Bible,

Vi rtuall y all earl r hiiJliea l tra nsla tio lls, in tu rhat c\'e r 1

.

-11-

gl1agc , ar l:

basically tex t-ori ent ed . ra thcr

than

rea der-orient ed .

hen

d id

biblical tr

a nsla tion cha n

ge

its prac ticc a nd bec

om

e

rca der-ori ented ? Ri ght up to th e c

nd

of the Europea n Middle Ages

wo rd ror word trans lation re

mained

th e norm for biblical transla

tion, and it was onl y

in th

e sixtee nth cc

ntur

y

that

pra cti ce chang

e

d. Th

e

re ar

e goo d reasons

fo

r linkil

:.{ th i

s

imp

ortant ;

hift with

th e im 'cnti on of pr inting,

Uclore the

invention

0( printin

g'

tlte m ain

co

ntext in which

the Bihle w

as

read was durioKc hu l"c h sCI' vices, but af t er the

e n ~

lion

of

printin

g

it

be

cam

e

much

CII 0 l C

a v

ailable

to

he

read

br

individual s. at hom e . Sin ce ma n y pa ssag

t :

s in the Bible a re ex

tremel

y

ob sc

ure .

th i

s l e w situation

g <l\

' C rise to

prublem

s lo r the

Church, a ll th c mo re so sin c(' it coi nc ide d in tim e with tilt· move

"-

mc

nt

r ' reform in EU

l'oJl l :.

As long as

th

e

readin

g of th c Bibl e

,",

,'as

la rge

ly confined

to th

e context of

th

e

liturgy

.

the

Chllrch

wa f

able

to exe rctse it s authorilY in ma

tter

s of sc riptural interpret ati on

Sin ce biblical readin gs could be acco mpani ed by homilctic c:tpla-

B;bl;ca l Transla ti o n 9.

l\ ,

tion. On ce howeve r'

th

e Bible

had

,becom e rea dil )' , a va ilaiJlc .

ou t:;jde th e

litur

gy the.re was no

lon

ger an y mean s of control

over how

th

e Dible w

as

to be interpreted,

and

in the course or

the

Re f

o

rmation

period in

Eur

ope all sq rts

of

ext ra v

agant inter

p r c t ~ t i o n beg

an

to circulate. There we re.

t\

yo main rC<l { tions to

th is abu se oC the Bible at t h ~ time: th e Roman Gil.tholie Gh u·rch

tri ed

to

minimize

th

t usc of

the

Bible

th

,e co nt ext of

church

services,

thu

s

reducin

g

the da n

ger

or

misguided interpre

tation

of

the

Bible

uy

indi

v

id

.uaI 5. T.he

Re f

o

rmati

on

Ch

u

rche

s ,

on the o ther hand , dealt with the pr oblem iq CllI,ite a diffe rent

,

y, by adopting a c

omplet

ely new attit1.,lde towarrl s bi ,

blical

,

tran

s

lation

its<r lf: from

the time

of St. .Jerome (late i'ourth century )

to. he e nd of the European Middle Ages f i ~ t

e n t h

century) th e

ideal a im ed a t b y a ll hiblica l tr a nsla tors had hee n (as

we

have

seen) a ' word ror \Vord' , rather than

fs

en se for se nse', rcnd eriu g;

th i

s

meant that

,

ir th

e

ori

ginal

text

was obsc

ur

e,

the

tran slator was

content to pa ss th e ob scurity on to the reader , leav in g 'the matter

Qf expositi on to the preacher. At

th

e Rerorm a tion th e ro lc or

tran slat or a ~ l 1 e

to

,be

joined

, to some e

x.

tent,

to that

of

th

e prea

cher or expositor,

and

so th e

entire

aim o r th e hiblica l tran s

lation

c ha nged : 11 0 longe r di d th e biulical t ran sla tor

c

le fer tu th e urig in ;d

tex t,

r i l l

it f,v

ord

for wo

rd';

ins

tead

. he saw hi s ta sk il $

co

nveying to.

lh

c rCflder hi s o

wn under

sta,

ndin

g of

what th

e uihlical

text me a nt. Accorclil)g ly, in the process of transla tin g th e

Bihle

in to

th

e

Eu r

opean spoken lan gua ges nr

th

e time , th e R

l:

fo

r

mer

s fe lt

th

e ne ed

to

be much ' mo re interpretative in

th

e ir

work

or

trans

lati

on

than earlier

translator s

had iJf;

en.

Virtu

a ll y a ll m odern biblical t r a n l a t i ha\ 'c

inh

e

ritcd

thi s ch;u,lgcd

attitud

e to wa rds the task o r th e IJiiJli ca l tr a nslator .

t I ~ o u

modcrn tr ans lations arc interprelati \'c in vc ry differe nt

~ v a y j x t e e n t h ~ n t u r

European

translation s.

St . Jerome, who pro

du

ced

th

e revised Latin translation

known

a s

the

Vul

ga

te, wa s the fir st pers

on

to fo rmulate

th

e v iew

that it wa s appropriate to translate the sacred tex t of the lliill c

('wo rd ror word '. rathe r than ' se nse for sense' , \Ve can , h owc\,('I'.

see rrom the hi story

or th

e ca rl y biblical tr a nsla tions

th

a t th is

ideal

had

a lre

ady

Been put

in t

o

pr a

ctice lon g

Il

cfore

hi

s tim e.

rri

th

e. cas e of mos t ancient tr a nslations of th e Bible we ca n ob

se rve

th

e s

ame

co

ur

sc of evc

nt

S:

th

e ea rliest tr a ns la lio lls int o a



\

\

I

i

II

I

i

I

I

,

,I

i

. 1

10 The Bi b le in the Syriac Traditio n

part icular lang uage a re rather inconsistent in ch a rac te

r,

s

ince thf

trans

l

ators

lacked exper ie

nce an

d

precedent;

before

lon

g,

h

owever

,

J

p

eop

le notic

ed th

a t

th

ere

we

re

differences

bet

ween

'

the

ori gin a l

and

th

e transl

ation

,

and

so

th e

y sta

rted to

r

ev

ise

th

e orig

inal

tran

s lation,

brin

ging it

closer

in to

agreemen

t w ith

the

or iginal. This

l

pr ocess of revision mi ght be repea ted, 01' go on D

v

: a period

of

time

.

In every

case

we

end up \vith an

ex tr

e

mely lit

era l

r e n c l e 't .

nf

the

orig

inal

text:

Th i

s mo\'c 11c

nl

'

towards

a m

orc an d

or

el

li t

era

l s

tyle

of

tran

sl

at

i

on can be particu

l

arly

we

ll

do

c

umented

from th

e history o f

bot

h

th

e Gre ek and

th

e

Syriac Bible,

for in

ho

th cases

;we h

ave

s

omewhat

in

con

sist

en

t stylcs of translation at

thc ear liest stages, followed by a scries of

revisions

,a im ed

to bring

the translat ions eve r closOf' into

line with un d

erl ying t

cx

t of

the or iginal. .The end

re

sul ts of th is. process of revi sion were

hi

g

hl

y

s.

op

hi

sti

ca

tcd

mirror

t

rans

l

at

ions.

But

eve

n the translator who sets dut to provide such a

mirror

rcnd

e

rin

g c

annot avoid

being

interpretative in place

s:

quite

rrequentl

y (and

espec

ia lly in t

he

He

brew

Old T

esta

ment )

the orig ina l te

xt

is

am

biguous

or ob

scur e.

and

so

th

e

tran

sla t

or

is

, ror

ce

d to make: a choi

ce

be

tw

een two

or

more po

ss

ibiliti

es.

I

At

crea tion (

Gen,

1 2) is it ' the Sp iri t of God' or a ' mighty w i n d

over the pr i

mordia l d eep? Bot

h' an

cien t a

nd

mo

dern tr

ansla

to r

s

are divided over th i

s a nd

many

o

th

er

suc

h

ambi

g

uitie

s . ·

In d

e

ed,

so

me t

i

mes the

very c h

oice

or a l

itera

l

rendering

mi ght be co

n

sidered in terpre ta t ive: a

goo

d

examp

le

s provided

by

the

fi rst

word of the

an g

el Ga bri el' s gree t ing to Mary in Luke

I

:28: in Eng

li

sh

th

e

familiar renderin

g of

th

e

Greek Hchairc

is 'h a il

(Mary)',

The stan da rd

Syria

c

bi b

lica l

text of the New Testament ha

s .

s

hlam

lek 'Greetings to you', the

equiva

lent

Syriac

fo

rm

of

the Greek

g reeting (similarly ,

the New

English

Bible

ha s, 'Gree tin

gs')

, Th e

ve ry li teral seve

nth- ce

nt ury Syriac version known

as the

H a

rclean

prefers to give in stead the etymological equ iva lent to the Greek ,

Ilamely

the imperative

'

rejoi

ce

',

Sho

uld

the

tl

'a

ll

slat

or pay morc

at t

e

ntion

to

th

e form

('"re

j oi

ce

' )

or to

t he

cont

e

nt ('gree ting

s' )?

Ancjent

tr ansl

ators

like

the

author of

th

e Harclean

New Te

s

ta

ment th

ought

th

at

the

fcrm

was

~ o r ~

im p

ortant, whil e modern

translators

conside

r that the cont en t

ha

s th e greater

im p

or

ta n

ce.

\ \fe ha ve

jCt,;n

how th e in ve nt ion of pr int ing altered

peo ple

's

at t ilU

de

s t

owar d

s

the

na ture

of bib

li

ca

l

translati

on,

Printing

has ·

Bi

b

li

cal Tr

ans

lat

ion

an im p

o

rt

a

nt

eff

ec

t on

the content

s of

th

e Bible;

th i

s is

printing m

ake

s poss

ibl

e

the

w

id

c cr ic

ulat

ion of a ' sing le

edition or tr

a nsl

at

i

on

, re s

ul t

ing in a

kind of

standard iz

at ion

that

was not

possible befo

re th

e i

nvent i

on of

printing,

\ ie have

i _ad y seen one suc h

ce

nsequence, name ly

th

e h l l r of a

- ... ,

s ~ a ~ d f l ~ d j z c d system of chapter and verse ,

numbering

. Othcr

of stand

ar

,di za t ion in tro du ced by. printing 'can be by

o ~ p a r i n g the content

s and

or der of

books

in differen

t

modern

fran

s

lation

s.

Bib

les

produced

ror

th

e

Catholi

c

chur

ch '

will

dirrer

fl'

om

t hose produ

ce

d for

th

e

vario

us Reformcd Churches: th e

wi ll

co

ntain

th

e dc:utero-

cano

ni

ca

l b

oo

ks,

wh

ile t

he

la tter

normally not;

and

the

o rde r. of

ce

rt a in old T es

tament

'

book

s

be

diff

ere nt.

Or th

odox

Bibles wjli

a i n differ frOl'u

bo

th

t..;a

th

olic an d R ef

or

med

Bib

les. H

ere we ca

n s

ec th

a t

the inv

en t ion

6 prinqng h

as

standa rdiz

c:

d

the

differences betwt.cn

the

.Q

h'ur ch

1

t radit ions, '

W e He

ed to (4).ns id er one

m ore

problem

w

hi

ch

need

s to be

face d by

the

mod c

rn bibli

ca l tran sl

at

io n, sin

ce

thi s a lso

ha

s a

beari ng on our

at t itud

e t

owards the

Syriac Biblc: What

biblica

l

:

te

xt sh

ou

ld

the

tr

anslat

or

t

re

at

as a

uth

o

ritative

and tran

sl

ate

'a bm? At first sight thi s see ms an easy quc sti o,n

to

c.lnswe r: ' the

'

Hebr

ew tex t for

th

e O ld

Te

s

tament an

d ;

th

e GI:

eek

tex t '

f

r

'

th

e,

Te

s

tam

ent. As we shall s

ee,

h

owever

,

thi

s is by

mean

s

;

the

only

an

swer. Certa illl y

mo

st m oder n transla tions o

ut

to

tr

ans late

from

the

H ebrew

and

the

Greek

,

but

e, en here

prob lems ar ise : the

ed iti

on of

the

He b rew Bib le used is ih fac t a

medieva l J ewish one where th e or ig inally ·' co nsonan ta l · text

'has been :provided \';ith vowel

s;

it is ' tr ue t hat the conso nanta l

ex't goes· back more or less in it s present ·fo rm

to

the late fir st

·c'elltllI"Y AD , but in many cases (espec ia lly ' in ' poct ic 'books) thi s

c

on

so

nantal text

co

ul d be read w

ith

d irfcrc

nt

vowels

., pr ov

id

ing a somewha t

dilTerent meaning

, 1vl odcrn

translators

n

or

' malty f

ollow th

e m e

di

eva l Jewi sh tr aditi on or under

stan

din g

'

the text,

but it wou ld a lso ue poss

ib l

e to take

the con

sona

nt

a l

text as\til e sta r ti ng po in t, without n

ecessar

ily follo{v ing

the

par

, u l a r in tc

l'l

Jrctat ion or read inu th e

vowe

ls w

hi

ch the

, 0

tradition

pr

ov

ide

s,

It

wo

uld

a lso th

eoret

ica

ll

y he poss

ibl

e

to take

as a s

tarlill

l poi

nt

an

ea

rli er

form

df

the He b

rew tex t , such as

tl

?a

t l l P l by

th

e

Sep tu ag

i

nt

(

whi

ch in some.

bouk

s mu st

,

I

[

,

I

I

'

[

,

I;

I'

r



I

I

I.

il

II

I

.,

I

I

i

i

It

I I

I

,

'

12

The Bible in the '

Syriac

Tradition

ha ve differed

considerab

ly from the: Hcbl'cw text

we

know)'.

Again, someone mi g

ht

1:casonably ex pect a translator

to

try ' to ,

go

b

ac

k to

th

e

ex a

ct from of

th

e

e \ V

t'

ext as

fi

rst wrilien ddwii

by tlie individual authors of the

old

Testament

books. Th is,

:howcve r , is an

im

poss

ible

ta sk, fo r

we

have no means of getting

be

hind tHe

variet y of

diff

er

en

t form s of the Hebrew

text wh

i

ch we

now

k llow to 'have been circu lating in the fi rst few centuri es BC.

.

.

] n '

re

s

pon

se,

to this

s

tate

of

affair

s, we

need

to make

of

th

e di stinction

between

'literary authenticity'

and

scriptural

au

th en tic

ity'.

Literary

authenticity refers

to the

exac

t wordi,ng lotf

the od ginal au t

hor

(which , in' the case of the H'

cb;'ew

'

Old

Testa'

H t:nt is unattainable), whereas sc riptura l a

uthenti

City refers a

form

of thc

biblical'

text which ha s '

be

'cll he

ld

by the

religious com;

~ t l l l i t y

as

/

authoritative,

Th is di stinction has i m p 0 1 . t ' t ~ t

c o n ~ e q

lIees: lit er a ry a uthentici ty ca n only

ap p

ly :to a s

ingle

for in of

but

scriptura l authen ticity can a

pply

s

imult

a

neou

sly

to

severa'l

,different fo rm s of text. Th u s, as far as the

Hebrew

bible is con

cer

ned, it

co

uld be

s

aid that

scriptural authentic

ity applies

,

not

'on ly to the medieva l Jewish edition of

th

e Hebrew , but also to

,

it

s

con

so

nantal

ba

sis

which

goes

ba

ck to

the

first

ce

ntur

y

and to lhe H

bl'cw tcxt use d by the Jewish transla tors of the Old

Te s

tament into Greek

.

But

scriptuntl

authenticity

is by

no means

'

co

nfined

to th e

Hebrew

Old Te s

tamellt

and the Greek New T e s t -

.unent: i t applies just

as

much to the ancien

t '

ver

sion s, the

Grcek

Septuagint and the Sy

ri a

c

Pe

shitta, '

sincc

both these

translations

: have been regarded

as

authoritative biblical texts by the commu-

nities

using

them.

' "

,

Ouce we

realize that

scriptural authcntie ity is not

necessarily

confined to the od g inal biblical langua

ges,

it

then becomes

cleal"'

that

modcrn

biblical

transla ti

on

's should not

cxclu

s

ively be made

fl'om Hc b re w and Greek: for the

Greek

'and Russian Orthodox

Chu rch it wou ld be ju st a s ,de sirable'

(especia

lly for l i t u usc)

to use translations

from

the Septuag

in t

; likewis

e,

in the c,ase.or

th e C

hu r

ches of S yri ac liturgical tradition , it will be

imp

ortant ,to

make

ava

ilable

translations from the Sy

riac

Pes

hitta. T } ~ c

trll

nsbtions would 'primarily be for usc in the 1iturgy (as

we sh

a ll '

se

c, th

e '

Syriac liturgica

l tradition is

rooted

'

in

the Sy

riac

Bible);

IJu t

for ot her purposes too , lh ey

cnu

ld

be profitably

used a

long

s

ide

lhe exi stin g translations

from Hebrew

a

nd Gq :ck, th u

s

pro-

,

\' i<li ll ,; an adJitional source for spirilUal insi

ght.

A Bird's Eye View... 13

Eye View of th .Syriilc Bible

.

' o r

a ll

the Churches

ofSyriac tradition

the

a uthorit a tivc form

of

·the Bible is th

e Svria

c translat ion '

kno\vn

'

as

the

Peshitta.

' The

, .

}lcshitta O ld T estament was t ra nslated directl y fr om the or iginal

H ebr ew text, and th e Peshitta New T estament direcll y

fi om the

original

Greek; t he

so-c:

; Ilcd dcutcro- ca noni

ca

l books

or 'Apocry

ph

a' w

ere

all trallsl a ted fi 'om Greek, with the exc e ption of Bar

S

ir

a

(Eccle

siasticus),

which

was

translated

from

H e

hrew.

' ~ I I I

' • I

,

/

f

.The

date of ;he Peshitta Old Testament is

uncertain,

and in

tallY case not a ll books will have been tr anslated a t once, or t h c

s

ame

persons,

Some books

-may- h

av e

·bcen inherited ,

by

the yo

ung

Syriac Church from translations made by J ewish communities ill

.Ithc region of Ed essa and Ni sib is. I t se

ems

likely th at most liO-;'ks'

of ,the Peshitta '

Old

,T es tament were translated during

the period

,fl'o,m the .late

fir

st century A D

to

the ea

rly thirc\

"century:A

D.

'

The

Pesh it ta New

Te

stament is in fact a revision of an earlier

o n , knmvn as

the 'Old Syriae

'

. The revis

ion

may ha

ve

made over a peri od of time , but was co mpleted sometime in

the

l

early

fifth

ce

ntur

y.

The

c

ir

culation

of

th i

s

revi

sion

provcd

-

.

,

t r c m e l

effective,

for the Pe shitta rapidly replaced the Old

Syriac

a

nd

haq b

ec

ome

the

authori t

at

i

ve Syriac text

of the New

1, ,Testament

before

the

sch

i

sm

between

th

e S y r i a ~ l Orthodo:x. Church

..

t

li

e

Chur

ch of the

East, brought

about

by the

ch r i

sto logical

•••

I

-.

• , ,

Fp ntrover

sies

9f the

mid

fifth

c

entury.

~

J

). 1 l I

rOIl. I .A lar

ge

numuer of manuscripts of the Pc;shitta s ~ r y i . v e , and

the

olde

s t of

these date from

the

fifth

and sixth

I cent

uries: Since

an entire

Bible

written out by hand wa s very bulky and

awkward

to manage, most manuscripts orily co ntain s

mall

groups 9f books

at

a time a nd comp

lete Bibles arc very rare.

'

:1The rarity of complete Bibles before

the

coming of

the

printed

"

bo

ok

ha

s ha.d

an

important

,

con

se

quen

c

e:

the

,

preci

se

content

s

and

,

.order

of

books

in the Syriac B i b l ~ ha s never become en tirely fixed

(even in

mo dern

printed

editions 'the

order whi

ch the

biblical

-books are printed may differ considerably, from . one edition to

1

anoth,er).

As

far as contents are

concerned, ,

the most

i m p o r t a n t

e a t l \ r ~

of

the

Syl'iac Bible is

the

absence ' from '

the ,· original

l \ \ < \ translation of th

New

Testament of some of

the

C ~ t h o l i c

(2

Peter,

2-3

]ohn,]ude) and the Revelation of

·S\.

o

.

hn.



I

,

"

,

I

ii

"

t

I,

1

;i

J

14

The Bible in the Syriae

Tra

dition

(Apo ca lypse); in m

ost

printed cditi ons o f

th

c Syriac ew T esta

ment

, h

owever,

the Syriac

text of

these boo ks ha s been s

upplied

from

later Syriac trans

lati

ons.

Alth

ough th e Peshi ua is the sta ndard biblical text , It is

not

the

onl

y

Sydac

translat

ion

of

the

Bibl

e. '

J'o

l

the Old

Te

s

tament

J

th

ere is a tran slation ma

de

fr

om

th

e

Gr

ee k Septuag int.

Th i

s

vers

ion is

known in Syr

iac as ' the

Seventy' (IfSha b' in ); hut is called the ' Syro -hcxapla ' by moclchi

h o l a r it wa s m,tdc hy

the

r i a n

Orthod

ox ··

scT

lo l<\I' Paul or

Tella o, c,'

th

e yca,·, · 614-6 16 in Alc

xandr

'ia (Egypt),

Alth

oug h

.

the tran

slat i

on

wa s probably never intcntcd for

litur

gica l u sc, its

t

ext

is never

thel

ess somet im es to be found in Syriah.. Orthoda

1cctionari cs . The Syro-hcxa pla sur vives in a number of m ~ n u

sc ript :-,

but

un for tunately

we

do not ha ve th e co mplele , ex· p a r t i

of the

Pent

a teuch

and Hi

sto d ca l Books arc mi ss in

g).

I

The Syrian Ort h

odox

scholal' o f

Ede . ,

a (died 10G)

made a revised ' Sy riac tran sla tion of ce r

tai

n [yooks of the O ld

']"

csta

mcnt

,

basin

g

hi

s wo rk

er

n

i.J

.)t h the

Greek

Sc

ptu

ag

in.t

and

the

Pcs

hi u

a. Parts of hi s

wo

rk

surv

in:s in. a small num1xr

of

\I ery ol d

IT ltlllu

scripl s .

A

few

other

relics of

tr a

nsia

llon

s

of indi

v

idual

Old

Te

sta ..

n lcnt boo ks

fi

-om- Greek in to Sy ri ac a lso survi ve ;: these' nta y have'

bee n commiss

ion

ed by

the

Syr'ian O rthodoow theologia.n PhiloxenU's>

\ '

of Mabbug (died 523) . ,

the

New Te<;tament We kno' .... of a Jlunlher af ot her'

Syriac \'

er

si01l

£,

be.s

ide

S

the

The old est Syri ac tran slation· of

the

Gospels WaS'

alm

os t

certainly

in

the

form

of a

harm

::

my

or

he'

(OUl

GOSpcl

9,

known

the D i a t e s . s ; a Greek w() l'k mea nYllg

Ct

hrough four

T

,

that is, a·

single Gospe l texl d eriv cd rrom

th

e lo ur'

Go

spel s.

On

ly very sma iL

fragment

s

o th i

s sur vive.

and mu

ch un ccl-ta ln ty s

ur

'ro

und

s it g.

author

ship

and

or ig in _ 111c \

Dia

tcssaron IS' usua lly thoug

ht

to'

hav c been.

co

m'posed

by T a t i a n

a

nat

ive or

th

e M

eso puta

min who

:;; tudied In Rome under Ju stIn ~ v I a r t in th e m

iddl

e or th e second

ce ntury D. an d tfu:n.

r l l e d

to h

i<$

·.

llOmd

a nd.

Il

is- not knowil

A

Bird's

Eye View . , 15

-for

cert a in

whether

he comp osed

his

Gos

pel

harmony in Greek 0

1

;:

in Syri

ac.

In

th

e Syriac C

hu r

ch,

before th

e

birth of

the

J)es

hitl

a New

Te

stam ent , the Diatessaron was

evidently

i d ~

cred as a n a uth or ita t ive Gospe l tex t, for St. Ephrem wrote a com

mentaryon

it

in

the f ourlh ce

ntur

y. On ce the Pcs

hitl

a

Tc

s t

~ e n t

ha d come

int

o ex iste nce

(ca

d y in th e

rifth

cent

ur

y)

the

D i a t

e s s a fell out of

an

d as a res

ult

no

sCl:ipt s of it sur vive:: .

,

N

ext

in t ime a fter the Di ates sa ron : ' trans

lation

' known

as

the 'Old-Syri ac ,of-which only th e Foul' ~ o s p c l s $ur vivc .

(preserve d in two very early manuscripts). The d ate when th is

transla tion \Vas made r

emai

ns unce rtain : some scholars suggest

late sccond or early

thin]

fc ntury while

other

s prefer

th

e

. ea

rly

four th century.

In

any

case

the Old

Syriac

see ms to be

la t

er

-th an the D i a t c a nd in many places it has ' been influenced , '

, by th e Diatcss

aron.

I t is likely that th e Old Syriac origin a lly

:'

,

.

extended

to th e Acts

or

t he Apo s

tl e

s and

th

e Epi stles, ' but no

manuscr

ipt s conta ining

th

e Old Syriac

ver

sion'

of

these books

,surv ives .

_

'

'''e

. h

ave

already

see n

that

the Pe

s

hitta

Nc

.w

Testament

is

ion

fact

not a

co m

pletely new

tran

slation rom Greek, but a

revi

,

..

s ion of

the Old

Syriac , correc ting it aga in st

thc

Greek text. Over

the'

pori od fr om

the

fifth

to th

e sev

enth

century Greek la ngu a

ge

and c

ulturc

be

ca me

morc

and

more pres

tigiou

s

in th

e eyes

of

Sy ri ac biblical scho lar s

J

especia lly in the Syrian .Orthod ox

Church

; as <1 result, two

.further

rev ision s of

tpe

Syriac New

Test

ament were made,

trying

to bring it cl os

er int

o lin e with

th

e

Greek origina l.

W e kn ow

that the

c

hor

episc;opus Polycai'p a

revi·

s

ion

'of the Pe shitta New

Test

ament in 508. Th is work had been

I com mi ssioned by the Syrian Orthodo x th eo logian Philoxe nu s,

:

metropo li tan

of

mabbug

,

and

so is

normally

ca

ll

ed the

c

Philox

e

i

ri nian'

New

Te sta ment

.

The

Philoxcnian version is

unfortun

a

tely

Jost :

it

was

evidentl

y never ci

rc

ula ted widely

and

no manu

scr ip t

s

it survive; i t is po ss ible, however, that the e

xt an

t six th-century

.tran slat ions of

the

rvHnor Catholic Epistles

and

Revela.tion

may

belong to th is

re

vision

J

in

whi eh case we do have th e

Philoxeni

a n .

for a f

ew

books, at

leas t.

i

)

j

,

I

I,



•

\

I

,

1

il

,I

I

I

,

,

,

'I

"

,

III

' J

:

,

I:

f

I

1

16

The Bible

in

the Sy

ria

e Tradit ion

Th is los t

Philoxcnian

revision served as the ba sis fo i yet a

furtlier

re vision of

the Syriac New Testament,

co

mpl

eted in 6 1G

,in Alexandria by th e Syrian Orthodox scholar Thomas of Har ke I.

r h i s revision, know n

as

th e ' Ha rc1can' prov id es a remarkable

mirror

tran

sla

tion

,

refl

ec tin g eve ry detail

of the Greek original.

The

Harclc

a n

was widely circ

ulated

in Syrian Orthodox

circles ·

and

wa s orlen u

sed

for Guspel lcctiona ries. The H a rclcan New

Te

stament survives comp lete, and include::; dIe Minor Catholic

Epist les

and

Revelation.

In tabular for IT} we have:

OLD TESTAME NT

Hebrew ...... ['e,hitta (c. 2nd cent, AD?)

Grcek

(Septuagint) ..... Syro

-hexapla (G

IG)

·NEW

TESTAMENT

. ,

"11;

'

, .

. "

; "

1

1

'

Gr?ck

.....

Di

a tc>saron

(2nd

cenL

AD)

{Gos pel Harmony),

->

Old

Syriac (c. 3rd ce nL)

.......

Pcshilla (C ' 400)

.......

l'hi

loxenian (508)

-

Ha"klean

(G I6).

"

-'

, ' I U: :

. . • ; i :

' .•

/

'J

f

:'

: ,n

: ,,(

'"

,

SECTION

II

HE SYRIAC BIBLE

- A

CLOSER LOOK .

.

,

Testament

,' ;

..

.. 1 ) "

j '

R.\NSLATED

FROM HEBREW: "l 'ESHITTA"

,

.

. , ,

--" "

iit

,;

The

name

.

'Pcshltta'

, I ] ~ c a n s 5 t r a i g

h t f o r w s i ~ P \

J;

given

to

the standard Syr iac

version of tbe

Bible (b.

oth

'

Old

a:;td

New

Testamen ts) in orde'r to

distingui

sh them ' from the

n ~ h ..century translations, the

Syr

o .hexapla and the Harclean':

n a · m e is fir

st

enco

untered

in a

ninth

.cc

ntur

y

writcr

;

e a r l i ~ r

'au thors

had simply

refcrred

to

thc

Pl shiua

a s 't he

Syriac'.

,

,

, ,

I

The orig,in s

of

,

the

Pcs

hitta translation arC;

'vcl'y obscure

and

~ Y l ' al thors

had no clear mc

mo r

y

of how an .

d

when

"the

o r ~

r i c d out (3; ~ c w fm p, lausiblc guesscs

wCl

e ' n c v e r t ~ e l ~ c i r ...

A close

study

of

thc tr

ansl

ation itself ca

n' th row a,

little

fr

om

such a s

tud

y we

can deduce

the

l l o ~ n g :

;

- th

e Pes

hitta

Old Te

s

tament

tS

not the

work

of

a s

in

g le

t r ~ n

t o l ' , bl t

mu

st h

ave

been

carried

out

by ma n

y

differ

ent

, PI' , : ' . 1

tran siator. l, perhaps

working

ovel' a b l e peri

od

of ,time.

, . ' . I'"''

. , I

,

, -

the

' translatOl's all

worked ba

si

ca

lly from

,:

H,c" tIcbrcw

and ;

this

Hehrew text was basi

ca

llY

the

same

as

the

ur ,o:

b r e \

t c x t o f o u r printcd

H c b r c ~ v

Bibles, \ ~ e

.• . , I, 1 , " II

th js,consonantal tcxt became l,the authoritativc' Hebrew text

,r\fp

rq

.c: t I ~ e lalc l t ~ r y 't;..P t \ i . l ~ ~ .•

w c r c ~ x o r k ,after

it

~ f e I 1 yviqC;IYI r o ~ H g ~ ~ ~ ~

:: 1(

I

~ H : 1 ' n , f. II i

· ' ,II "

·· t

If" . . .• : t ,"," ·t; ,:

.1,

" - in some books

the

t(ahslators

seem

to ha ve

consulted

or

use

of other

t r a n

a t i ~ n s

thus

at

'

v ~ ~ i o u s

in

P c n l a t e l l

(Ge nesis Deuteronomy) "

there

a rc so

me

remarkable )

Jinks between the Peshitta and the

Jewi

sh Aramaic T argums; and

• J

;

1 " I J

some

of

' the ' Prophets and Wi sdom t,h,e l tra1ls l,;l tor s . pro .

. . : ~ b l y

,

consulted the

Septuag,int

on occasion, in order

to seck help

,

I'ver

a

difficult

:paSsage in

the

Hebrew.

The with

the T a r

I f t i in ce rtain " books lcads ,us to suppose t h a ~ at f o r .. t l ~ e s

I

I

. ;::

,.

M.

(1 J "

r

er

,

.1:)

,

p d

II,

I'



11

I,

I

II

I

,

,

,

18 The Bible in the Syriac Tradition

books the trans

lator (s

)

were probably Jewi

sh ,

rather than Chris.

tian.

In

oliter h

oo

ks, ho

wev

er, the evidence perhaps points

to

Chri

stian

tran

s

lat

ors,

thou

gh

it

is

Ji

kely

that

such people

were of ..

J ewish

oigin

, f

or

a

kn

o

wled

ge

of

Hebr

ew wo

uld otherwi

se

be

diffi

c

ult to explain.

, .

'"

.

For th

e s

tudent of

Bible

tran

s

lati

ons

it

is of

parti

cu

lar i i 1 ~

tcre

st to look

at

the

distincti

ve features of a tran slation. Here

we

s

hall co

nce

nt ra

te all some

unu

s

ual

interpretative r e

nderin

gs

10 be fo und in

differen

t books of the Pcs

hitt

a Old Testament;

lI1

any of these ha

ve

their

ro

ots

in

J ewish exe

ge

tic

al

tradition.

It wa

s

pointed

out

in

Sec

tion

I

that even the t r ~ n s a t o r

who

set s O ~ l t

to

provide a lit e

ral tran

sla tion c.annot

avoid

c

hoosing

be

tween two or more po

ssible

int

e

rp r

eta tions

in ca

ses where .

th e

'

Hebrew ori gina I

is

ambiguou s

or

obs

cure.

The Hebrew text of

G

od

's worel s to Ca in in Gen. 4:7,

Hlf

you

do well

, will

you

not

be

accepted" (R evised St

andard

Versio

n)

, is capable of several

poss

ibl

e in tc

rp l

-etations,

owin

g to th e ambig

uity

of the word

Hs ' t" ·

(

ct

will

you not

be

accept

ed?

in th

.c

RSV). Hs ' t" derive

s

frmn the

v

erb

H

na sa

whi

ch

ca

n h

ave at lea

st fo

ur different

senses

,' all

po

ss

ible in

the

cont

e

xt:

I) fraise up', in the of '

oIT

er' . This is h

ow

the '.

C reek Septuagint

take

s it (H

I f

you offer well . .") .

( ~ )

'

lift

up ' , in the s

elJ,

se of ' acc ept' . The Sy

riac

transla tol

opts

for th i

s undel' st.a,

nding,

and he

give

s emphasis

to

it by

ch

a

ng

ing the

tense:

he

translates

us

ing

a pa st

tense

,

Hqabblet"

literally

rt I have received accepted ,

but

in the context this wil1

either haye the n u a n ~ e

ttl

wi n. certainly accept" (that ' is, ' if '

you

=

Caill)

act well

iiI

f l l t u r ~ ) ,

ai'

HI- I would

·,

have accepted '

(that is, if

you had acted well

on the

first

occ

as

ion).Two

Jewish

Greek reviser s

ofthc

.

Greek Bible

h a v e

similar

·understanding

.,

of

the word

:

t

1 ' • • , :1

( , . :

II .,

: ,r.

JIL '.

, . , :1

1-

, ' ,. j

j

;

-, 1 ; 1 r { ~

(3) ilift Up7 in t'

he

s

ense of'fo

l

rgive' .- Th i

s' js

how the jewish

' I

und erst

oo

d .

th

e'

~ s s a g e

(

/r1xou will

be fOrgivcn"). ' ',

'f

'

n

::

, J :i d

JJ.f -

(4)

'lift

up in

th

e s

en

se of ' sus

pend'

.

Th i

s

under

s

tanding

of the word wa

s chos

en

by

the author of

the Samaritan Targum

Olp Testament

19

(ut

vi lll suspe

nd

).

It

is

in

t

er c

s

ting to find that most modern

tran

s

lator

s

ba

se

th

e

ir

renderings

on the

sec

ond

in terprctation ,

thus

following in the f

oo

tstep s of the Peshitta.

-

'

J f ) j" , t

.,- : .. _, n the next Vcrse (4 :8) the Hebrew h

as

e

vid

ently lost some

words, for it r¢ad s "And Cain said to hi s brother ( :

.

), \ -'lnd

~ g i i

W C I '

in

the

field Cain ro

se

lip

ag

ain

st

hi

s

b r o t h e bel

~ i i ' killed him

_ All

the

anci

e

nt

version s, including the Pesliittil

p p l y so

me

appro

priatc

word s, usuall y fILet us g o out

into

the

fi e

ld

l

.

But the Pc

shitta trans

la t

or d ocs som c

lhin

g el se as we ll:

t e a d of

tr

ans

latin

g the Hebrew word "field

li t

e

rall

y,

he rend-

I·· . ' ,

rs 'it b y' "valley" '

(C(pqa'ta"

) . What is

th

e

rea

son for thi s sce-

'i{{ ing iy i l r l l l alteration? A

clu

e to th c an S,'ler

is

to

be

found

in

~ ~ i c 1 28

:

12 -14 , whct'e

Parilclisc-:.is

_

descril

' t-rl

- Rs a

mountain.

t · .· r ·,. , '

fhei·c is no

hint of

this

in the

Hebrew te xt

of Gene

sis,

but Jewi

sh

\ I l d Christian reader

s

regularl

y

under

s

tood

th

e

topo

g

raphy of

1 -4

ill the

light

of Ezekiel

(

the idea

was

al

so po

pularized

· th<:;

n ~ c a n n i c a l

book

known

as

Eno

ch ): Paradi se

wa

s undcr-

f . ' , '

stood as a mountain, and ' 'lhen Adam and Eve were

drivcn

out

oX ~ a r a d i

th

ey took up

re

sid ence Oil th c foothills, a t th e 'moun-

"

t a i n '

base:

Abel

and

Cdin

made their

sac

rifi

ce

on

'

Ot i

C

of

the

se

h i l l

but wh

en Ca

in

t

oo

k

abel

o rf w-ith

th

e

in t

e

nt

ion ' of

kill

i;lg

hi m

:

he took him down on

to

lower gr

ound ,

in

other wo rd s.

;<:ih c va lley whi ch

th

e Pcshitta tr a nsla tor has a'c

tu

:il ly i n t r o ~

tI uced in to th e biblic

al

tc x t

here.

Earlv co mment

aries

on thc

, '

pa ss age of

e n

understa nd the topogr

ap h

y in thi s ''lay/ 'but the

Pc

s

hitt

a

is th

e

onl

y

bibli

c

al translation whi

ch

Ih

co

rp

oratcs

th i

s

,uuderstanding into the

Bible

_tself. - '

) ,1'(11 ,1 1 , ' . L

I,

" r

l

( " , "

.,:

Ac

cording

,

to the

, :

Hebrew

t c - : < - ~

or 8:5.

J a n C 1 on mount Ararat

(in A r m e n i a

modern north T u r k

iind- fAl'arat'Jl,will

be

.

found

laU mo dcl'n ,

tl'an

slations. ' In '

the

_

_

' <

1 - : · ' · , I . ' : \ I ' ~ lIll • .

fl· · ·

cshitt

.a', ho

wever

; ,

the

,

Ark

,r ,csts

on

· ,'

the

J n o u . n t a i l

,)

of

: f 'lardu',

.

.,

, ' 1

f

H

'<ld

><.:

·

, I

' t l a

,to say,' con siderably further south, . n c n l

f I - r ~ ~

,This

J"

w'fs, not, ,of .

~ u r s e

~ , i l ~ u l t ; t d

~ n g

p}he pa r t oLthe, transla tor: . hcre, . In ..

i m p l y

follo

wing Jewish tradition wh i

ch

wa

s

c u f l

i

n.

f

of

the

H e

br

ew te

xt

wa s ' identified,

as

O-, lrdu-r-- both

by

writing

in

Greek in thc.latcr

:

first

:

ce ntury

A1

DJ C - nd by

).

p c '·:

jc

wish

Aramaic tran

s

lati

ons

: of the

' Dible ,

kno

_wn ,asl

tb

e

~ : ; .

, '-..:i¥

'-

-

,

'i



II

i

II

I "

'I

'

I i

I:

,

I

I

I

J

20 The Bibl e in the Syriac Tr ad ition

T argum s. Thanks to

th i

s id entifica tion

in

th e Pcs

hitta

,

mount

Q a

rdu

h as bee n a place fo r loca l pilgr

im age

eve n in to

~ c s . .

Ge ne sis 22 , on Ab ra ha m s sacrifi ce of Isaac , is a cha pter

to wh ich we sha ll relu rn la ter,

in

section 4. The

Pc

s

hitt

a

tr

a nsla

tion of the cha pte r a lrea d y has a nu mb er of d istin c tive fe

atur

es.

Th

e t wo m ost pro

min

ct one s a re

in ver

ses 2

and

12 . V

er

se two ' .

prov id es t he loc

at i

on where th e sacr ifi ce is to take place : th t;

..

H ebrew tex t

ha

s ' the la nd of Nfori a h' . which a llowe d la ter tradi,

li on to id e

ntif

y th e place

as

the si

le

of th e T empl e, since the only

oth er occur re nce of 1vl oriah in the H ebrew Bible is at 2

C h r o n i c

3: 1, which te ll s h ow ' Solom on bega n to build , th e H ouse ot

th e Lo

rd in

J eru salem on i\

{ OUllt lV

l ori ah,

wh

ere the Lo

rd

had

a pp e

ar

ed to

Da

v

id

hi s fa

th

er ' .

v

l od crn transla tions follow

the

.Hebrew te

xt

ill speaking of tvlol'i

ah

in bo

th

pa sages , but th 'e

a nci ent tr a nslato rs .kn ew of some

qu i

te d iffe re

nt

traditions: th t; :

G reek Septu ag in t has ' high in Genesis a nd m ou ntain of

th e Am or it e' ill C hro nicles, whil e th e S y riac Pes

hitt

a h as 1and of

·

th

e

Am

o ri tes' in Ge nesis,

and

' m o

unt

a in ' of th e Am o

ri t

es in

C hro ni

cle

s. T he La

tin

t ra nsla tion k

now

n as"the

Vulgate

knows

yet a no

th

e r exege tica l tra dition, and in Ge nesis ' it h

as

(land of

visir)ll' , a n e tym olog ica l r en deri ng of iVl

oria

h , Jinking i t 'with ' the

H eb'rew verb ((ra

ah ,

" (to sec.; Je rome deri ved th is rendering

fro m th e ea rlier J ewish Greek re vision of th e Bible by

, I • r

Symm ac hus, ~ '(

Th e second di stinctive fea tu re of Genesis 22 in th e

Peshitta

OCC

llI

S in ver se 12,

wher

e in

the Hebrew

(followed by the Septu

agint

and

by all m odern transla ti qns) th e an g

el

says 'fer now I

kn

ow

th

a t you

fear God .

By

co

ntrast the Pes

hitta

rc

ad

s for

now

'"

I m a d e known tha t you

fe

ar

Go

d (th e

text was

often: la ter

re

ad

as ' for now you ha ve

made

kn o

wn

th at

yo

u ' fe

ar God ,

. s

in

ce

th

e co nsona

nt

a l t

ext

Cf

wd

' t'"

ca

n b e re

ad

e

ither as

'

w d ' e t '

' I ~ a v e ma de known , or a s " a

wd

a t , ' you ha ve ma de known

)

.

Th i

S m igh t not see m a very im port a nt differe nce, but in fa cl it

implies a ve ry different set tin g for this tria l of Ab ra

ham:

: Go d

a llows th e tr ial to ta ke p lace, not to find out himself

wh

e ther

Abra ha m

s

l

ove

for

Go

d a nd

hi

s faith were str ong

er than

- hi s love

for Isaac hi s son; rather , Go d a

ll

ows it to ta ke a ~ e

becau

se some '

of

th

e ang els d oubt whe

th

er '

Ab

ra ham is worthy of the

~ l .

Old T

es

tament 2 1

:I

litle g ive n

him

of ' Fr iend

of

Go

d . The se ttin

g for th e ' trial

of

.tAb

ra

ha m is thus un derstood a s being v.er·y

i m i J

to

th

e se

tting

'

th

e tr ia l of t ri a ls of J ob, which were ini tiated beca use Satan,

e

Ad versa ry' , likewise d ouhted the streng th of J ob s ' fa ith.

, understa nding of th e background to Genesis 22 is e' 'plieitly

, fo

und

in ca d y .Jewish exegetica l tra d ition; th e Peshi tt a , howeve r

.i s th e on ly a nci

ent

t ra nslat ion to have

intr

odu ce d a hint of

.

in te rpretation in to t he ac tua l biblical lext .

1 ~ \

I • • .. , '

. ;1\ T he P cshitta

tran

slation of ,Genesis, a nd indeed of th e Pen-'

S ta teuch as a w hole, is pa rt icul a rl y rich in links

with

co

nt

emp ora ry

ex cge tica l

tr

a dition,

and thi

s m a kes

it

likcly that t hese

" books

we

re tr a nsla ted by J ews ra th er th an by Christia ns.

, ,

Another place where the Peshitta tr a nslati on ha s a gre at

distin ctive renderin gs, of tcn J ewish in cha ra cter, is the tw o

of C hronicles. Here, for exam pic, ' a number of th e place

names ha ve bee n

u p d a t

a nd

id

entified

with

places in north

Me sopG a mi a which will have been m o

rc

fa

mili

a r to Syr iac

read-

-

thu

s, for ·exa

mp l

e., Aram Ma aca h- ( -Chn 9:6 ) is ~ ~

as Ha

rr

an, _a n

£i

Ca rccmjsI L ( 2- Ch r--35: 20.)..with Mab buL .Q .uit e

o f en , il l: Syriac tr a nsla tor u ses ph raseOlogy wh ich is'

typi

ca l of th e

,J.ewish T a rgu ms (though th ere are very few, li

Q

ks with -th e surviv-

'.Jng

T a rgum to C hronicles, whi ch is

pr

oba bl y la ter

in

date

than

.Ilte

'Pe s

hitl

a), Thus were th e H

ebr ew ha

s ·

.'

In t ha t

ni

ght ' God

to (and sa id to hi m, Ask w

ha t

' I 'shall give

Syriac; ha s ' In th a t

ni

ght

the

Lo

rd

was revea,led

i.

ovcr

Th e

wo

rding , was. revea led ove r ' is ' charac teristic

of

Pa lestinian

Tar

guffi tr a dition (a

nd

is occ asionally a lso

Pcs

hitta ~ a t e u h ) , in

co

ntr

as t to the

h y l o n

..

_

~ ~ l a r

usc

.of was rev ea led Another case where

I I ' 1

d'

h' 1 ' d" , 1

J

h .

;UtC ' C ; ut t

;t , o r mg

\ I I

Istm C1IVey " eWlS ' Jll

, to lJe found in pa ssages like ' 2 ,ChI' 33:7, where God

.

pr

esence

in the Templ

e ;

in

th

a t

I

pa

rt i

cular passage :

....

";.,"

b r e w h,as t.hi,s Ho use.a nd in Jeru salem .

..

I will 'put

my

"

· '

nam

e eve r , hut In th e S Y

fla

c the la st

ph r

ase a

ppea

rs a s .f I '

I

, ..." . Luse m y Sh e

khina

J the divine ,

pre

se nce) to reside

for

ever .

o g y is chracteris

tic

of th e Jewish T a rgums,' a nd is "

f o u n d in

any

-of ·the other, ancient , translations ' of th e ·

. 1 :

"



\

,

It

1

,

,10

,

J

I

I,

i

i

.Ii

I

II

II

l

'

I

Ii

II

i

22

Th e Bible in the Syriac T radition

One ot he l' book · in the II' (' s hi ua has close links \vith th e

T

ar g um

,

namc

IY-Pl"oY..er.bs.-H

crc the

s

ituatio

n is u niq u

e,

for

the

])cshitta an d · the T a rguffi ·arc vir tua

ll

y word ror word the ~ ~ m c

mu ch of the time , and onc must definitel y derive from th e

other

. One would expec t

the

Pc shitta to be

derived (rom

the T

ar g um

,

but

0

11 linguistic ground s it ca n be sh

own

that in fact the

Targum

mu

st derive in thi s book from

th

e Peshitta. This

mean

s

th

a t

the

Pcshitta tran sla tion o v c r also li kely to ' have

been

th 'c ,

work

of

Jews in

north

fv[csopotamia:

it

s

ubs

eq

uentl

y

came;:

to

be

,

. taken

over

by Syriac.spcaking

Chri

sti a ns and by laier

Jews

(who

lightl y m

odi

fi ed ,th e

d1

" lec t) ,

In o

thel

' hooks

of the

P

e, hilt

a O ld

with the Targums are mu c }:l more tenuous, or l t o g c t h absent:'

In the

se books the

tran

s

la tors

h

ave introdu

'cd

mu c

h fCM'

c:;r

'

'int e rpreta tive e l c m and

their

re

nd

er ing is usually rather close

'LO the '

Hebrew

,

th

ough in some books

th

ey occasionally . ma ke

of the

Se ptu ag

int in i

solated

pa ssages.

(2), TRANSLATED

ROM

GREEK :

,

"S Y

RO-HEXAPLA "

,

,

,

-Over

the course of

the

fi r

th

to

Scvc

lth

ccntUl'ics

AD Chri

..

sthi n litcl"atu re in G reek

ca

me to

have

great prc s,l ige in the ,t;ycs.

the. Syriac Churches. This ' was ' du e to a number , of differept,

i'casons, but the'

mo

st irnpoi'tant or th rsc was t h ~ fa'c t that '

t , -'I'

was the ma in cultural language of the c a s t c r ~ l Roman E m p i ~ c ; .

the

theological co

ntrover

sies of

the

' fifth and fo

ll

ow ing e n ~ } l

r i c ~ WCI'C

con ducted primarily In

Gree

k, Since Syriac readcrs

were anxious to be brought up to date in theological d

eve

lopments 1

hu

ge

numb

ers

of th eo

logica l

wOJ'''s

v r tl"a.nslated

from

Greek

'

in to Svr iac, an d b\' th e en d of thC"S evcnth century 'a lm ost all

Greek'

Fa

th

ers

ha d' been

translated

iu to Syriac, ei ther

in

wh ole :C;;J

, '

t

in part.

> time w

ent

on.

translator

s tr i

ed to represent the

Grcf':k ;

" IT

more and morc exact ly in Syr iac l ~ d by the .Seventh

th

ey had

.

d

eve

lop

ed

ve ry

sophis

licatc'd mcthods of l T 1 j r r

la lion \ aimed · at rcnectin

g'

a ll th e- details of the Gree k original)11

. f . ~ ,

th

e Syri.tC t·r:tnslati

on.

.,

Old

Te

, tament

·,

23

It

is aga in st thi s general r o u n d of

translation

a:ctivit:t

that we shou ld look a t th e

Seventh-century

Sy

ria

c bibli C:::fl l tr a ns .

lat ions,.

th

e Syro ;.hexapla

for

.

the

·

Old a m c n

an d '

the

Hat' .

clean for the

Nc\-v .

I

The S y r o - h e x a p \ ~ was primarily :the work of Paul , bishop of

'l,'el a, a sch ola r wor king at

th

e , monaster}" of .

th

e Alltonincs ' at

EnnatoJ1

(or

ninth mil estone), ju st ',

outsidc

the

great

.citY ' of

Alt

:xandr i

a

in

Egy

pt.

W e

know

th

a t

he

was

'

engaged

in the

ar

du ous task ove r

the

pel i,od 6,

15 -

6 17). and th ese dates

expl

ain

why I;e was ,wt k i ~ g after hi s . f1ock in 'T ell,a , (in ,nor th

Meso

potamia): in 6 14 the Per sians

had

in vaded the Rom . n Empire an d

\ . ,

'

s i ~ z c

not on ly

north

Syria

and ~ 1 e s o p o t a m i a ,

but also

th

e holy

. " ,. . . ; ' .

city ' of Jeru salem . , Only shortly a fter ,Paul co

mplet

ed, his work

th ey t

o?

k 'Akxandria, ."nd , it i; I is.

t i o l l

was not Idst th en, Paul was thus a refugee, and' It

IS

worth

• I ' . '

. .'

•

l'emcm.ber in g .t.his g r e a ~

work

of schol ar ship undertaken

• . .. ' . ,

·r · · ,

,

at a

um

«; o,f great

t u r m o ~ l

and, un cer ta

in t

y.

.,; I

, J

I t

see ms that

the

.

tran

sl

at

i

on

was

comm

iss ioned by

th

e

Syrian Orthodox ' patriarch a ~ a s .' In stead of

using

the,

or d inary

t ~ x t

'o f

the

' Septu ag in t, Pa ul

worked

f

rom

r i g e

revision of the ,:Septua gint, bringing it

in t

o closer line with ,the

Hebrew

.

or

iginal. Origen's revision, .

undert

aken in .the·

ea r

ly .t1i

ird

ce

ntury,

was in corporated

into

a mass

ive

six co

lumned

'

Bible

..

,

known as the H exapl a (' Six- fo ld ') , which " pr obably ·

co

ntained':

l

,

:

th

e Hebrew text)' \ f i r ~ t in H ebrew cha

ra

cters and th

en

in Gr eek "

tr

anscription;

tw

o Jewish

Greek translati

ons ' (Aquila arid

Symm

U

"c

hu

s),; ' Origen's '

own

' revision of th e Septuagint; ,,,,d"'

another

' '

Jewi

sh

Greek translation,

by ' Th eo

dotion,

' '\' au t: ' tr a

l1s1

a

te d

'

th

e '

fifth :

l u m n

containing the ' revise d Septuagint ..tcxt, (, but 'i'n" the ' ,:'

ll1argin< b e ,o met imes included

information

t" ken .from th e othel, ,,,·(i :

co lumns; , it is

for

thi s re ason th at his tr a nslatio\t' ,lis '

kn

own ' ,

today

as

the Syro-hexapla

(Syri

ae

writers

them

selves

refer to

,

t

"

un d

er.

another name

, '

th

e Seventy') ,

th

at is, · b

lsed

' 01\

the

Septuagint.

Pa

ul

's

tran

sla tion re fle cts the

Greek

' ve ry" closely;" " 0 ,

and th is has proved most usefu l for modern 'J sCholars'i

,

seeing ':'.' \

that

Qrigt:n's l:'f.cxapla has been lost,

apart

from 'a few' fragments :

(As

we

shall see

below,

in Scctiol1 ,3, Paul's'own '

tran

s

lation do

es

lIot s

urvive

comp let

e).

.'



I

24 The Bib le in the Syriac Tr ad it io n

Th

e

Syro-hexap

la enjoyed considerable popu l

arity

' in

the

Syria n Or thodox Church a

nd

somet ime s its text , ra ther than the

P e s h i t t a 1 ~ was used in

Old Tc

stam '

nt

Lec tionaries. Although

Ti m

othy I ,

the

patriarch of t he

Church

of

the

East, showed an

in t

eres

t in ha

ving

a

manu

sc

ript

of the Syro·hc

xapla cop

ied a t

the beg

inning

of the eig hth ce ntury, thi s version \v

as

ne

ve,

' used

in th e Lcct ion aric3 of the Church of

th

e E'ls t;

it

is,

hm

vever,

quite

oft

en

r e l ~ l T to in sever a l

of th

e commt l1tal' ics or

th

e ninth

ce

ntur

y (sec Ser.tiofl 5),

I t

js

impo

rta

nt to rc

'a lize

th at

th

e S y r o - h c x a p l ~

wa

s , not

the

on ly s

ource of knowl

e

dg

e of the Septuag

int'

s

biblical

text .

for Sy riac readers. In the sixth century there

were

translation

9

uf some individua l books of th e Old

Te

stament from Greek.

(frag ments of a vers i

on

of I sa ia h survive),

and

it is p oss ibl e

that

these were commiss ioned by

P h i l bish

op of

Mabbu

g. ,

Theil

in hi

s o

ld

a g ~ ,

jn

thc

earl

y years

of

eighth ce

ntury, the

g

reat

<Yl

SYl-ian Orthodox scholar Ja coq of Edessa undertook a n o ~ h e l '

trans la tion

from

Greek, but al so keeping sC"me cle

ment

s fro m "

lhe

Peshiua..

Hi

s w o r ~ evidentl y cove

red

seve ral books of the

Old

T es

tament

,

but

o

nl

y

a f

ew

su

rv

ive

toda

y,

(Pe

n

tateuch

, 1-

2 ·

Samuel, I Ki ngs, iah

J

E ie kiel and

Da

ni

el;

so me of thcse

on ly in frag

mentary

for m ). I,

. . '1 • .

\, .There was onc further im portant source o f knowledgc of

the

. Se

ptuagiat'

s '

bibli

ca l t

c::<

t:

thi

s was not in

th

e form of

an

a c

tual

biQlic.: l.l

translation,

hut wa s nva

ilable

indirec tl y, in tran

dation

of the Greek

Fath

ers into Syriac. T h ~ s e

Greek

writers

ofcour se

quot

ed the

Old Te

stament

from

the

Septuagint, and

w

hen thcir

wor ks

wer

c

tran

sl

atcd

in

to

Syr iac th c practice

of

the

Syriac tran lators from

about

AD 500

onward

s

wa

s to

tran

sl

at e

'

th e biblica l qu o ta

tion

s from the Septuag int exac tl y a. they found

. them

(ear

lier they had often , adap

ted

th e quota

tion

s to

the

Pe

s

hitta

text,

s

in

ce

that

wa

s

the

bibli

ca l

text which was familiar

to

thcir re

a

de r

s) .

It

wa s

throu

gh th

ese

translations

of

Greck

patristic t

exts

that

many exegetica l tr aditions base d on the

Septuagint , rather than 011 the Pcsbitta, reachcd the Syriac

Churches; · we shall J a t e l on look at IJilSsage .;"he re

the di

fferences

bctween

the

Greek

and

the Syriac

ca

uscd som e intriguing pro-

blcms whi c'h ·

ha

ve lef

t:

theil'

mark

in som c litur

gica

l texts . .

(Section 7, on Cen 1:2)

2, ·.; New Testa.ment

f l ' , ' 1

.,,( 1)

DIATESSARON

New

T

estament

.25

'-, "I · .

\ ,'

-

J::

Th e h

armony of

thc fOUl' Gospels known as th e Diatessa ron

is' assoc;iatcd

with Tatian, an

im

portant

Sy

rian theologian

who

w r o t in ·Greek ju st

aftcr

the middle of the seco

nd

century

....

Tati

a n

had

stud

ied in Rome under Ju stin V[artyr before returning

to

the

.

east

,(hi s

exact

ho

me

is

unknown).

I t

is

un

ce

rtain

wh

en,

l ... .. . . and in' what la nguagc, he compos

cd

the '

Diates

sa ron ; the

work is un fortuna tcly . lo

:;

t,

but

tr aces of it can be ·fo und

Chris

tian

wcst as wcll as in

the

Christian east. As [;\1' as

S y r i C.

hur

c1;tes a

rc

co

ncern

ed , it is

certain

t)la t

the

Di a tcss-

n r o ~

ci rc

ulate

d w id ely in Sy'ri

ac

~ n d

that t ~ v a s rc

g

arded

. as

an

,

. aut hcirita.t ivc form of thc Gospc l te xt lIntil

early

fifth century,

. . ' .

.

I t

was suppr

cssed In

o ~ r .of the a r ~ t c four.:.Gosp,els. ,

~ y ~ t Ephrem f vcn wrotq a .commcntary; on ' ' i

l.tcsS31'On,

and

, it is

th i

s work which is

our

mo st

imp

o

rtant

;'

,

,i i ' . -

t·

, ,·, . I.

; : . .

i'ivitn

css

to th

e

ac

tu a l tcxt of

the

DialCSSal'On'

ll

. • : I - ' f

....

' ; . ., ;:"

I r.:\· : ·

~ l f { . " ; ' 'I I. ,

' . '

' , '

t

I . . "

At

,t

thc time wh e r:t Tatian '\\Ias com piling the Diatcssa ron

c

an

onica l

set

of

fOlll '

Gos'pels

was

P

oni

y .

in

it

s

in f

ancy,

'hi s /

exp

la ins why he fe lt ·

ab

le ' to take ccrta in ' li

bcrt

ics' with the

... In

"

d ' I ' d I r " h I ,

l ~ x t

'e

Yl n

'llltro .up ng, ~ r t . t .tete

l c a t - 1 : 1 W

Ie 1,

. r p to .

,

fo

U

ia

'

of ~ u ~ e , : , :

f o l l o ~ v .

a I ? - p 1

.of ' suSh .

c a ~ ~

: e s ~

l ,

...

. ':I f I

.. In Ma tt, "f:4 'and 1:6. John

th

e: ~ a p t i s t is , said '

to

lived

off

' locu sts "

an d

' wild hO

ley'.

Many

a t e ~ read

c)'s

that an

asce tic' like

John

should have

ea

ten a

r' " , . " • . • I , ; . • ' . ' , I

llo.n

.

ve

gc

tarlal1

'· dlct

; ' wlt h

l

' and vanqus

,

1 I 1 ~ e r p r e t a t l q n s

P U t <fOl"ward suggcstin g that ' th e Greek

wor

,d

'

'

' q1:lestion I.

,

. '

.

t

t'

.

t. I

incant some SOft of pl a'nt. . T a tian

evidentl

y' took a more

..

radical

l

course;

th

c

of

fendin

g

word

' u'

sccI"

';

by

"

Matth

cv. : ,.

i.

a l t o g e t and "s

ub

sisting " rm ilk of the ' mountain ";"', '

.... according to th is new readi"ng , 'livc'd off milk .

in other word s, the food of thc Prom ised L

an d

,

t e r o 6:3),

The

Old Testament association was cc

r- I

b i U y e h t i o n h

'on ':T ntia;j' s ' pa l t:; for

the int

o ;

th

/

Pr

1o- : I

,Jas i see n as ta til t l ~ g i ~ 9 ~ i l t e r p a ; 1 H s ' t I'

hr, ,;

n"; ' : ,

, :

l . ; ' _, , . e;:,' ' . I,'

.)

,

• •

...

t::

.

"



II

'\

I

I.

I

Ii ,.

I

\

26

The Bibl e in the Syriac Tra di ti on

In th

e

account

of jesus' baptism

in the jordan

' (Matt

3:16,

Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22)

Tatian in troduced a detail which

is ab s

ent

from

the

three

Go

s

pe l

s:

as

Jesus entered

th

e

w ~ t e r

a great light appeared'. This W.J.S certain ly not an entirely

new invention

on

Tatian's

part;

rather, he was simp ly ad apt

ing

a tradition already in

existence th

at fire had ap p

eare

d at '

Je

sus'

baptism. In

Tatian's

theology

' (which"

we know

, of from

his Oration to the Greeks) light is

·,

a 'much ' morc

I.

important

theologica l symbol than · fire , and it is '

probably '

for ' thi

f

rcason "

that he made

th

e a

lter a

tiori (only o n ~ l

ette

'

r's di f

f

erence

-in

Syriac:

r r n u t ' a ~ ' fi

re',

.

but

u ~ l U h r a 'light').

The familiar text of j esus' words to Peter in Ma\t 16:1B

re

ads

'on

this rock

will I build my chu rch, . an d the ga te s of

hell

shall n

ot

' prevail

against

it'. Here

the

"precise meaning of

'gatts of hell' is fa r from clear; modern '

tr ans

lati.ons take

it as a metaphor and rcndc; ' it by "'powers '

of death'

(thus e. g.

Revised

Stapdard

Ve r

si

on,

New

Eng

lish Bible).

The

Syrif1c

Diatcssaron had

a rather different wording,

em p

loy

ing

'bars

of

Sheol' instead

(Sheo

l i,s the H,ebrew and Aramaic ,term ,' fOI:'

( h ~ place of th e de,ad).' . At fir,st' sight th is leaves the passage

just as

o b s c

if. we r

ea li

ze tl]at

the

'

mcntion

of

'b a

r

s'

,

carries with it

an a llu sipn to

tw

o O

ld

Tes tament passages,

Psal

m

]07 :16 and Isaiah 45:2, then

the

int cntion behind the altera tion

becomes clear:

th ese passages, w h

ere

God is

described

as

's

ha

tt er

ing the d

oo

rs

of b r ~ n z e and

breaking the bars

of

i

ro n'

,

were

intcrpr

et,cd

in

e ~ d y

Chur

ch" l's

l'cferring Christ's

descent

into S.hF91

By

introc;h,lcin j' ,tnF. ,llusiqn

i h ~ & 1 ' Old

Testameht

,·

p a s s a g e ~

ware l ~ l t ~ n Christ s ,

descent

in to

Shco

l,

f

a ti

an is

providing

the reader

wit h a ,

clue

,

how

to

Inter

pret rvl

att

'16: I8: C

hr i

st

is

p;omising PetcI: that

the

bars an d ,

gates

of

Sheol

will not be ,a ble ,to prcvail a g ~ i thc Ch,urch,

just

as

they

w ~ u l d

"

not

'

ab

le ,

it?

pl·evail

..

aga.u,

st

him

" a t

com ing

dcscent

i n ~ o

Sheol; just

as, he would "

fs

hatter, the d

oors'

and 'break bars;

She

'ol as

he

, rose th e dead, '

SO

too ,

would th c ' Church

at

th c f i ~ ; ~ l . r c s u r r ~ c t j o n ~

'

j

, '

,

'

: • I '

In two of th ese cha nges to the wording of the text Tatian

b as introduced a l l u s i o ~ l ; S ,to

tQ

c ,Old

Testament. "T

his , is

in it

se

lf

....

of in tercst,

for

he

was

w d t i ~ g

at a

time

when rvl

arcio

n and hi s'

,.

''"{":it'; ''''''' -", " .

. ~ 1 ( . , . . : . ; . . l · ~ ' ; ,

,

New

Tes tam e

nt

27

followel's wel'e thr ow ing out th e O

ld

usc In th e Church .

Te

sta

ment a ltogcthcr

fr om

. ' ,

.'

.The fir st and third of

th t

st : a lteratiolls are known so lel y

f

llo

m

Syriac and othe

r'

eastern

witnesses, and they ' have ,lc'ft no

trace

in

th e western

Diatessaron

w i t n c s ~ q , such

c.S

t h ~

vernacular

'

Gospc

l harmoni'es :

':

Th us

th ere is' poss ibilit,

Y

: : that

i

arc the

work

of

the auth

or of

th e 'Syriac Diatessaron, ~ t h e than

of. rratian. · (supposing

1 that

he wrote" the Dbtes

sa q

:m ' in Greck,

rathel

:

than

Syriac). ' : : ','::

, .

': \

.

I

.:.I

·

-'I

' ,;

1., ;

, ; .. ..

:J '; : 1

. '

"

. (2) OLD

SYR1AC

,

"

, ',n

.

,

.

,

" : :

rhe

Old

Syr

i

ac

,

version

of lhc

New J ~ {

\I

S

Qp

ly J

from

twd ancient

J

mallu

scr ipt s,

both

' co,\'tairy.ing

just

Gospels. , There must have

be

en a

Syriac

translatib n"of the ~ s ' t

Acts and the Epistles pr ior to t i ~ c of 1 i t i a i o ~

(c

AOO), sincc Ep hrcm comments on th ese b o o k very

tiui<;,

h

ow-

I .

,,

\

evcr, ca n be rec

overed

of

lhe

actual word i ng u1 that ' part of lhe

Old

Sy

riac

,"

n

what follows '

the term

O ld Syi'

iae ,viii

refer

only

to the Old

Syriac

tran" l

at

io'it' olfthc

·

Gospcls. ,; 1 . , <:' , 1 : : , ,

t,

, ,

, . , ' ' ' l '

4 ' 1 1 1

: ; ,11' 1

1 1

" ..

'I

, . : , ~ • •

. , 1 ' ' l i

.:,,;j

fl ,

" •

.•

. ' , y.,.

, I '

, . . " , , r

,I

'I'

. J . . , ) ~ : -

.,

,

, ' ;,T he : two ll imantlscr ipts' .coniii.nin'g tHc O ld Syriac O ~ S P . F ~ S

a rc

today

k

now

n as "dlc

C l l ~ · e i o

n i a ~ a ~ l c i l l ~

~ l : l

1

its first editor) and thc '

Sinait i

c

(8;

sincc 'the

ma n

'uscr i

pt b ' ~ i b

r i g ~

to

St

Catherine's tvlonastcry in Si

na

i). Neithcr

IS

e ~ e , and

thc

Sinait

ic manuSC11pt iS

ll

oftc n I illegiblc since the or iginal text

h as bcen

',

spongcd

ll of

f

and

a'

nothcr

·

1

quite 'differcht

t ~ x i c h :

heen

supe

rimp

osed',

-, goth

' C'a

nd

'S

hn

ye t ~ t ~ ' r ' G q

, , " \ , . , r

-- , , .,

1 · " 'Y

'

I I I

Sc }arate

d

Evangc « ' \ \ I a ~ g : I, a-

Y r c ~

'\

eV

idently 'meant t o dlstmgUl sh ' thI s Ivc rSlOn ' of the ,

four

separate '

Gospels, from the 'Gospel

of

the

~ r 1 i n (Evahgclisls) ' ; l g c

li

on

da-Me hallctc, \vhich rcfers to

the

Di,ttC

$s

arun.

, • • r ,',' ' ' , I •.

"

;,

,.,

i

,;

Th

e

date

when the

Old Syriac tr

anslati

on

' was mqcic 'is

very

uncerta in ,

th

ou

gh

,

it: is now

t h

oug

ht cer tain

t h a ~

it 'is, latc r

, . 1 1' 1 1 / '

..

,

t h a l ~ th e D i

atcssaron

. -The ,d a tes to wh ieh modern ' seho ars

I

h

avc

.

a

ss

i

gncd

the translation range from ' the late second ccntury to

th e

early

' ' fOurth century" (t

he two

' mal1\lsc

l

'i

pt

s

lhem

selves

pro

ba b ly both

bel ong

·

to the

' fifth

century).

, /.

' \

28

The Bible in the Syriae Traditi on



"

The

t

xt

of the

Old

Syriac

quite

r d 'ff.

hom

the Pcshi u a and th 's '

. ten

J crs co

nsiderably

' . 3

I 15 101 two maIn re aso ns' ( I) h

Synac tr

ans la tion was made from

G'

k . . .

t

e

. a 1 cc text \\,]11 ch cliffe a

In ma n

y

respects

from

the

Greek

t . re

, revision;

and (2) the

style

of tra e t ~

un?erlYll1g the ' Peshitta

least

in I)

ns a

JOn

I S

mu

ch morc free (at

felt

that

~ j d t ~ n m t e

r n e t s t i n ( p t 1 h the

l

transla tor clearly

. . cs ltta lad

great

h

nty for ' his readers

than

th

e Gl'eek Nc T t cr,

aut

0"

ada

t O l d l ' w es

ament

for he

. p s cstam ent quota tions

.in

the

G '

of th e Pe shitta

Old

Te stame t ' ' , b ospels to the wording

d

.

n

In

anum

cr ·

of

cases

h

h

1

fer s fr om

th('

form

of the qU 0 1

::l

t ion found '

I G

V

cre

t JS

Testament

Th

. .

In 1 le

reek

"" w ,.,

c

. IS

IS

In lac t a pr actice adopt db '

S)Tiac translators of Gr eek patristic

writinlTs

a ~ l d

.

m nr ~ a r l y

abOllt AD 500

that

transla to rs chan e t e:' . I S on y rom

to ' tran sla tc bib ' I , , g

heir

attJlude a

nd

prefel'

them ill thei r G ca kquotat JOns m the form in which they find

ree . text. evcn when thi s '

WOI'

din

g of thc

Pe

shitta Bible,

ma

y

go agamst the

Thc tcx t of th two m

an

uscri pts is by n

o'

m

ea

ns

thou gh

th ey hav

e enoug h in

co mm

on to ind o

identic

a l,

both witnesses to

the

sa

me t.

I ' Icate

that th

ey

ar

e

, I

ans

a tlOn,

Probably

b tl

c

npts

hav e a tex t which

lb

. . .

0 1

manu s-

I

las

ecn rCV Ised

or

'"corrccted' '

t

lC

.

Greek

hel

'c a

nd th

.

TI

"

aga

m

st

crc,

li

S wou ld

explain f4

b

why S ha s the shorter endin of lVI k "

or

exam Ie,

has the longer ending (eoncluXing

t a ~ G

: ; ~ ) d m g at 16:8), while C

As one mjght exp

t "

h ' . '

..

>J

of the Gospels

the Old

csc t e

surviving

Syriae te",, '

. '

ynac

con am s a nu mbe f

h

III gr'ammar and

vocab

I '

S I' 0 arc alsms

to reflect Pa lest,'n,'a ll AU

aJ

y: Ollletuncs these have been taken

ramalc

.orm

s ( ' th

th

' r '

transla tors .

were eithcr

of .

~ V l

•

Imp

IcatlOn that .,

pDssiblY ·rhad access to oral t r a : ~ ~ e m : a n o n g l I ~ ~ h e m e l v e ~

this

suggest ' . I

Ion

s 111

PaJestllllan

,

Aramaic):Y

Jon rests On . a mlsundcrsta d' r-

are

best e x p l a i ~ c d

as

. 1 Ii n

mg

, Jor , the archaism. t

hi

story of S ' , If survJVa s rom an earlier s

tagc

in the

ynac

lt se .

(3) PESHITTA

The

]Jes hitta.t is

sta

nd

al'd form of

th

e S ' N T

.

ynac ew estamcnt

not a

new

translat ion

from

G k b ' "

ree ,

ut a reVISi

on

of

:

New

Te sta ment 29

O ld Syri nc,

bringing it

in to closer ' lin e with

th

e Gree k. As

a v e sc

en, the

two Old

Syriac

manu

sc r

ipts C and S them

selves show tr aces

of

spo ra dic revision.

It

seems likely, th a t the

, . of revi sion

which

re s

ulted in

the Pes hilta text as . we

it

was

a long ' one ,

rcachin

g · its

completion in the

,

early

. century. In its final form th e rev ision seems to h

ave

bee n

'Il:IaT'KC"

Ca very

successfully ,

fer it

evidently rapidly r.cplaced

thc Old Syri ac a

nd

Diatessaron an d ,became ' the

stan

da

rd

tcxt

for la U the Syriac C

hurches. Trace

s of

th

e

older

versions, the

ano Old Syria c, did nevertheless survivc he re a nd

both as iso la ted readings in a few Peshitta manu scr

ipts,

ld . n

qu

ota tions by later writers; thus, for example , ·the read

ef the Syriac

Diate

ss

aron

at

Matt.

16:18; 'bars of

SheaI'

(as

op

posed to 'g

ates

of Sh eo l'

in

both

the

Old

Syriac

a nd the

Resh it ta), is st ill known to ma ny writers after th e fifth century,

long a f t e r the Diatcssaron il seif had

been

officially suppr esse'

d.

h

,·,,.:

It

h'as been sugges t

ed th

a t P es

ilitt

a rcvision

was ac

t-

. \ ,or

u a ly the work of

the

gre

at

bishop of Edessa, Rabbula ()v ho died

,

435), .

This,

h ow

eve

i·, . now sc rms unlik.cly,

though Edc

ssa

(w ith its fam ous th eologica l school ) ma y 'h ave bee n ' the place

tr am which the

fin

al form of th e rcvision was pr opa ga ted . It is

in t

erest

ing th a t

man

y

early

Pcshitta manuscripts conta in , the

~ ~ u s e b

i a n

cano ns' ,

which

pr ov ide a convenient system of cross

references bctween the differe

nt

Gospels ' (each Gospe l is divided

into

numb

ere

d sections) : perh a ps th is was a specific fe a ture

which

~ i ~ t p

i n p a n i

the

new {edition' .

of the

Syriac

N ~ w

T estarrtent.

• ., , II

' :

:.

. '

,'

.,1

; , :

. } '

t t : . ,

, .Th

e Peshitta covers o llly

th

ose books which were regarde d

.by.

th

e Syriac

Ch

L

uch as authoritative,

na mely"

the

Gos pel s, Ac ts,

Raulinc

'

Epi

s

tle

s,

Jame s

I

Peter

, a n.d I J ohl],

In

,; eN;ly

~ ~ : ; : : : ~ I ~ ; ~ : : : j : : the Catholic Epistles

come

betw l;Cn,Act s an,d

, Epistle s, a,nd not after , tlle latter .,.,2 P e t ~ ~

and R eve lation )

were

· n s l a t e d i n t o S y r . i a

Ut;l il 1

llis .

century

(possib

ly

as

part of

the Philoxenian ver

sion

,'

though

'

,not at all certain). A number of isolated s e s ~ familiar

. . , , ,

' ' ' ' 'fr

'II] F.:n,[li"h translations of the

Ncw

Te stament, are also

mi

ssing

.:. J ,

Peshitta:

Matt,

27:35 b, Luke 22:17-18,

John

7:5,3-8:11

.. ,

,

caught in adultery), Acts 8:37, , 15:34

and

28:29; il)-

printcd d i t j tll ese

arc

usually u p p ~ i c r . ~ 9

o ~ ~



, .

I

I


Ther

e is

remarkably

little

var

i

ation

between

diff

e

rent

manuscripts of the Peshitta New Te s

tament:

on ly a rather

sma

ll

number of Pcshitta manuscripts preserve a few isolated readings

which go back

to

the

Old

Syriac.

There

arc , however, one or two

pa ssages of

th

eo log ical

interest where

variation has crept in .

The

mo

st famous

of

su

ch

pa ssages is

the

end

of Hebrews

2:9,

where

manuscripts

of

Efist Syrian

provenance regularly have

'for he

(Jesus), apart from God, tasted death on behalf

of

everyone',

while

manuscripts of West

Syri

an

origin have 'for by

grace God

tasted

death on

behalf of everyone'. The variation

h

as

its origin

in

the Greek:

there the majority of manuscripts

have

'by

the

grace of God' (Uchariti theou ), but a very small number have

'without God' r'choris theou ). Scholars have lon g argucd over

which

of these

is the original

reading, but as

far the

Pc sl)itta

is

concerned it

'would seem

that

, 'by

grace

God'

(slightly

different

from

the Greek's

by the

grace of God')

may belong

to the

original

Syriac translation, while 'without God' was pcrhaps introduced

into Ea st Syrian ma nuscr ip ts

at

an early date under the influence

of

Theodo;c

of

Mop

suesti a 's s

trong

support for

that readin

g

(which for

him

had

the

advantage

of avoiding

a,ny

idea of

the

Godhead s

ufferin

g at the crucifix,ion: it is

on

ly the Man

who

a s t e

death',

not-God

the Word

) ,

, . " (4) PHILOXENIAN

There

ha

s bcen much confusion among sc

holars over the

between th e Philoxcnian and the

Harclcan

versions

of the S ~ p r i a c

New

Testament, but some recently published

c o m ~

m e ~ t a r i c s on the Gospels by Philoxenus

him

self h

ave

provided a

definite

so

luti

on.

Th u

s

we now

kn ow

that the Philoxenian

version ' is lost, and that the very

literal

translation

which

does

survive is the Hardean (despit e the fact that it s 'editor unfor-

tun

ately gave

it the title 'versio Philoxeniana' ).

The

Philoxenian

N c ~ \

T e s t ~ m e n t

was not a c o ~ p l e t e l y

new

translation,

but

a revision

or

the Pcs

hitta

, commissioned by

Philoxe'

nu

s of rvl ah

bug

' anp ca rr i

ed

o';lt by his

r c p i

o ~ o s

Polycarp.

The

wor k wa s

completed

in 508. Although no

manu

co ntaining the

Philoxcnian

survive, a number of quotations

fr om it are preserved in Philoxcnus's com mentaries on the

New Testament 31

Gospel s; furthermorc, in one

of

these (the ' e ~ t a r y on the

Prologue of J ohn) Philoxenus explains

why

he commlssloned ' thll

reVISion. Philoxcnus, who lived at a time of heated theologica1

controversy, W..l

S unh

appy w

ith

some rather free

rende:ings

in

the

Pes

hilta of pas sages

su

ch as Matt 1:1,1

:

18

,

Heb

5:7,

and

10:5, a ll

of

which ha vt important

theological

impli

ca t

ions for a

proper understanding of the nature of thc_in ca rnation. Philoxenu5

complained

that

th

e rat

her

loose rend er i

ng

of these verses

in

the

Pe

s.hiLta

gave

possible

scope

for 'a

r i a n

interpreta tion

'

(as

he called

acco

rdingly he

saw

.

the need

f

or

a

more e x a ~ t r e n d ~

cring of

the

Greek

ne\v

Te stamen

t

into

Syriac:

He him

sel f p u ~

it

as

follows: ' ' ' .

I •

..

r

When' tho se

of

old ' undertook

l

'

to translate ; these passages

t'ti,ey ' made m i s t a k ~ s in many :th i'ngs, w h e ~ h ~ t i n t e r i t i o ~ a l l y

0

1 through ' ignorance. These mistakes ·

concerned not

only

what

' is ta':lght abrut the Economy iJ1. t ~ e fles

h,

hUf. v a r i o ~ s

otne r t h i n concerning different matters.

It

was for thls

reason

that

we have now taken .the trouble to have the

Holy Scriptures

translated

anew

from Greek in to Syriac.

Philoxenus'

'

corpment

s

on Hcb

5:7 illu

s

trate

the

sort

:

of

wording he was· cancerned ,about. First

of

all he quote; what. he ,

considers to bC 'the .correct translation of the Greek; 'He, who in.

the days of hi s flesh. , , ' , he then 'goes

on

as follows:

,

In

place

of

this they

(the

Pcshitta's tr lnslators) tran.slated

'whcn

he was .clothed in the flesh', and instead

,l

of trans

. lating P a ~ i the);

inclined

to,,:ards .the t i ~ ~

t o d u who ca,

st

the body on,to , the

Word

'as

o ~ e

d O F ~

'\gar"xnent

09to

an ordinary

body, or

'a,s

purple

is p ~ t

on

\emperors (these are both

favourite

analogies among Easl

Syrian writers).

From these o t h e r remarks by Philoxenus himsel f, ' we

can see that the prime motivation behind lthe Philoxenian ' New

Te sta ment wa s provided by the theological controversies of

the

time

and '

the need for

an accurate

and )ite,ral

t'i'anslation" of

the

Greek New

Testament.

. , s poss ible

that the

anony,ffious sixth .

century

translation

of t h ~ minor Catholic Epistles

(2 Peter, 2 - 3

John,

Jude)

and



32

The

'Bible in

the

Syriac Traditi o n

-Re vela ti

on

may belong to the Philoxcnian New Te sta

ment in

whi ch case t h ~ y wou ld be the only surviving reprcsc ntat{ve s

of thi s version. The style of tr anslation would seem appropriate

______ for what

we know

of

·

the

'

Philoxcnian

,

but again

st

this we need

to weight the fact that Philoxenus himself ne ver seems quote

from these books,

which would

be a little sur p r ising if he was the

person who had comm issioned thell' fi rst tran slation into Syriac.

(5)

HARCLEAN '

The Harclean version represe nts · the cu lm ination

of

th e

long proces's of

r c ~ j s i o n

of the Syria c translation

of

the New

Testament.

Its author

wa s Thoma.s of Harkei , who worked at

the same

monastery as

Paul of Tclla, outside Alexa ndria , and at

th

e sa

me time

; he

completed

his work

in 616. Their

tec

hnique

of

high ly sop hi

st

ica.. ..':.d li teral transla tion is very similar.

,

'. Thomas worked

on

the basis of the previous revision, the

Ii

I • 1

1

1

' • •

P,hi loxc nian, and he covered the entire N ew Testament, includ-

ing the min

or Catholic

Epi stl es

and Revelation

. In contrast

to'

the P h i l o x e n

.

wh ere

the

motivation

seems to

ha

ve

been

prilharily

theologica

l, '

the

H .

lrcican

·

di

s

pla

ys '

a

much

greater

interest in Philological detai l:

every

particle of th '.

Greek

or igi -

na} ' is n'f cctcd in the translation. Thoma s regula rly str ive s

'\

to

..

ach

ieve a formal

equivalence

between the Greek and - the S yr iac

~ e x t with result

that

it is po ss ible for the modt::rn scholh r

.

C C O l ~ s t

the

r

q reek

text

'

which

he must h ~ v e us cr d as the

basis for his revision: As a matter

of

fa ct,

Thomas '

di d' hot

con

.

finc ' himse'If to

ope

Greek m in usc

ript,

' for

p h o n , or

note

, '

I

.

\r ' l

.

1

;

.,

' I

I

•

r

.1

. , ,.

at

the

end of

.the text; in many

c l e a l l manu

scripts "spe aks

hi s,having u s ~ d .

two

or three different Creek m ~ n u i p t s .

It

so

happens that ' onc

of

' the Greek m . i s r i p t s I \vhich I in

Acts is of great interest for the

study

of the tran smission '

of

the

Gret;ki text'

.pf.

the

New

Te

st

ament

, .s

ince

,it

l

cont

:

dn

s .

an

' .

archaic

type of

, the textual .

tradition

which is:

not we

ll

atte

s

ted el

sewhere,

.

.

. . .

"r : .. , ' , . ' " / , 1/;

. " '.

"'. '

"

~ . . The Harclean ver s on soon became; popular ill the SY1:ian

Ortl

10

dox Church

and

it wa s often us

ed

"in Le ctipnary . ·

ma

.1U

s c r i p ~ s in stead of tl.le Peshitta.

It wa

s

al so

us

ed

as the bas is

'for a' harmon}' of the : rour Go spe ls which covercd · the . :Passion

r r a t i ~ e

.- ... ; \, ' . ;. : :. :') . -''1 . .. \ . , , ' 1 : , . '

•

SECTION III

HOW DOES

THE SYRIAC

BIBLE REACH

US?

. . ,

" • . \ , . 1 J

'jt'

,i ;' 1 . L ,

:

In

thi

s sec tion we shall look at t l ~ e in

I

which;;thc'

Syriac Bible i tr<1.nsmitled to us .

Need

less

to

say, no

u t o g r a p h ~

of any of the or

ig inal trans l

ator

s sur vive; in the case

of the

Syro..;

hcxapla and Harclean,

however,

do ha

ve so

me manuscripts

;,vhich

must have

been written less I

than

a . century after 1 these

l ' a n s l ~ t i o n s h ad peen made. . . , ., ., ' J '{ d,,). I ~ d r J I .

.• . i

't '

.;

_ •

'i l

\j ' f,·· ,· r

.';

-I

;.')

2 ' /1 ; 1

I. " Biblica l M a

nuscripts

,·t.,·; ,i ;, ,i ·

' ,·",r

r.

•

··' P"

.

If

A very

larg

e nUlp.bcr of Syriac biblical

manuscripts

sur .

vive. These

are

always in codex,

01'

book,

format

, the

wr

iting

material

used

is

.

either vellum

:

or

paper,

~ a . ~

introdu

ced

in .the Middle. Age s) .. ; Th e .

m a n u s c ~ i p t s

c a l \ y , a . r y in

s ize, from the .ertorQlOus ·,

'pandccts'

., ·containing,. the . w 'tole, O h ~

Te

s

tament

or. w.hole .

New

Testa ment t o g e t h c ~ ) , i

to

miriiature

manu

scripts

.. written

in a tiny

r i p ' ~ q n t ; 1 i n j n g

a

sing

le

book

; on

',

small

·g r

ou p

.l

of.

books.

I

Th e

.

m a j ~ ~ i t y .

manuscripts, however, are of

more

c ~ i c a sizes ,

and

n o ~ m a l 1 y

they c o n t ~ a group of. b.ooks

at

a

~ i m t ; O c c a s i 9

n a l l Y

0 n . ~ . m ~ ) ; '

rind

a i

bibli

ca l book

incorporated into

a

manus

cript

which other .

,vise contains nOh-bibli

ca

l texts .

'1 ,,

1,; . ;

Ii

, ~ ; :o t : .) ;t:

.

·. I

.q ,,\,l ' il l ', .J:':;

. Many

manuscripts

h

ave

a co lophon, .01' note by the .scribe

'. at

the

end,and

this may

give

information

about the place

th J

'

manuscript

was

w r i t l e r i and the pate, Normally

'

the

·jdatc- ds

given according

the

S,cleucid era, or 'reckoning of.

the

Greeks\

,.

or

,fo f .,Alexande r · [ ;he Great), .,which l;>egan, in

O c ~ o b e r

C... jl2.; ,,_

thu

s, f

or ex

.

ample;

· the year 7} I

of.

the,S.clcucid

era

r t : ~

pond

to

OClober. ,45,9

to Septem]Jer

46Q

in

\h.e,

9hristian

.

er

a

,

flu

:

1,

()

. '

I' II' . . . .

..

;

,-

f"

• : • •

: ·L)11I · 'Pb' l1: ; 1.

;", i ~ " ' i l : : - '

\ •• <The

oldest

dated lSyriac biblica}.,mal.w. :cript

.

a I r ~ g I l l c n t

of I s

aiah

in ;

th

c British

Librar

y .(Add. 14512)"i" in f.lct

dated

to

.

771 .raccording to

the

.

Greeks', that

is,

A

1 5 9 / ~ q ; n o t h c r

manuscript

arso in ,

London (Add

. 14425) ;

,:

.contail}ing G e n q

- n ~

Exodusj. is .dated : 463/4 . For .the Pe sh.itta .New t a m e n ~ ~ p e

earliest

da t

ed .

manuscripts

be long to the early sixth

n t u . r y

thcr,e

\

. "

..



\.

I

.

;----

34 The Bible in the Sy riae

Tradition

are;

however,

some

undated

one

s which pr obab ly

fifth

c

entury

.

A

few m a

nuscr ip t

s conta

in

more than

one dirferent biblical

ve r

si

on

a t

the

sa m e

tim

e,

arran

ged

in parallel co

llJmns.

Thus I

there is one

fra

gmentary

manu

script containing .the P e s h

i t t ~

and

Syro-hexapla of

Is

aiah

se t s

id

e by s

id

e. More

f r e q u e n t l

such

manus

cripts

are

genuinely

polyglot,

and have

different

l

angua

ges. O ne of

the earliest

pol yglot

m ; a n u i i p t s - ; ~

a ninth-century Psa lter, 11 \V

in

Lcningrad:

thi

s has

l

hc

-

Syro-hcxa pIa ,

and

the Ara

bic

texts s

et

o

ut in

_

three

iV

[ore

a mbitious

in

scope a

rc a

group of

manu5cr

.ip ts

evidently

.:

written in Egypt,

for

the most

paTt

d e d for litUl-g ical use am ong the 'multi-lingual groups .

monks in the

Nitr ia l1 Dese

rt.

Two of

the

se are Psa

lters

whlch·

3 lticipate the

earlies

't Elll-opean . polyglot Psa

lt

er of 151 6: on e

i

th em ha

s

th

e text set out ill

five

c

olumns,

containing

SYI-iac (Pes

hitta), Copti

c,

Arabi

c and

Armenian

; ·

the other

th e te

xt in four

co lumns, and

this

tim e the language s arc

Ara

Sy

ria

c (S

yro -h cxap

l

a),

Gr

eek and

H ebrew .

The inclusion

"

Hebrew

in a

Christian

bibli

ca

l

manu

scr

ipt

at that

·

time

,ce,

ms

·

to

.

;;

he

without par a llel, and cl

ea r

ly the mo

nk

who co

mpiled

manu

sc

ript Inu st

h

ave been

a re ma rkable scho

lar for

his ·

urn

e

"",

As

far as each

i

nd ivid

'ua l

Syriac ver

s

ion

is

c o n c e r n ~ d

hav .c the roll<?w ing

pi

c

ture:

OLD TESTAMENT ( I ) PESHITTA

There

ar

e

very

-few

r j p t s

conta

inin

g the

Old Te stament

;

it

is significant

that th

e

majority of these

l

ong to

the

sev

enteenth

ce

ntu

'ry, for

by

that

time the

inventi

on

or

printing

had

accustomed

people

to the ide

a of a

complete Old

Testame

nt, or

a

co mplet

e Bible:

the

se '

manuscr ip t

's

were

;

in fact

\v

ritten

'

only

shor t ly

before

th e first '

prin

ted edition

of

Syriac Bible

· (the

Paris

Pol

yg

lot , of 1645; see bel

ow,

ED ITIONS).

Th

e four earliest manusr

ipts

containing ' (or once

containing)

th

e

co

mpl

ct

e

Pc

shitta Bible (Old and

Ne w

·

T c s t a

mcnts)

are:

Bibl ieal M a n u s e r i p t ~

5

1

,

the codex Ambrosianus, in

A m h m s i Library,

'

It

a ly

(m

s

B. 21 Inf.;

7al

in th

e .

Leiden edition of the

il(' ' 'hitta

OT)

;-'

thi

s ' is

written

t i r u l Estr

ange

lo " script ,

c

an be dated to th

e si

xth or

s

eventh

centur y .

. - :- Pari s, Bibliothequc

Nationale,

~ 341 (8al

in

the.

iI .• in.n.

edition);

th iS-

is

written in a

neat

Estrangelo

sc-

ipt belong-

.

. the .

eighth

cen tu ry,

and it

contains , so m e: i l l u

t r ~ t i o n

·

nr

..

" ;'

'<

of

Old

Testament

figure

s,

and some

sce ne s).,

1 ' --

- FIC?rence,

Laurentian

Library ms Or. 58

(9al in

the

edition) ; th is is

written in st

rt o sc

ript

which

ca

n da ted

the ninth ce ntur y,

" .

/ ' ,

a

mbridg

e, 'University Library

ms

00.

I.

1,2

(12aI'in

'

the

ed ition); this is written in a neat E s t r a n g ~ l o script which

d

ate

d to the twelfth century; it al so contains some i l l u

t r ~ ..

in

'

he

form of

sma ll

1

portraits of biblical pe r

sons : :

Th i

s

ha s im portant co

nnect

ions

with

India, for

it

in K e r a ~ a

Although it

was written in

n

or t

h

Mesopot(\mia

J

manuscript

wa

s taken to India, perhaps some time

in

the

ce

ntury,

fOI

in

1806

the Syrian

Orthodox

bis

hop

Mar

ius

I

(Mar

Thoma

s

VI) pr esen tcd

it

to Dr

.

Claudius

Vi

ce-Princ

ipal

of Fort

Willi

am College,

Calcutta.

Buchan

an ' had s

pok en

·

to

him of

plan

s

to

print

the

Syriac

: i h ] I ~ i ; n England , and

this

was the reason for Mar Dionysiu

s'

gift. Usc

was inde

ed made

of

' th e Buchan

an

Dible'

manu

s

cript came to be ca lled

)

in

preparing

the printed

c < l i t : i o l 1 and

when it was finally publi

shed (in 1823)

copie

s werc

to

Kcrala.

(

Th i

s ed ition

ha

s

recently

(1979)

been rc-issued

/

United Bible Societies), I

'. If we compare

the

c o n t e n t ~ an d

·

order of

books

in

th ese

complete Old Testam

ents

,

we

will

di scover

th at they a U'

,

in

several

respects hath in the

books

they contain and in

or

der

in which the

y

give them. I t is

t

hu

s

clear th

at

neither

Ilts ;[lOr

ol: der of book

s

wa

s

regarded as

be

ing

at all

fixed.

'

fact hardly

s

urpri

s

ing when one remember

s

that

"1'lrIlISCri])t s .containing the complete Bihle

ar

c th e ' exce

ption

,

.'

that

normally a biblica l

manu

script

will

o

nl

y con

tain

a

; :r'o-up of books (such as th e Penta teu ch) at a

t i m c ~



-

.'

ji

1

,

,

I.

I

36

The Bible in the Syriac Tradition

The

order

of books in

the

old est of these complete

Peshitta Bibles,

the codex

.\Inbrosianus,

ha

s a number of .

csting features

which are worth look ing at bricrJ y;

the

and

contents

a re

as

follows:

Pentateu

ch, J

ob, Jo

shua , luorr,eS J

1-2 Samuel, Psa lms, 1-2 Kings" Proverbs, Wisdom of S o l l ' m l o ~

Ecclesiastes, Song of Son

gs,

Isa ia h, J ere miah,

Letters of

Jeremi

ah a nd :of Baruch,

naiuch

, Ezekiel, 12

P

rop

h ets,

Daniel,

Bel

an

d th e

Dr agon, Ruth

, Susanna, R,a}',er' '"

Judith

, Ben Sil'a, 1-2

Chronicles,

Apo

ca

l

yp

se of Baruch,

IV

(E;;dr a

s),

Ezra, Nehemiah, 1-4 Ma

cca

bees. ,

The t e n t have ; number of surprises, for

eluded

hcre scveral

hooks , ltich

are

considered

by most wesl:

c, '

lj'

Churches

to

be

outside the

O ld

Te

sta ment Canon, a

nd

.a mong

th ese are several which are not eve n to be

found in

the

'Apocryp ha ' or D e u t l ~ ) - C a Books,

Th i

s a.pplies

all to

the

Apocalyp:;.c

of

~ n . l and

IV

Ez

ra, both

of

long

apocalyptic

work s or .Jewish or igin and

datin

g .p,·pl,al, ly

the latc first cent ur y A D; t

he

codex Ambrosianus is

Duly Syriac man usc

ripl to contain

these two books in

arc SOffit:: extracts included i n a few

Lactionaries). Both

were tran

s

lated

,

into

Syr

i

ac from

Greek

,

but

the Greek

text

does

not survive (a part fro m a f

ew

fra gme

nt

s for the Apocalypse ,of

Baruch ); for

IV

Ezra there

is

a lso

a

La tin and

a

Georgian ' '

l

ation

in existen ce, hut fo r the Ap oca lypse of Baruch

we

have

ot her witness

apart

from this manusci"ipt and a ,Later

J >

- ' ~

tran5lation.

The

orde

r of

th

e books a lso has a number of u r p r i

e s ~

Jn the

first place,

we

can

observe t.hat the scribe has for th e

part tried to arrange them in historical

order

, a ~ c o r d i n g to tIle

date of

each book's supposed

author

. This explains why :Psa lms

(attributed to

David)

comes

between Samuel and Kings;

and '

why the

varioll s books

attributed

to Solomon follow

Kings.

fI

also explains why Job fol1ows immediatel y after the

when

o·ne realizes

that

J ob ha s beell identified with Jobab (Cen

10 :29); probably

the

same tradition was a lready knowri by

Essene Community at Qumran, for the only biblica l m a I 1 U S e I ' l l p t ~

from '

Qumran written

in

the Old

Hebrew

script

are

the Pentateuch

an

d Jo b : ev idently this particu lar script,

Biblical Manuscripts 37

for books ongmatin g in the patriarchal period . This

for J ob is in fact

quit

,e common in Syriac biblical m a n ~ . ,

(th us it likewise follows th e Pentateuch in

both

the ,Pa ns

. I . . Cambridge

~ o m p l e t e

Pe

shitla

Bibles). " ' ' r

, ,

I

It: will

be

noticed that codex

Ambrosi :mus groups ,

all t h ~

E ' o O k s on ' women

toge ther

(Ruth,

Susa

nna, 'Es th e.r, Judith ),

seems to have been quite a widespread practice from the

sixth century onwards, and

this group

of books i s.oflCIl- given-the

book

of th

e

Women'.

. .

East

Syrian manuscripts

from

the ninth century opwards

have a group of books entitled

Beth

Mawtbc, or f S e s s i o n s ~

reason for th is title is obscure); this. consists

of

Joshua,

Samuel, Kings , Proverbs, Ecclesiastes ,

Ruth,

. Song of

B

en Sira,

J ob.

I t is of interest to have

some

' i d c ~ of the

nU

,

mb

,

9."

'of

, u s e r i p t eontamJOg pa<ts of the Pesh itta Old Testamen.t.

In

' following list,

arranged

by century , it is important

to

rc -

b ~ r th 'at (1) the dating of

Syriac

manuscripts is

often

rather

u'

ncertain

(on ly a few biblical manuscr

ip t

s have dates provided

the colophone

s)

; a nd

(2)

the great

majority of

these

manu-

contain only a sin gle group of books at a time (or

some

only

one

book).

(often

only one book;and

often fragmentary) .

, ,' s

ixth

century - 27

mss

seventh

cent.

32

mss

(sa

me

applies):

. eigh th cen t.

- 10

m ss

. J i

ninth cent

-

12 mss

tenth cent.

23 ross

eleventh cent.

S m ss

twelfth

cent.

9 mss

. .

.f

thirteenth.

ce

nt.

7 mss

" fourteenth cent.

S

mss

'

fifteenth cent.

6

mss

sixteenth cent .

-

16 mss

'seve

nt

een th cent.

- 26 ross

f

:t'; eighteenth

ce

nt. -

17

mss

. nineteenth cent.

:

23

mss

38 The Bible in

the

Sy ri ac Tradition



I

,

I

I·

i

I

I

, ,

For

th

e rather la rge number of early

manu

scr

ip t

s we owe a spec

ial

debt of

gratitude

to

the

abbot i\1oses

of

the

Syrian Monastery

in

the

Nitrian D eser t (be tween Cairo and Alexandria in E g y p t ~

for in the early tenth century he co ll ected toge ther a fine library '

of old Syriac manu sc

ript

s which he acquired in Mesopotamia.

Subsequently

most of

the manuscripts

in

the Syrian Mona

s

tery g

,

Jib rary came to the Vatican

Librar

y (in the eighteenth

and the British Library (nineteenth

century),

The

earliest manuscripts

arc divided up

into

unnumb

e

req

paragraphs. IL is i n t r i u ~ n g to discover

that

ill some books

at

least (notably Isa iah) these paragra ph

bre

a ks very frequently

~ c c u r at

the sante place astlfC paragrap h breaks in th e two

Hebrew manuscripts of

Isaiah

from

Qumran

, as weil as those in

the traditional Hebrew

text , reprodu ced in modern

ed

iti ons

of

..

the Hebrew Bible (the

two

systems are

not id

en ti

ca

l, and the '

Peshilta represents a s lightly different third tradition), Evidently

th e Syriac trallslator must have taken over the paragraph di vision s

from the Hebrew t

ext

he wa s translating. Later

manuscript

s

of

the

Peshitta often

introd uce quite different paragraph breaks . , _

,.

The ea r

liest

manu

sc

ript

s

ha

ve

no

c

hapter

di

visions.

The

di vision of books of the ' Peshitta Old Tcstament int o numbered

'chapters (in SYI iac, us ha

he "

) js fir st attested in somc '

E a ~ t

Syrian

manuscl' ipt s of th e eigh th century; subscq ucntly thi s

system

wa

s adopled by V cst Syrian scribcs

as

well. A few

manu

scripts

(s

uch as the ~ u c h n n Bible) havc

two

conCUrrent sys

te m

s

of

numbe

ring, the

first

being the

standard system , and the other'

being a cumu lat ive system running right

t h r o ~ g h

the Old Testa

ment (or group of books with in th e Old Testament) , t s

hould

be .

noted

that

these chapte r divisions on ly very nlrc,ly co in cid e with

the chapter divisions familiar from, modern

of

the

. Bible (for whose

origin,

sec

Section

I ),

FiilalIy, before leavi ng the

Peshitt

a' Ol d, Te stament ,

we

shou ld look

at

the way in which the

text

itse lf ha s ,been trans"

mitted over th e centuries. On the whole one can sa y

that

Syriac '

scribes

were

ge nera lly very carefu l

when

th ey copied the l,Jiblical

text.

As a

re

sul t, we

rind

ren)a

rkabl

y littl e ,

va riation betwe

en the

dirfercnt

manusc

ript

s ( the s

ituation

is

very

c iffercnt

with

the

Scp::,

Biblical Manuscripts

3,

' \vhcl'C

g

reat

variati

on occur

's); mo

reover

, where va r i

ants

,

they

arc ~ l y rarei

y

of mu ch co ns

equence.

Nevertheless

pcshitta text is not

entire

ly uniform over the centuries, and

studies

ha

ve suggested

that

the following is the general

t i a t t e r n

of

development

in

the

histor),

of

the Pcshiua text for each

O l

dest

stage.

Very

few witnesses

[ 0

this stage

survive,

f t e n they

arc

manuscripts

which pose panicular problems.

s e e m s likely

that

in this oldest stage the text ·

of

the Peshitt,

} V ~ ~ r a t h e r closer to the Hebrew origina l than is the case ,with

th

e

during the later stages. If we

had

more manuscripts

dating

the fifth century we would probably be in a better po sition

h

~ ~ v e t

morc

of

thi s archaic

stage.

.,

[2] The next stage

is

represented by manuscr ipts. of the

to

eighth

cen tu

ries (inclusive); since

we

are rather

well

provided

with manuscr ip ts li'om th is time, thi s s

ta

ge represen'ts

earliest

stage

in

the

his

tory

of

the Peshitta text \\thich we can

r ~ c o v e ;

'The difference between this s

tage

and tl 1 c oldest stage

'fully recoverable)

are probably the re

sult

of

attempts

to

~ o o t h over the origin al

translation here and

there , n the , inte,-

of go?d

Syriac

[3]

The third

stage is provided by

man

uscripts of

the

nin ,th century and later, and is often referred to as

the

: Textus

f . d R e ~ e p t u s , or

Received

Text.

Th

e

differen

ces between the

Rcccptus and the text of stage 2 arc not

very

many (there

some 50 in the whole

of

Isa

iah

) , and ar e rarely

of

great signi-

It remains unclear how

or

why this development took

:--

9

lilC

C

\\bs it a

gradual

process, c o n t i n ~ i n g the sort

of

changes

had alrea.dy

taken place between

stages I

and

2,

or

was it

product of a conscious revision by a particular ' person (and

if

'by

wbat crit

e

ria

did

he

work)? .

.

.

.

1

,

. The following are a few

typical

examples of differences

stagt?s 2 and 3, taken ,

from

Isaiah:

\ ~ :

13:8 ' their eyes

will

not

have pity

: on their

children') Textus Rcceptus h as (your children'.

,

Biblica l r i p t 4 1



,I

40

The Bible in the

Sy

r iac Tr

adit

ion

I sa iah

5? '

18 ' t l · ' '

. T . lei C IS none

who

ta kes her y her hand']

exlus Rcccptus

adds 'and

' I

I . ra ises leI

sa . . h 66:2 1

'And

I will also take rrom thl'm ,:

L

." ']

T PIICSl s

and

t CHtcs cxtU5 Rc

ce

ptus omits '

An d

'

1\

- ost of the changes arc very m ' , d '

t

I

. . 11101, an arc IP11"o d l

d

d

o ac

llcve

smoother rC3.ding. . Ice 111 or cr

The Paris ma nu script of the ) . .

srr

34 1-8

al)

is r '

, , '

,

entire

I es

llltt

a BIble (P.lris. . 0 mtel cst 111 this co nn ection

.

I , '

bv

the

ongll1al scribe be l . ) ol

li

e t ~ x t cop Ied

. oags to s

ta

ge? Jut at I

someone else ha s CO Ill C a l d " - , some ate ' date

in order to make i t C O I ~ o ~ g

an

I y s ~ c m a t i c ~ altered the text

1 m to tle

1

cxlUs

Rcceptus (stage

3 ,

[4]

In

the

course or the l

ate

r

M'dd

- .-

Rc

ccp

tlls itse lf underwent s I I 1 Ie Ages

the

1

cxtus

. omc uri

ler

clevel

J v i n very minor changes (

robab

l . o p m ~ n t

mostly

of scribes ) It so hiP Y due to th e madvertencc

.

appcns 11 at the

c·lI·

r · t .

d

the Svriac Bible em I . d I IC S prlllte editions of

• p

0 \

C ate manuscripts d h

r

ep

rese nts th e latest s t a g ~ i tl I an so t ell text

,

Peshilta

text.

It

Ie t o r y of th e development of th e

OLD TESTAMENT [2] SYRO-I-JEXAI'LA

Although seve

ra

l dirf. . t I

the Syro-hexapla survh'c ~ I ~ ~ a r y manuscripts of pa n s

of

Te

st

ame

nt; the two earliest c s ~ , 0

1

not cover th e c \l ir e

Old

14442 . I •

Y o

-l

exap la manusc

ript

s

(Add

WIt

I

parts

or Genes is'

Add 121

34 ' " ,

written in the sevcllth ccnt'ury tl' I " . Ivlth we re both

f

lU

S

ess t Ian CI ·r

h t y

a\vay rom the date of Pau l of T - ' ," ;:,

or

so yea rs

Svro

-h

exap la rn a

5

o

ll

gma J

tr

a nslat ion.

Some

~ an uscllplS contam si

nalc

b k I '

ha

ve

group

s of boo ks.

,:,

00 s, w lIle others

The

most famous S},ro-hexap la rna ,, ,

en

o

rmou

s

manu

s r

ipt

co

t . . I

nu

sc

llpt

, h

owever

,

IS

an

mellt, in

the

A:nbro sia

u

~ ~ J I f ~ g t

le

ha

lf

of

the Old Tc

sta

usu

ally

dated to the lat e

n ,

:h" ar

y

,

MI

lan (ms C 313 Inr. ); it is

h S elg t 1 or early ninth c t d .

t e y

ro-hexapla

is

tran

slat ed f r om . , n

ur y

, an slll

ce

that

the

order of the b 'i I' l

b 1 ee

k, It IS

not

surprisill'T

I ) I

ca

ooks I S that

d

' 0

scr i

pts

of th e S.

ou

n I I I many manu-

eptua(Tmt name ly

r 1

Ecclesiastes, Song of S ~ n O sa ms,

Jo b

, _Proverhs,

v, \IVisd om of Solomon, Bell Sira,

12 Minor

Prophet

s, .Jeremiah , Baruch, Lamentat ion s, Le tter of

J ere miah , D

an

iel ,

Su

sanna , Bel and th e Dr agon, Ez'ekicl and

Isaiah.

The

manu

scr ipt is written in a b e a u t i f ~ Estn mgclo

hand,

and

in the

m argins arc la rge numbers of notes, usually providing

variant readin gs derived from other columns of Origen's

Hexapla . In

the

sixteenth century the

Syria

c Andreas

Nlasiu s had the use of anoth er huge Syro-hexapia manuscript

\vhich

contained th

e fi r st ha

lf

of

the Old

Te s

tament,

' bu t'

unfortunately this precious manuscript has

subsequent

ly di s

ap p,eared and mu st be presumed lost for good .

The Ambros

ian

manusc

ri p

t

of the

Syro-hexap la ha s a

sys tem of chapter numbering which is quite different from the 'one

found in Peshitta ma nu scr

ip t

s; it

derive

s from one of the several

curren t

Greek syste

ms, and

tbe Greek

na

me

kepha laion,

'chapter'

(li tera lly ' headin g

')

, is em p loye

d.

R :n hcr surpr ising ly

a

later scr ibe

ha

s introduced this s

ystem into the

margin of

one famou s

Pe

shitta ma nu scr ipt, the comp lete Bibl

e,

7a l, also

now in Milan.

We shall pass ,over here the two other tr a nslations of the

O

ld

T es tament ,

made from

Greek,

the one

possib ly sponsorec\

by

Phil

o

xenu

s,

the

ot

h

er ma d

e

by

Ja

co b

of Ede

ssa

in hi

s o

ld

'

a ge. Both these

surv

ive in

fragmentar

y form, in old manuscripts .

NEW

TESTAMENT [ I] DIATESSARON

No

biblical manuscript

containing

any part

of the

Syr iac

Diate

ssa ,:on survives,

and

the text

ha

s to be reconstructed from

the quota

t ion s from the

Diatessaron incorporated

into

Ephrem

' s

Commentary

on

the Diatessa ro l} (which it self d oes not sur vivt;

comp

lete

in Syria

c) .

\

NEW TESTAMENT [2] OLD SYRIAC

,

""e

hay e a lr eady seen that Jhc Old Syriac sur vives in

two

.fjfth-cenLU ry

manu

scr

ip t

s" the Curet lnian :

and the

Sinait icu,s.

Neither

of c s ~

is r v ~ d in a

comp

l

et e

'state. , .1

The Curetonian manuscript come s from the Syrian l\10Ila

S h ~ y the t r i a ~ I?esert, and p n ~ y ~

ft;w

years ~ g o a. missing

leaf from the manuscript (now in London ; Ad",. 11451) was

, . . . ' , I ,

Biblical Manuscri pts 43



I

1

I

I

\

'

'1

I

I

I

'1

42 The Bible in the Syriac

Tradition

discovered among the Syriac manuscripts sti ll

rcma

JJung

in

t h ~

monastery (three furth er leaves found the

ir

way to Berlin).

TIle

Gospels arc

arranged

in an

ullusua]

orde

r, :viatthcw,

lV

lark, John,.

Luke.

The

Sil1:\idcus

CSt. Catherille'

l\:{onastcry,S ina i, ms

syr

30)

was

discovered

in

18

92 by f\1rs.

/ \ ~ I 1 C S

Smith

Lewis, a remarkable

and very

learned Scottish

lad y who

m:lde

many

discoveries of

biblical

and other

manuscripts

in

the

middle

East

during the

ceurse of

her tr avels With her

twin

sister, Mrs Nlal'garet Smith

Gibson. The original manuscript containing

the

text of the Old

Syriac Gospels was recycled i y a

cer

tain John the anchorite in

AD

779:

the writing was

sponged off, and

the

leaves were re

used to

form

a

new

co

dex

in which

a totally diITerent text

was

copied

(Lives

of some women

saints).

The

manuscript 'as we kno\o/

it today is thus a palimpsest, with ,

the

Old Syriac as

the

under-

w n t m ~ Fortunately, 1f certain

amount

of the

underwriting stiJl

shows

th rough

, and thanks

to a great

deal of patience, it

was

eventually possible to pul>lish quite a large

amount

,

of this

under-

writing containing the Old Syriac. t is to be hoped that modern

techniques for

reading

p;

t impse

sts

'will before

long

enable scho

lars

to read

rather

more

of thi s text which

is

of such

interest for

biblical

.tudics.

NEW TESTAMENT (3) PESHITTA

Quite a large

number

'of

manuscripts fram

the

sixt

h (and

a few ]i 'OIn the fifth)

century

survive; normally

these contain ju

st

the

Gospels (and many

of

them survive

on

ly in a

fragmentary

state), but

one

of

the earliest dated manuscripts is ,one .containing

the Pauline

Epistle

s (A D 533/4 . Perhaps the mo,t famous

of

early Peshitta Ncw

'Testa'

ment manuscripts 13

a

Gospel manuscript

dated

AD

586,

in

the Laurentian Library

J

Florence; this contains

la remarkable

se t of illustrations., executed

by

the monk R abbula,.

'(

hen

ce the manuscript is often referred to as tthe Rabbula

Gos-

pels'; . thi

..

Rabbula- should of

course

bt:

carefully distingui.h from

.Rabbula, bis

hop

of

Edessa).

'

The

three

Catholic Epistles

(james,

I Peter, I John)

nor-

m.lly come between

Act. and

the Pauline Epistles. The order

of the Pauline

Epist

les is th e sa

me

as the order

familiar from

the

Greek and from modern translations. Sometimes at

the

ends

of the individual Gospels an d , Pauline

Epis

.tles short

historical

notes are

given, such as

'Ended is the preaching of Mark, ~ y h i c h

he

uttered

in

Latin in

Rome', or tEnded is

the Letter to the

Romans, which

was written [rom Corinth at the

hands

of

Phoebe

the deaconess" Though

such

notices are

not

hi storically reliable.,

they arc ,of interest s

ince they

show what views wcrc current

in

the

sixth century

or so.

' As is

the

case in the

Pc

shitta Old Testament, ' there is re·

nl <1.r kably little variation in t e ~ t between different manuscripts

of

tile Peshi tta New Te stament.

Only

in a few Gospels 'manu·

scripts

can tra

ces

he found

of

the ea r

li

er Old

S y r i ~ c version.

One

of

the

few

major variants, at Hebrews

,2:9, ,has

~ d y

?ecn.

mentlOncd

at

an earlier stage.

, .

.

NE W ·

TE,5TAMEt'iT

(4) .

PHILOXENIAN

,

In

the

pa st schol

ars

have occasionally tried to identify

particular manu

scr

ip t

s

as

containil)g

the

P h i l o x e ~ i a n J

s i o n ,

hut

these attempts were

misguided , and it is

now rcaliz

,ed . that

no manuscr

ip t

s

of the

Philoxenian

survive, with the

possible

exec·

ption of those whi.ch contain the sixth·century transl

ation

of the

books absent from the Peshitta' Canon.

Our only

direct access to

the

Philoxenian is thus bi' way or the quotations m a d ~ fro,m

it

which

can

be found

in

P h i l o x ~ n u s

commentaries other

works.

The

sixth·century translat ion

of

the ,four Catholic

Epistles

absent from the Peshitta (2

Peter

-3 John, Jude) is preserved

in a fairly small number of manuscr

ipts

, ' of which the' oldest is

d a

ted AD

823 .

Most

of

th

ese

manuscript

s

contain the rest of

t:rrc-Ncwli..']truncnt

in

the

Pc

s

hilta

vers

ion

(t

hi

s, for

exam

pic)

is the

case with

the Buchanan

Bible),

For

Revelation,

however)

the s i x t l ~ . c e

n t u J Y t'ranslation 'is

pre

served in a '

single

' manuscript)

dating f r o ~ the twcJfth or thIrteenth century. : As \Vas m e n t i ~ n e d

earlier

it is

~ l o t certain

'

whethcr these anonymous tran

slations.

ar

'e

to

be

"identiried' as part of

the

Philo:<.enian

New Te

stament,

. , , .\;

or

not.

.;

, .

..



J

Th e Bible

in th

e Syriac

Tradition

NEW TESTAi\·lENT (5) HARCLEAN

The

vast ~ a j o r i t y of

manu

scri pts

or

he Harc1ean version

contain only

th

e Go spels. S

c.::vcr

al

of the

se belong

to the

'

eight

or

ninth

centuries . Fol' the

re

st of

the New Testament, by

contra st ,

we

arc not at a ll well off: for Revelation a small number of

manuscripts arc avai lab le,

but

only two l1ul1uscripts (Oxford,

New

College

333,

of

the eleventh ce

lltury

,. and Cambr id

ge,

Add.

1700

f

69/70

a

rc

de

finit

e ly kn ow n

to ha

ve

the Harelean text

of Acts and th e

Ep i

stles

as

well.

2. Lectionaries

The

Bible

was r ~ a d in the

context

of liturgica

l

wor

s

hip

fr om the very beginnings of the existence of the Church (at firs

t,

of cour se, it wa s ju st

the

Old Testament , before the

written

NeW

Te

s

tament had come

in to

being).

In

the

early centuries

of the

Church's life biblical Inlnuscripts co nlainil),g the ~ e l e v a n t parts

of Scripture were used. In the six

th

century some Syriac

biblical

manu

sc

ript

s p rov

ided help

in locating lect i

ons

by ins

erL

ing

l c c l i

o n a ~ y hcadinl-{s (somcttmcs in red)

at the begin

l

lin

g

of

pa

ssages

to

be

read

on p

trti

c

ula

r

fe

asts.

Somet

im

es lis ts o f

readings th roughout

th

e lilU rgical year were compil

ed)

but

the

se

did

not include

the text

of

the

tlec t ion

s;

a sixth-ce

ntury index

of

icctiohs of

th i

s so rt survive s in the British Library (Add . 14528).

The

practice of in

corporating

lectionary headings at a p p r o p r i a t ~

places in

ordinary

bihlica l

manu

scripts continued in the

seventh

and h t h

centuries,

and

sometime s

later

as well)

even after the

adoption of the bright idea of hav ing separate books

J

co

nt a ini

ng

ju st

the

lections) and arranged in their liturgica l order.

t is unknow n ·when this idea of having a spec ia l lectionary

manu

sc

ript

for lectiol1s wa s

first

introduced; th e earliest Greek

lec tionary manuscripts ·(a

ll very

· fragmentary) seem to

belong to

the

fifth

century) but the idea does not appear to h ave become

popu lar until some

cent

uries later. ·Certainly in

the

S) riac Chur

ches it is

the

case

that there

a

re

no Syriac lectionary m anuscripts

daling

from

earlier than

the

ninth

century.

It

is

of

ou rse

poss

ible

th ou eadicr lectiollary manuscripts did once exist) a nd

that

they

ha ve

di

sa ppeared simply because they

had more

wear

and tear

than ordinary

bib1ical m

an

uscripts; this suggestion)

howev

er?

,:

Printed' Edjtions

should jJrobably be reje.

ctcd,

for ·

two rea

sons: ( I) since

bibli

ca l

manuscripts of th e sixth and seve

nth

ce ntury were provid ed with

lectionary headings , they too would .h ave been subject to the

same

wear

and

tear;

(2) we s

uddenly ha

ve

quite

a lot

of

lec tionary

manusc

ript

s

dating from the ninth

cc ntury,

and belonging

to a ll

t hr ee Churche s using Syriac

as

a liturgical language-the Syrian

Orthodox , the Ch ur ch of

th

e East) and

the

Byzantine Orthodox

(Melki te ) Church ill Syria and Pales

tine

. It thus seems likely

that

the

practi

ce

of

coll

ect

ing

together the

lec tions

into

s

pe

c

ial

manuscripts was introduced into all th e

Syriac

Ch urches at som

timc around AD 800.

Sin ce

different

parts of

the

Bi ble were

read

at different

p

in ts in the

litur

gical

service

s, it became th e usua l

pr a

c

tice

to

have separate lectionarics for O ld

Te

stament 1cctions) for Gospel

lec tions and for

Ie

ctions from the Acts and the Epistles.

The text

employed ill JJ.:..ctioifaries wa s normally

the

Pe s

hitta

, but i

in

the

Syrian

Orthodox Church use was a lso sometimes made of. the

y ~ h e : x a p l a p of the .Harclean : In particular) there arc ma ny

Harclcan

Cospel lectionaries which survive: some Gospol

le

ct

ionary

manu

sc ripts a harmony has been created for the

Pa ss

ion

narrative, ha scd on the text of the Harclean; two d i £ T e l ~

ent

sequences attested

J

and one of the se is asssociated (in a

colophon)

with the

names of a ce rt ain

Rabban

t\'Iar Danici

and

hi

s

di

sc

ip l

e

Isaa

c.

There appears to have been considerable variation' in th e

allocation

an

d al:rangement of lections, not only between

the

different Syriac

Churche

s,

but also within each of the

Churches ;

In-

the Church

of

the

Ea st

two particular

systems

in due

,

course

came to dominate the scene: firstly ~ h e (Cathedral' lectionary

sys t

em

of the patriarchal church formerly ·in ScIeucia-C,tesiphon,

and second

ly

the

monastic lectionary cycle ' develope d ' at the

Upper

Mo nastery

in

Mosul.

3.

Printed

Editions

The fir

st

printed

edition

of

the Syriac New

Te sta:

ment

as

publised by

Johann

Widmanstetter in 1555 at

Vienna

.

In the

wOI

:k of preparing the edition Widmanstetter ,

had

bee,;,

i

Printed

. E d i t i o n ~ 1?



II

\

, II

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46

The

Bible

in the

Syriac Tr aditio n

assisted by a

Syrian

Orthodox pi-iest , ~ 1 : o s c s of vIaJ'din, who

spe

nt some time

in

Europe

acting as tcacher of Syriac to va rio

ll

s

scholars. The te xt of

this edition

was of ell reprinted, sometim es

in

Hebrew

' chara cter s.

For the Pe shitta Old Tcstnmcnf the ea rliest printed editions

were of th e Psalter;

th

e first

wa

s prepa red by Martin frostius

in

1622,

to

be followed shortly

afterwards

by

two other

,:diti

ons

both of which were published

·in 1625,

one in

Leid en

prepared

by Thomns Erpcnius ,

and

the other in Paris pr e pa red by the

Maronitc sc

holar Gabriel

Sionita.

The

next two Syriac biblical t

exts

to

be

publis

hed

were not

[I'om

the Peshitta

,

but from

one of

the later

versions. In

16

27 Louis

de

Dieu published

the

H a rcl

ea

n

Apocalypse

(Lciden),

and in

1630

(

Edward

Poc oc ke

published

the four minor

Catholic

Epistles which

arc miss

ing

frum

the

Peshitta (Oxford );

th

e v ~ r s i o n he

was the anonymous si

xt

h-ccntury

one,

rathcr than

the

Harclccl n

in

hUCJ ,litcrature on the S)'ri ac vcrsions they

arc

often

rcferred

to

as

the fPo cocke Epistles ). None of these texts of ourse featurcd in

\,\'

idmqn

s

tetter

s

edition

of the

Peshitta

New ~ t a m e n t , and their

absence

had

s

urprised

and

eve n sh

ocke?

European

sc

holar

s.

"<

; _

The c p m ~ l e t e Old Tastallent Pcshitta was

fir st '

publi

sh

ed

in volumes 6 - 9 of the

grea

t Paris Polyglot

(1645),

ediled by

G. M Le Jay; the ' edition of the Syriac text \\o'as ' the work of

G a h r i e ~ Sionita.

The Pari

s Polyglot also

il

,cludt;d the SyriJ.c New

T e s ~ a m e n t ,

' supp l

ementing the

Pc?hiua: text

with the

: P

ocockc

~ p i s t ~ c s a l ~ d the Harclean

Apocalypse. '

, , t ,he S y r i ~ c

text

o,f the

Paris

1'olygl

ot

~ e r v e d as

the

' basis

... , 1

for

the next "edition ,of th e Pesh itta"Bible, in

Brian

, V a lton s

London J ~ o l y g l o t (1655-;,7), - . .

I

n both

the

Poly

glot Bibles

thc

Syria

c

text

is

provided

with

a Latin translation. Their

text

is not a very good one si nce

vcry

late manuscripts (all , Vc

st Syrian), wc; c

cWplo

yc

d "a1 the

b a s ~ ..

, T I ~ c nt:"tt irhportan t editloil

of

the .syri'ac "Bible

was

th at

prcparcd ' b)'

Samuel

Lcc )' publishcd in London in 18 23, Although

the text wa s mo stly , derived from Walton s Polyg lot ,

was made of the Buchan,an ~ i b l ~ p r ~ p a r i ~ g t ~ l i ~ h i ~ ~ ~ I ~ ~

edition The ld

Testament text IS

unvocah2;ccl

but the 'New

, , " ' " j

Testament

is

vocalized. The

contents of

the

Old

Test

a

me n

.

were dictated by rhe ~ n t s ~ the King 'James Version bf

Bible

(t

h e

Apocrypha

arc absent), though the o r d ~ r 'of the book;

in part follows

patterns

found in Pesh it ta manu sc

ript

s: thus ,

for

exa

mpl

e, "J ob comes

between

Deutcronoll?Y "

an d

' o s h u In ~ h c

New Te stament,

c v c r

the

s

tandard order of

c d i ~ i o r i s

the

Greek, text

(a

ud of modern

translations) was

followed; that

iS

with the Pauline Epi stles following, in.lmediately . after Acts, For

' the hooks absent frem

th

e Peshitta ,

the

pococke E p i s t l c ~ anq

the Harclcan Apocalypse

are

em p loyed ,

An interesting feature

of

this

c'

dition

o r the New

Testament is the

prcsencc 'ofnu"merous

lect

ionary

headings, which

have been

taken over

frpm

,

one

of

the m a

nuscript

s which

Lee

used. " ', '"J '

;

Lee

s

edition

ha s

been

re-issued by , the , United '

Bible

.Societies. (1979) , in a n expanded form, '

and

with a brief prefac<;

by

th

e Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ig nal iu s

Ya

qub III. .

T h ~

added material

is

the

text

of the Deutero-canonical

books, under

th

e "tit}c

CRook

s'

of

A p o c r y p h a

theSe

l

aTe rep'roduceH

from

handwriting

(Serto)

'anel" include the follo"wing:' Wisdom fof Solo .

mon, Ben Sira, 2 Letters of

Baru

ch, Letter

0[ "

Jeremiah, .1 1-2

Touit,

Judith,

s

upplim

en ts t o . I ~ s t h c r , Susa,n;n,a.

, , i \

,)

.1 ' "

'

The

fi r st printecl" editi·on of the

Peshitta

ba se d 'at lea st in

part on East

Sydan manu

scripts ,

was

published

1n Urmia

'

(NW

[r

a n) in 1852 by

th

e

American

P r e s ~ y t e r i a r i Mi ssion. ,

The

edition ha

s a

yfodcrn Syriac translation

(from '

Hebrew

j"

rather

th an frorfl the

Peshitta

) in parallel columns. The Urmia edition

served as the ba sis for another edition using the East Syrian

,script, publis

hed

by

the Trinitarian

Bible So ciety in York

(1913)

and

,

often

reprinted.

,

Both these editions

follow

the

ordcr

of books" r a m i l i ~ r

from

most English t r a n ) J 1 s . '")" '

,:

, '

...

:

[

Another

, ,

edition

of

the

Peshitt a using

East Syrian

manus-

" ' , I "

cr

ipt s (a nd including

the New Testament)

,

was

' publislW9' by

the

D o m i n i c a ~ Fathers at

l

Mosul

in 1887-92 (in three v o h t th is

had

.been prepared by

Clement

Jo se

ph

Da vid , Syrian Catholic

I;

Printed Editions



Ii

I

"

I

f

I

,

1

48 The 8ib Ie in the Syriac Tradition

f'>rchbishop of Damascus. and George Abdisho Khayya t, Cha i;

,daean Archb ishop of Amid (Diya, 'bekir ), Th e order of the Old

Testament book

is

the sa

me as

that

of

the U

nnia

edition, but

r l c d among them ar the so-called n o l l i books

(ab s'cnt from Protestant Bibles), such as

\oVi

sdom of Solomon

:al1d '

Ben Sira

(between

the

Song of Songs a nd Isaiah) .

The

New

) cstament

follows the stand,ard Greek order; fur the b

oo

ks not

in the Peshitta use is made of tlie .Pococ

kc

Epistles' and the

J-Iarclcan Ravclation.

' The Beirut edit

ion

of the Pes

hitta

(1952) is

lar

ge ly b as

ed

'on

' the Mosul edition.

r·

· ·

.

: . . All tbe editions r n ~ n t i o n c d so

far arc based on late and

'bften hot very good manuscripts. ' For most purposes this,may not

matter very much, but for more-scholarly pui-poses it is o bviously

i m ' p o r t ~ n t to

h a v ~

a r : t 0 ~ c reliable tcx,t of the Pcshitta ava ilable.,

b

as

ed on

the

oldest ma

nu

scripts. This is essenthil,' for example,

i

'one 'wishes study the

Pe

shitta Old Tcstament as a translatiori

'of

the

' b r c w . '

, ,

;

,

fIn

the

last ce ntury

Of"

SG

various

atlempts

have been

made

by scholars to produce bcttcr cditions

of

the Sydac Bible.

Tho

following are some of thc

mOI

-c imponant;

(a)

Old

Te sta .

ment

(Pcshitta)

- Beginning in 1876 A.

M.

Ceria

ni

s

tarted to

publish a

photo-lithographic repm d lIctinn of the

Old

Testament te • t of the

fairious Amb rosian manuscript of th e Pcshilta (7a l); this work,

completed in 1883,

made

avai lable for the first time the text of

the oldest surviving manu

sc

ript

of

the comp lete Peshitta Old

Testament

.

- Various scholal-s have prepared editions of individu ll

books of

the

Peshitta

Old

T estament, based

the

'old est manu

scripts ava ilable.

The

se include: the Pentateuch (W. E. B a r n e s

1914; a revision cf the text

in

Lee s edition usjng old manuscripts)

Psalms (W.E.Barnes, 1904

);

I

sa

iah (G.

Dietlrich

, 1905;

no

is

gi,ven, but there is a full l ~ s t

o(

variant readings

to

be found in 22

manuscripts is given); Lamentations (

B.

r ~ k t o n , 1963

);

Chro:,

nides (W. E. Barne , 1097; list'of variant readings in several early

n u s c r j p t s ,

without

the

text); Apocrypha :(P ,

de

Lagarde, '1861;

ba

sed

on

early manuscripts

in

the British Library); vVisdom , of

Solomon (J. A. Em erton, 1959) .

_ In

the

1950s

the

Intern

ational

Organisation for the Study

of the

Old

Testament began to make plans

ior

a critical edition

of the Peshitta

Old

Testament, and in 1959

Profe

sso r P eA. H. de

Boer, of the University of 'Leiden in

Holland

:

wa

s appo

inted

genera l editor. In 1961 the

new

Peshitta Institute at

Leiden

pllblis

hed

a preliminary

List of Old Te

st

ament Peshitta

Manu7

scripts, prepared largely by W. Baars and M. D. Koster. (Every

now and then supp

lem

ents to this invaluable basic list arc 'pub .

lished in

the

periodical ' Vetus Testamentum)' ' ;Five ,yea'rs later)

in

1966, 'a s

ample

edition conta ining

the Song of Songs,

,

Tobit and

the Apocalypse of Baruch was ·published . .

Over the

follO\yil)g

yea rs

th

e following volumes have appeared:

.

I Genesis

and

Exodus (e

d. T.

Ja n s

ma,

M. D.

Koster, 1977). • .

2 Jupges

and

Samuel (ed. P. B. Dirksen,

P. A. ,

H. de Boer,

1978).

II

3 P

sa

lm

s

(ed.

D. M.

W a

lter

a

nd others,

1980

).

II 4 '

Kin

gs (cd. H. Gottlieb

and E. Hammer

sh aimb

19

76).

,

,t

I . .

.II

, 5

~ r o v ~ r b s , Wisd.om

of

Solomon, Ecclesiastes;_ Song

of Song

s (ed. A.

A. di LelIa,

J A

. Emerton

;·

i

.

,

n J; Lane) .- i

III

Isaiah (ed.

S. P. Brock, 1987). . ..

III la Job

(ed.

, L. G. Ringnell, 1982). '

3

Ezekiel

(ed.

M.

J .

Mulder

, 1985).

II

III 4 Twelve Prophets,

Daniel,

Bel and

D ( a ~ O I ~

J

(ep. A. Gelston,

T. Sprey,

1980)., ' , • :

.,

.

IV , 3 Apocalypse of Baruch and 4 Esdras

(ed.

R. J.

Bidawid,

1973).

IV

6 Canticles or

Odes:

Prayer of Mana

ss

eh, Apocry

;

'

phal Psa lms, Psalms of Solomon, Tobit, 1 (3) ,

Esdras

(cd .

H. Schneider,

W. Baars ; . ,I , i

J. C.

H. Lebram, i972).

.' '; ', . ..

\, I

••

,

50 The Bible in the Syriac Tr adi ti on



t

is hoped

to

comp

lete

the edit

ion som e

time

in

the

19903.

Estarngelo s

cr

ipt is used through

out.

The text printed is

ba

sically

th

at

of the Ambrosian manuscript 7al , though its man ifest errors

are corre

c

ted.

Below

the

text

there

is an apparatlls wh ich gives

all

the

va ri

an

ts to be found

in

ma nu scr

ip t

s before 1300 (ob vio us

errors and orthograph ica l differences arc excluded there, but

r eceive

mention

in

the

introductions to

each

volume ,

where the

manuscripts

u sed a rc de scribed ).

Edit

ions

carlicr th

an 1977

give variants

in

later manu

scripts as well , and

the

te

xt

in

these

volumes

adheres more rig

i

dly

to

7al

than

is

th

e case

in

later

volume s. The importan

ce

of

the Lcidcn

edition

lies ,

in the

f

act

th at it prov

id es f

or the

fi rst

time

information

ahout the

carliest

forms

of th

e

Pcshitta

t

ext

, before

th

e devel

opment

ot the medi

eval

Textus

Receptus

(w hich is t he ln sis of a ll th e o ld

er

editions

of

· th e l' eshitta Bib le).

(b)

NelY

Testament ("

<s

hi

tta)

- For the Peshi tta Gospels an edition (wit h f ~ l c i l l g L

at

in

trans lation ) b.tsed 011 a con side r

ah

le

number

of the

ea r li

est sut

V V W g manu s

cripts wa

s prepared

by

P. E. Pusey and published

(after

Pus

ey

s d

eath)

b

.

G.

H.

Gw

illi

am

in

190

1.

The

in t

ent

ion

had been to cover the:

re

st o f

the New

T est

ament

,

but

this never

came

to

fruition; the provisional

text for

this

ed iti on , however,

was pu blished without any va r i:lnt readings , y the British

and

Foreign

Bible Society in

1920.

This edition of the Pes

hitta

Ne\\

a m e n t prin

tc d

ll

voca lized scrto sc

ript

,

is the mo

st

rel

iab

le one

available,

and it has been

reprint

ed .

many

times.

The

Syriac

or der

of

books is fol lowed; wit h J

ames

, I Peter a nd

I J ohn coming after Acts . Use was made Or the

ano nym ous

sixt

h·century translation

for

th

e

minor

Catholic

Epi

s

tle

s (t he

'Pococke Epist les ) a

nd

R

ev

elation , since

these arc absent fr

om

the Pcshitta; th e text of th ese was based on the exce llent editions

by J. Gwynn (minor Catho

li

c Epi st les,

1909; Reve

la tion,

1897) .

Th e

se a re a ll

printed together at the cnd.

For odd v rs s abse il t

from the l'eshitta (notably John ·7:53 -0 :1 1) a la ter

translatioll

has been in serted be tween sq u

ar e

brackets. Bes id es the western

chapter

an.d

ver

se numbers, t.he

native

Syriac sec tion

numbers

( 'shah

c") are

given in .

the ma r

gin (these very rarely

corr

es-

pon

d

wit h

th

e western c

haptcl

i o I l .

.

Printed

Edit ion s 5 1

- In 1983 The W.

ay

In ternat iona l (New Kn oxv ill e, Ohio,

USA) p u b l h ~ d a vol

ume

e ntitled

'T

he Aramaic N

ew

T estament,

Es

tran

geio sc

ript

. ba s

ed

on

the

Peshilta

and

aarklean

V e r s i o ~ s .

'I he Pe shiua text is taken from three early m anuscripts in the

British l. ibrary. but for the books absent from the Pes

hitt

a, the

text

of Gwynn's

editions

of

the

anonymous

six th -century versions

is used (

th

e

tit

le page a nd

Introduct

ion mis

tak

enly ca ll

th

em

the

Harc\ean). The

o

rder of

books fo llows

that of editions of

the

Gree

k

text an

d

of

modern tran

sl

ations.

Thoug

h

in

many ways

this is a

pr a

c ti ca l

edit

ion} with a good text a nd cle arly pr int

ed;

the abserice

of

a ny punctuation marks ·

(beyond

dverse ivisions)

ma

kes for difficult

reading, especia ll

y

in the

Epistles.

-

The In

st itut fur

neutcstame

ntliche T ext forsc h

ung

at

Munster

(West

Germany) is in the process of editing the S y r i a ~

New Testament in both th e Peshitta and t h ~ Harclean versions:

The first

vo lu me

of

this

impor

ta

nt

sc

holarl

y

enterprise

covers the

major

Catholic Epistles

(James, I

Peter,

I J ohn), and was pu

b

lished in 1986 (cd. B. Aland).- For the Peshitta a selected group

of nine early

manuscr

ipts has been

used, wh

ile for the I-;larc1ea.n

a ll

th r

ee

ava

ilable

manuscript

s

are

em p

l

oyed

. A n

ot a

ble f

eature

of

thi s ed iti on is the extensive use made of quotations from the

New Testament in .Syriac wr it ers. The text of the Pes

hitta,

Harclcan

and the various quotations is se t

out

lin e by lin e so

tllat

that Olle

can

imm ediately sec th e differences

between

them

:

There

is a long introduct ion dc ... ling · with the t ransmission o f

the text

and

the relations

hip

s

w c ~ 1 l th

e Syriac texts

f L n ~ t

their

underly ing

Greek

or iginals. . I

'

c) iviai ll Syriac versi ons other

than

the Peshirta. :

:

For the Syro-hexapla the most impo rta nt ed itions are : .....

- the

photo-Hthograph

ic edition of the :

Milan

m an u

sc

ript

(C: .313

,

InL

)

containing th

e second h a

lf

.

of the

.

Sy r

,q

-hexap

la,

pu b

lished by A. M. Ceriani (1874). .[

:

. -

th

e

co

lle

ction of all Syro-hexapla

.

texts aya 'ablefor

first ha lf.

of

the Te st

ament

by P. de L aga

rde

and ,A . a h l f

(Biblio thecac Syri

acae, 1892). . .

.

,

"

52 The Bible in

the

Syriac Tradition

Translations 53



I

i

l

I

j

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

;:

f:

- a co llection of New Syro- Hexapl ic Text edited by

W. Baars (1968. with a va luable intr

od

u

ct

ion on the hi story

of

earlier

edit ions).

- a photog

raphic

edition,

by

A. Voobu s , of a Syro-hc:xap la

mf,nuscript

of the Pentateuch da t

ed 1204 (1975). ,

'. \: ',.: ~ o r the

anonymou,

x t h - ~ e n t u r y version 'of the minor

Catholic Epistles

and Rev,elation,

meill

ion ha s a l

ready been

made

pf

t

he editions

by Gwvnn (1897 for

Revelation,

1905

[or the

mino( Catholic Epistles).

The

on ly

edition of the Harclean

New Testament wa,

publised long ago

·

by

. J. yVhite (Gospe ls, .1178; Ae\s

and

Epistle

17 99,1803) . The work was

given

the mi sleading til Ie Ve rsio Syriaca

Philoxc nian a;

today,

however, i t is known for ce rtain that the

text of

vVhite 's ed iti

on

is

the

HarcJe,

lll

, and

nol

the Philoxcnia n.

The en d

.of White's manuscript is

IpSl, anq

so his edition

ends

at

:r.rcbrcws II :27. The re st of He b rews \Vas published froff.1 anothel'

manuscript by

R.

Ben sly (

18

89).

The

Hardean text of Revelation ,

fi r

st published by

L.

Dc Dieu in 1627,

appears in most

sub s

equent

editions

of

the

SYI

'

ia

c

New

Te

s

tam

e

nt published in

the

eig

hteenth

and nineteenth ce nturie s. A

photographic

edition of a further

manuscript of the

Harclcan

text

of

Revelation

ha

s rccendy been

published

by A. Voobus (1978) . T h

ere is

also a

separate

edition

of the Harc1ean

text

of

SI.

John

(G. H

.Bernstein,

1853).

(d)

Tools

There are

no

comp lete

concordances

to the

Syriac Bible

availab le yet. For the Peshitta Old Testament there are a number

of concordances

to

individual books available (mostly prepared

by

W. Strothmann

and ass

istant

s);

t h c ~ c

are

ba

sed

on some

of

the

o

ld er printed editions.

A co ncordance

to the

P

eshitta

New Testament was prepared

by A.

Bonus, but this has never beell published.

The so-called

Concordance to the Peshitta Version of the Aramaic

New

Testa

ment (1985) is in fa c t not a concorda nce , but a word list. A handy

Syriac-Engli

sh dictionary '

to th

e Sy

riac

New Testament

was

published

by W. Jennings (19 26).

4. Translat ions

The

Pes

hitta has

been

translated into

a

number of

different

~ n g u a g e s over

th

course , of its ' history; I.mosi of ' ihesc .are old

ones, such a s translations into ' Pe

}s

ian

and

Sbgdia n (only fragments

of

these survive). Many tran

sla

tion

s

of different parts of the

lle shi,tta I into.

Arabic were

, made .in th e. Middle . ~ g e s J one

sO ll?-ctimes finds (especia lly in lectionary ~ c r i p t s .the Syriac

and

Arapic

i 1

parallel

columns (the.

r a b i c

often \vrittcn

in S y r i ~ b

sc ript, kpown

as

Ka rshuni). '.

.

. '

I

.

., .

edit

ion s

or the Bible

'

the

'

peshitta t ~ x t ~ a ~

provided with a Latin l a t i 'I ' : J

J

( - .

1 . :1: . .

•.

• • • t .

.

The 0I1

ly .coniplete English

translation

of tlie Pcshitta

is by

C. Lamsa. This is

unfortunately not

always v ~ r y accurate, and

claims

that the

Pcs

hitta

Gospels repr ese

nt the

Ara maic

orig

inal underlying the

Greek ,

Gospels

are entirely w

ith out

found

ation; such

v i e w ~ , which

arc

not

infrequently found in :more

p op ular literature, are rcjected by all serious scholars . .. ;

.

,

There is

an

l < l e r English

tran

slation

Testament by

Jame

s

Murdock

(1893).

of

the Pe

s

hitta New

,

A good modern ,

tran

slation of the Pes

hiua

, or at least of

.

,

'

pa

ssages

used in the

lecti

onary

is very

much

necdc? . ,,: I

I .

there

seem

to

ue at lea st

th r

ee

translations

of

th

e Pcshitta

New

Testament into Malayalam.

.

----.

.

,

.

, I'

'

.

.j

. •

"

Biblical Int e rpr eta tion, : . 55



i

I

'

I

I

I

I

SECTION

IV

,B,IBLicAL INTERPRETATION

IN

THE

~ Y R I A C

TRADITION

The

Bible

can

be in t

erpreted

on lJl:1.n y differe

nt

leve ls.

For our prese nt purpose it will

be

suffic ient to follow th,e practice

of

sev

eral Syriac

writers

and

to d isti

ng

uish

between

tw

o

di

fferen

t

modes

of interpretation.

St.

Ephrem

a lready

makes th

e

di

st

in

cti on between t fact ua

l

and spiritual interpretation (tod

ay we

mi g

ht

prefer to ca ll the fi rs t of

the

se rhistorica l ). The fa c

tu

a l

01

hi

storica l

in t

e

rp re

ta ti on is pr imarily

concerned

with

illumin

a

t ing the

circumstances

sur rounding episodes in the Bible: who

were th e people involved, when a

nd

where

did

they liv e, and

so on. The spiritual interpretatio n, on

th

e other ha nd , ·is· con

cerne

d

with

th e eterna l

truths undedying

, the t

ex

t; it seeks to

pe

n

et

r

ate beyond the

su

rface meaning

to the various

.inner

m ean ings. '

Where hi storical int c

rp r

etat ion is concerned

we

are dealing

wit

facts, a

nd

w

ca

n

spea

k

of

a hi

stor

ica l

int erpre

tation as

being correct

or

in cor

r

ect , or

as '

ri

g

ht or wrong (t

h

oug

h

,of t,en

we

do not have

suffic

ient ev idence to d ecide

conclus

ive ly

betwe en .

the

~ w o ) This

is quile different

fl:om

th

e situat ion

w i ~ h

sph itu

a l

interpr

et

ation:

h

ere it

is not a case

of

one i

nterprenit

i

on

,. bcing ' lri ght and a no

th

er wrong, for thefe is never one ' ~ c o r r e c t

in terpre

tat ion to the exclus ion or

all

01 h

ers

, Often severa l spir i

tu

a l

interpretations

may be sim

ult aneous

ly vdid. f . o r a spi ri t u; 1

in ter pretation to be va lid , it must

be

meani ngfu l in a particu la r

context; and to be

meanin

gful , it

mu

st

provide

ins

ight on

the

wo

rld

of

ob

j ec tiv e

spiritu

a l tTutti '

or

The'se two c

rit

e ria

are

if

lportant: th e first helps us 'to

re

'al ize that the sa mc spititual

interpretation may be valid (that is, m

ean

ingful) to onc

pe

rson,

but

not to

another;

or it may be

meanin

gful to the same

per

son

a t one t ime, but not at another. The second criterion is important

ecause- s

pir...i\.ual

in terpretation which iprovides in sig

ht

on obje-

c tive s

piritu

a l t r

uth

is

much

more

likel

y

to

- b found w

ithin

--

- /

or th odox

C

hri

stian traditiOli -'

th

a n-iri' somc

othcr

f

orm of

Christi-

\ n i t y which is g ive n to an

indi

vidu alistic and highly subj ec tiv e

interpretation

of Sc

ripture.

\

,

.

,

Hi

storica l

and

spi.ritual

in t

erpretat ion of Scr i

pture

. th us

ope ra te in ve ry diJfcrcnt ways, each wit h ,its own m o ~ ope .

ra tion. Hi st

orica

l

i n t ~ r p r c [ a t i o n provides

us

with

' the

,:

o

uter

m

ea

ning, ; s

piritual interpretation

'

di r

ect s u s

toward

s .

the inner

m

eaning

of the biblical text. Th e two ap p'roac.:hcs . should com·

lJ lcm e

nt

one

anot

her,

but

a ll too often their proper roles have

b

een

; mi sunderstood ,

and the

c

riteria

b,el

ong in

g

to th

e one ..

ha

ve

heen mi sg

uidedly

applied the ot her. l

Th i

s h

as

~ c n ris,c to

all

so r ts of misconceptions, suc h

as

th e idea that biblical scholarship

is d

angero

us

or harmful to

faith.

Iv

1u

ch m

ore

.

dangerous

,

and

s

piritually

' ha rmful, is the fund

amenta

list

approach

,

to th

c ' Biblc

w hich co nfu scs sp

irhu

a

l truth

with hi storical truth , thus crca ting

a

totally un necess ary conflic t ' 'bct\vecrr: religion-and science.

With

the

se rather lengt hy preliminarie s we can tUrn ,to

the

Syrian interprctation of Scripture

:

Sydac Fathers

are

interested both

in tfacluaP , or rhistorica

l

, . and in i r i t u

in terpre tat ion,

th

ough not surpr isingly they pay greater 'attention

to

the

latter. ' Since mod

ern hi

s

tori

ca l u n d c r t a n d i ~ g th e

Bible

and its ' Qackgrou

nd

is vastly ' stiperior

'

10 'of the

Syr iac Fathers (t hanks to t he advances in biblica l o l a r s h

over

the las t ,

centur

y), wi)at Syriac F at he rs have to '

sayan

the ' level ' o'f historical ' int erpre tation is

v'cry :ral cly ' :

d

f morc

. .

I

,

.

.

.

than q l ; l a r i a n vV 'tat they

.h

ave to

say

in U ~ c area

of s

pirjtual

in t'c

rp rctation,

' however; has' no r

~ N s

'

been

s

uper

seded, \

an

,d · mu ch , of w h a t

s ~ y

P , c

f ~ ~

. ~ y

as it w.as tirr\cs . i

~ g f (

sha ll primarily

be

look ing at examples of their spidtual ll1tel''':

• . . ,,: .1,11. •

p q ~ ~ a t

o n . ' ,

.

. II .

I I ,; j

"

Ii A,t"llumber ·of pa ssages in the w r i t i n g ..

of

St. ,Ephl,crn

(died 373)

provide

us

with

excellent g uidance

on

hO\.

Sc

ripture

shou ld be '

read, On th

e one

hand

he sees the Scriptures

th emese l

vq as

possessing an m d c ~ t h

of

. ' hidden

power (t hai. spiritu a l ' m eaning;

we

stern ",vriters 'oJ'

c;

uld pro

bably prefer io sp

eak

of di vine in spiration). On the

othel

hand, in or der for th e Christian to

be able

i

to draw on the se

h

idden

depths of spiritual' me a n ing: ' he

or

she

mu

st rea d the

Bible

wit h r t ~ l e

eye

of

f ~ i t h > < l : t wi t

h an openness ' to the g.uid

ance

of the '

Holy

Spirit;' lfor 'tl1is ' same Spirit wi ll the'n lead the reader

to ~ v e r

lhe

.power which lies : hidden the \\;ords of

.

.... 'J

il

,


Biblical Interpreta\ion.. .. 57



j

, 1

the biblica l tex t. Thus, for

the

Bible to 'co mt: to life' and to

b ecome sp iritually m ean ingfu l there is need f

or

openness to,

and

co

-operation with,

the Spirit

on the part

of

the reader '

(or

hearer) .of th e Bible, for only t h ~ n wBI the reade r

become aware

of the spiritual truths

hidden

within scr ipture. . Thus St.

Ephrcm

says

in onc

of his hy

mn

s, <fT

he

Scriptures are

laid

out

like a

mirror, and

he whose

eye

is '· Jucid sees

within them

the mirror of Truth

(Hymns

on 67:8) . ' . ,. ,.

St.

Ephrcm

says

emphatically

,

on

a

number of

occa

sions

that it is wrong to read the

Bible

in a

literal way,

forthi. will

lead to all sorts

of

misconceptions. Th us, for

example,

in one

of

his hymns on

Paradise

(11:6)

he

says,

If someone

concentrates

his

attc

.

nti

on

solely '

on the metaphors

\'vhich

arc

used of

God's

majesty,

he then abuses and misrcprcsents

that

j e s ~ y

by means of those same meta phors

with

which God

has

clothed

him

self fOl" m an's own benefit;

such a

person

is ungrateful

to God's gra

ce

which

ha s bent down it s stature to the level of

human

childishness:

Eve n

though God

has

nothing

in

common

with

humanit

y

nevertheless he clothed him self in the likeness of humanity

in

order to

bring hu manity

to the likene

ss

of

himself.

,

Ephrcm

often speaks of

God

as 'clot hillg

him

sel f in names

(?r

metaphor s)' in the Old Te stament, as , a . pr .eludc

to

his

"clothing

him

se

lf

in the

human

bo d y' at

the Incarnation.

But

we should not abuse

God's

con d

eSt:e

nsion in making himse

lf

known to humanity in thi s way by

taking

the se metaphors

literally:

Let us give

thanks to

God

who clothed himself in the nan.les of the body's variou..;

parts:

Scripture refcrs to

his rears',

to tc ach us

th

at he listens to us;

it speaks of

hi

s reyes',

to

show

that

he sees us.

Tt wa s ju st the names of suc h things that he put on.

Although in his true Being there is no wrath

or

regret ,

yet

he

put

on these names

too

, be cau se of

our

weakness.

\Vc shou ld

realize that

,

if

hc

had

not

put on ~ h c

of

such things, ' ,

jt would not .havc been

po

ssible for. him

to

speak

with us humans:

.I

he ,:lrew

to

:lS

v h ; : l t b c . l

us; ,

he clothed I in

ur

~ a n g ~ a g e S0 : t h ~ ~ t},

le

j might'

.. clothe us I . , , : ' ,i ' ,

1

.

in

his

mode

.

of.Iife

. I;I:c

~ s k c for-our form

(Philippians 2.:7)

and put this

on;

thcn, as

a father

with his chjldrcri/ .

he

spoke

with our

childish statc.

.

' , '

':

. :. • I l . j

.,,1, ,

It is om> m'

ctaphors that put

Qn"":though 'he-;d

id

not

litcrally

do

so ' I . I • • 1 , \ r t . "

He thcn too.1.: thcm ofT-":"without a c t u ~ l l y \dofng':so: \;:

.

when wearing

them ; \\:,as at

the

"samc ' t'im e ' s t ~ : i ' p p c d of

them'

I •

.

•

I.

hc p ~ t s one on whcn it is

benefi

cial ,

I

thc:

n

, st

rip

s it

off

[0 exchange ' it for anothcr : , I

The fa

c t

thac.lle

strips:

00 and

pu ts all so rt s

~

p h o r s

t c J l

that

1

the m e ~ a p h o r doe } '

not

apply ' to

true

Being;

because

that Being

is

hidden,

"

I I

1 \ I

h e

ha

s

dcpicted

it

by

means

of what

is

vi

sible.

,

(Hymns

Oil

Failh

31:1-3)

A passagc

of Scripture .

is

c a p ~ b l e

of only

onc

correct-

h j s t o ~

I·j t: a l interpretation at a time; · such a re striction, ' however; docs

lIot

apply to

spiritual

interpretation:

in

that

ca se,

the

mo '

re

lucid

and luminous the inner

cyc

of

[elith is, lhe more s

piritual i n t c r ~

p r c ~ ~ t i o n s it ,will '

be

' capable of di sco

vering. p H r e m

points

out, lt .,,:ould very l>oring i f pa ssage of Scripture ' had only

t l l lC spll '

ltual

meariing; .,

If therc only exi ste d ;a single sensc 'for th c ' words of S cr i-

.

pturc,

then the · first' commentator

who

came alo'ng would

di

sco

vcr

it,

and

other hearcr

s

would

·

expcrience ncithcr

thc . labour

of

searching, nor the jo y of discovcry. Rather,

each word of OUT Lord

ha

s its own form , and each form

'

has

its own mcmbers,

and cach member ha

s it s own cha-

l '

acte

z:. , And each individual

pe r

son understands according

to h i ~ 1 capacity, and hc' intcrprets the passage

as

is grantcd

19lum.

i.

(Commentary

on

the

Diatessaron

7.:22)

. •

58

The

Bible

in the

Syriac Tradition

,Biblical , ln te,pre

tation

,59



1 ,

EarlieI' in the Commentary on th e Diatcss:lron 51. Ephrcm Il l

S

the follow ing exce

ll

en t advice (in

the

first paragraph he

addre

ss es

Chris0: '

"

, "

"Vho is cap:1 hle of

comp reitendin

g

th

e

extent

of

what

is to be di scovered in a 's ingle utterance of YOllrs?' For

we

leave behind in it far m orc than we take

away

frnm it.,.

like thi rsty people

drinking

frcm ,a: fo

untain.

The

facet s of God s word arc f

ar

more

numcrflllS

thall

the

faces of

th

ose ,vho le

arn

from it. God . depicted hi ::.

word

with ma ny beauties, so

that

each

of

th ose

who

learn

fr

om

it can examine

that

aspect of it which he likes.

And

God has hidden within his word all sorts of treasures, Sft

that

each

of

us can be

enriched

by

it: from whatever aspect

he meditates

on. For God s

",,'ord is

the

Tree

r l il e which

ex tends to YOll blessed fruits from every di rcct ivn; .it is like

the

R ock which

a

:

str

uck in

the

"Vilderlless, which

became

spiritual drink

for

c\

'cryune

on all side

s:

They ate th

e

food of the Spirit and lhe)" drank the d raft of th e Spirit .

Anyone who encollnters

Scripture

shou

ld

not

su

pp

oSe

that the

sing le one of its riches

that

he has found

is th

e

one

to

exist; .

rather,

he sho

uld realize that

he

him

s

elf

is

only capable of dis cov ering that one out of th e m a ny

riches which ex ist in it.

Nor, Scripture has enriched him

,

should ' tht:

reader imp

over.ish it. Rather,

if the

reader is incapable of

findin g morc , let

him

acknowledg e

Scripture s

·

mag nitudc.

Re joice

be

cause

YOll

have found s a t i s f a ~ t j o n , '

and

do "

not be grieved

that

there has been sOlI\e

thing

'left

over by

you. A

thir

sty person rejoices b

ecause

he ha s ,

dtunk:

he is

not gr

i

eved because

he

proved incapable

,

of

drinkin

g

the

fouI1tain dry. 'Let the fuuntain vanquish your thirst:

YO

llr

,

thir

st should not try

to vanquish the

fountain If yo

ur thir

st

comes 'to an end .while the fountain ha s not been 'diminished.

~ h e n YOLI

can

drink ,

again

· whenevC'r' 'YOli 'ar c ' thirsty ';

whereas, if. the r o l l n t a i l ~

had

, been

drained dry once

YOLI

had ~ l a d your fill

,

your victory .over it would ,have' pr oved

to

be for , your ,own , ~ l a r m . G)v.c, ~ ~ a n ~ s

..

for,

whOl;t

: you

, huve taken away)

and

do no,t cotp.plain

I;

thc ,super-

fluit Y "

that

is left over.

V h ~ t

you

have

la ken

off

with you

, is

your

portion;

what

has

been left behind

can still beco me

' -

, ' y'o ur, inheritance, (CQ.lllIDentary on the

Diatessaron

,.I: 18-19)

I . '

"

.

The type of

spiritual

interpretation

which

is

employed

m

ost

frequently

by

the Syriac ' fathers

can best

' be ' d esc

ribed

as

typologica l or 'symbolic ' interpret a tion. Ttlis tkind of

intcrp

're ..t

lation can already he found in

t ~ e

New e n t , where" for

example,

St.

Pauf

spe

aks of

Christ 'as

th e

: 131ter" Ada m '( I

' , " . . , ' • 1-

' .

15:45)_ Typology tS m

fact

a '

means

of

mdteatmg

relatu')lishlps:

re la

tion

ships between the

Old

Testament

and

tqe New", between

, , _ I " _ • ,

New t a m ~ n i arid t I ~ e C h u i - b e t ~ v e e n the m a ~ ~ r ~ : v ~ r l d

and

'

the

he a:venly

world,

petween JlJsto nca l events

an d

.

persons

" I ' ,

in Script

,ul e

an d

l

th

e

ir

,

p i r i t t . l a I

meaning.

Typ

cs,

l I ? ~

serve as pointers: from

the

standpoirit of subjective human ,pers-

pective, a type or symb ol

can

be seen a s me r:. ns

of

revealing some

.aspcc ,

of

'o.bjective

divine

' reaJilY , (Truth , ' in :Ephrcm s

termino-

logy);

alternately,

from the standpo

int

of objective divine

pc.:rspcc liv e, a lype or symbol is a

pl ace

in which some

asp

ec t

of

di\

' illc

reality

lie s

hidden.

Alth

ough

the

Greek word

for

t

ype,

" typos , docs sometimes occur in Syriac,

the

l

)p

rmaJ

term

used for

_

type Ol

i sy

mb

ol is

a z a

' which

properly

mea ns

mystery , but

w hich is usu a lly ' best tl anslatcd in ' thi s context •

as

"symbo

l

,

thoug

h it

sho

uld be

stressed that

symbol

ha

s

a. much

stronger

meaning than the ,

one clirrent

, in modern English,

where

a

SY l)ll1(lJ , is usua ll y. sharply di stinguished from the ' thing it symbo-

1

,F<><

the

Syriae ,

Fathers [he link bet,

Jcen' symbol land '

the

'

re;aJity. m b o l i z e d is inti'mate, for in the sYlllLol there resid'es the

Chidden power :

of tI,le

reality. " " ( ' :

" I

, ' ,

,

'

The verse John 19:34 is a passage which exce

llently illu-

strates

th

e e ~ h a c s , as it were,- of , typologica l ' exegesis: The

i t t a hiJ.s

h e r : ~ : But

one

of the s o l d j e r ~

t r u c ~ him on ,

hi

s 'sid e

with a spear", aI;ld immediately there ca

me

' f

or t

h blood an d.

w ~ t e r . WitI, the b.elp , of typology, the piercing ' of

Christ s

, side

on the

i,s.

linke

.cl ;b,acls.warrl.s

to

, the Gepesis ' nal'1"",tive of

th

e ,

falJ

of Adam and his expulsion from Parad ise, . an

d forwards

' to

th e '

sacramenta

l life of the Chu;ch'; in

other

, wotds", the typoJo.,

. ,

I/

60 The

Bible in

the

Syriac Tradition

Bib l ical

Interpretation... 61



I

I ,

I

•

I

;

I ,

I I

I

J

jI

I

I

i

I

j ' l

gical '

interpretation of

th is ve rse point.

to the true significance

of the crucifixion and its importance

as

the turning point in the

\vholc of sa lvation history.

How

docs it achieve· th is?

First, the links ,.,.ith the n e ~ i nan:ativc a re pt'ovided by

th e following contrasted clements:

'- the side of Christ

the

,

Second Adam,

and

the

rib

J

01'

side, or

the First

Adam

(Cen 2:21-2),

wh

ence Eve wa s

extracted;

_

the

spear which pie rced

Chri

st,

and

the

ficI Y

s\vord which

kept

Adam

out

of Paradi,e (Cen

3:24).

The piercing of Christ's side with

the

' spear c

an thus QC

seen as

removing the fiery sword which has hitherto kept Adam (hurna .

nit y) out of Par adi se;

in other

wo rds, the crtlciri xion opens

up the po

ss

sbility for

hum

anity to re turn to th e ori ginal sta le or

P'lradi sc.

Secondly, links forward to the

Chur

ch arc provided by:

.

-

the

blood , a symbol or the Eucha rist;

th

e \Vate,

,

a

symbol

of

Baptism.

~ o v i n g Qn from hel'c a furtlter step, the Syriac Fathel's speak of'

the Church

(as the placc wherc the

Sa

cramertts of Baptism and

the Eucharist

arc

·

found)

coming' o r t h

or being

born

J

from' the

side of 'Christ.

This

in lurn p r o v i ~

a

contrast to Eve, who was

',born' from, the ,ide of the Fir,t

Adam,

' The imagc of birthgiving

thcn allow,

the

introduction

Qf another

,ct of relationships: the

birth of.

Eve

from

Adam and

the

hirth

of the

Church from Chri

st

were both virgin birth, (as too was the birth of' Adam from

the

Earth)

, and this ofcoursc

i n t r o d u

virgin ·

birth

of Christ

from

Mary, her,elf

the Second Eve.

,

''

'c

rc

thu

s

provided

'

with an extremel

y .

ntri

c

ate web

of:

typological relationship s

which

help ' to show ho'w' every p o ~ n t ii l

al

vation histo ry is interlinked,

and ho\\I

we today arc ourselves

p,

arti

cipants in this histoqo thl"ough

the

s

acrament

s of Bap{i,sm and

the Eucharist. Th e ty

pol

ogical

paralleli

sm

impl

.icd

in

this network

or

interrelation

ship s

b e t \ V e c ~

M a r ~

a

nd

the

Church a lso i d c

fruitful and ·suggestive marerial for lhcological

meditation

·. .

Such, in pro saic term s, is

bare

skc:letal framework u p ~

on

which

the :

typologicalinterpretation

of

John

19:34 function

s.

F'or the skeleton to come to life, one ~ d s to read some of the

pa

ssages where the Syriac

Father

s have breathed lifc into these

bare bones. (1;\ee Suggested

Reading

, ;at the

end

of the Course),

It is n i f i c ~ n t

that much

of the

be

st r i l u a l intcrcpre

tation of the Bible a

mong

the Syriac Fathers is , t() be

found

in

poetr

y

l'

iJ.thel'

than

in

pro

s·c.

Th u

s tile

poem

s

of

Ephr

cm,

Narsai

and J acob of Serugh will appeal' today a, far more creative in

their

spiritual

intcrpretatio?

of Sc

ripture

' t h ~ n the ' many ' l a t c

pr

ose c

ommentaries which

. survive. , . ". '.

. , "

•

' ,1

I,

' : .

.'

P - ::::£

,

P -

,f

,"

" \

••

, I

I I , .

I,,;

"

,

y.;

,

U ·

"

: .'

;

'\

,

"

"

: 1 \. ' . I ' f "

II

" '

.

1,

•

' rhe

de

sert \viil 'rejo

ice

;

J \

.

, '

and

flo\Vc,l s will bloom in the w i l d e ,

The

de

sert will sing and 'sh,out for joy; ; .'

kwlll 'be as beautiful as the Leb.anon

M o u n t a i f l ~

and

as

fertile

as

the

fields

of Carmel

a

nd

,Sh aron,

~ v c r y o n e \vill see the

Lord

's splendOllt)

\. Cc hi s greatness 'a

nd

PO\v

er

:

I I .

,,

"

i.,

, .

:,

I • ' . ;

" 0 • \ •

,. J

o • .-

,

,

:

;

; '

I

. . ,

I

I

. Biblica l

Commen \a r

i"s

..

:

...

63



I

I,

I :

I

,

i'

J:-

1 1

j

1

, I

I '

I

\

,

,

I

f

I

I

II

I 1 '

I

i

I I

I

II

. ,

SECTION

V

• ,

I

BIBLICAL ' COMMENT ARIES

I

'

Com 'mcnt ar ics

on the

Bible' 'ca n take many form s. '

Th

e

e

arli

er Syri ac commellt a ries a rc

on

on t pa rt icul a r boo k

at a

time,

whereas from

the

eighth and ninth century o nw

ar d

s it

th

e ' fa s

hi

on to v i d ~ co

mm

e

nt

a ries on

th

e whole Bible.

I .

. , :

. .

..

: ' . ' " . ' ' .

, ' The ea

r-ii

,cst u r : ~ i v j Syri a c r t l l n t ~ r i c s arc

tho

se

by

Ephrem (c, 306-3i3) ,

apd

it is quile lik e

l), tbal lh

ey

date

from

th

e

last

ten

years

of

hi s life .1 spe

nt

at

Edc

ssa.

The

foll o,

wil).g ar

c

ge

nerally

agreed

to be by

Ep h

rcm hi m self (

th

ough in som e

cases

it

is possibl e

th

at

hi

s

di sc

iples p1lblished

th

em

in th

e ir

pr e

sent form ):

- Commentary

011

Cc nesi$ : a nd most .of Exo du s; th is s

urv

ives in

Syriac in a unique manuscr

ipt.

Th e Commentary follows

th

e

o

rder

of th e biblica l text , hut onl y sele cted passages a rc co

mm

ented on. Th e early c

hapter

s of G C ~ l e

re

ce iv e much mor t.:

at tenti on than

the

later ones, and Ephrem sh ows grea t iut c l'rs t

in' the question of human frec will . Th e re is

ve r

y Ilittlc typolo

gica l interpreta tion; th i s contr as ts with

th

e typologica l in tcr pl 'c

tation

giv

en to many passages fr om Ge nesis and Ex odu s in h is

hy

mns.

Throughout

the

c

omm

e

ntar

y

many intri

guing links wi

th

J ewish exegetical tr a

dition

s a

re

to b c ..

- Commentary on.the Di a te ssai'o n· Th is :survives complete in

an early tr a nslation into .'\ IJmenian j in recent ti mes \ l l tw o

thirds

of

th

e Syr

ia

c.' original '

ha

ve bccn ' rccov ered a nd ' publisl

lc

d

(1963; th e d.iscover y of 'some more of '

the

, sa me 'm a nuscript

wa s

announ

ced

in

1 9 8 7

T4c

Comm e

nt

a ry foHows ·th e sequellce

of

the

Diatcssaron

(and

since

the

Syi'iac Diatcss

ar

on is lost, the

Comme

ntary

is

an extr

e

mely important

,

. itn

css

to

both it s text

and

s

tructure);

as

in the

Gene

sis a

nd

Ex

o

du

s Co

mment

a ry,

Ephrem is sele ctive in the pa ssages

up

on which he chooses to

comm ent , but

th

e comm entary itse

lf

is mu c h more the ologi cal in

c

hara

c te r; furth er m orc

many

pa ssages are meditative in cha rac tcr .

- Co

mm

e

nt

ary 0 11 Acts.

Th i

s

com pa

r a tively

short

work s

ur

vives

only in

an

Armeni an tr a nslation.

• , T " • I II , :

- Co

mmentar

y

on the

Pauline

Ep i

stles ,

fh i

s loo s

urvive

s o

nly

, ' I ' . , '

:

•

i,l an Armenia n. .A

t u r ~ o r n ~

t a r Y

is. Ephrcrn's inclusion

of

a non-c

anoni

cal letter a

ttribut

ed to. a u L

known

as 3

r i n t h i

n s ~ I e ~ ~ wa s y d c ~ \

in th c

earl

y : Sy

ri a

c Chu ,<h, 1

Lut

· later

fc,11

ou t · p t,

is d e

arl

y not .

Thanks to Ephrem 's enormous r e ~ u t a t i

rril

.ny works no t'

by

him

cam e ' to be at.tr

ibuted

' to

hinl

,' ·' ·This applies t ii f a lm()st

a ll .

the

comm

e

nt

a

ri

es

on

the

I

Ol d

.

Te

s

tament

attr

,

ibut

cd : t

en

hirrf

in

the

n t h c e n t u r y edition ', of his', works." t There arc :'al sll

Armenian

,

tran

slations of · O ld -T es

ta m

e

nt

' commenta rie s :

un d

cr :

hi s

name,

. but

th

ese have not y

et

been critic'lIl y s

tudi

ed;

an d

'

so it is not ye t poss ible to say '

whether th

ey pr eserve a ny

ge nume mat

e ria l fro rr,

th

e

peri

of c ~ .

I : '

;

I:ollowin

g- a l .

or,

dc r

, proba bly , th e I. next ,Syriac

co

mmentari

es to survive

ar

c certain work s by J ohn of Apa mea,or

,

~ h e Soli ta ry: .

Much

'

un

cer ta in ty s

urround

s' thi s figur e and

thc ,works :U:ndcr hi s '

nam

e, lwh ic h

include

a

o ~ m c n t a r

on Eccle-"

siastcs and onc

Ion

the Beatitudcs. Neither of these ha s bd: n yet '

puhlished (thougl i a n' .edition of .the f o r m e ~ I is promised us

immin

e nt }. , .Th esc(lar e n ot com mentaries in

th

e ' mod ern sen;c;

instead" J ohh uses . selec t passagcs·' ' in 'th'c' bi blica l t tx t · as

spring

-L

o

ar d

s f

or

t

cac hin g o

n

th c ,'

s'

piritu

a ll i.

fc

. " . . I:

f

From

the

m

i d d l

oy tlrc fifth ce.nturYr Syri ac

co mmcnt

,a tors co

me

.und er

thc

influc:nce

df

some of lh e ·

main

,

r e c ~ c

om m

e

ntat

ors .

of

the

late

fourth

and

,ea dy . fifth c

enlur

y.

Th ese

Greek

writ

ers

-

fall " into two m a

in

'; 's

chool

s : of

,-

cxegesis,

gC

l}

craUy \ kn own , is th e

Anti

ochene , an d , ,th e:,.Alcxa . ndria n. ,; As

far later Sy r:;'ia c , exc;geti.cal a ~ i t i o r i .. wa s the,

m ost importa

nt

r-cpresentativc of tl'\e ,Antiochene ,

sc.1J,

o.QJ· of "

.g csis

wa

s Th eodore of Mp psueslia (di ed 428), '

while

for the '

Alcxandriall

school

it

.

was

Gyri

of

,

A.1cx

a

nd

,

ria ,

1 ,' " .

I f

Th e A n t i h e ' n c scho ol

w ~ ~

'part'icularly

t c r e

'hi sto-

-. " •

;

I ' ,

I .H

, • \

.: 11.

I 1' "

j.

. _. '

I

ri c,al ~ ~ ~ , _ from fl,th e', I ? ~ ~ n o ' ( ... m ~ d ~ r ~ .

h i p

A

t

c

t

r ~ a c l ~ evcn . i p a ~ i l ~ o m c

l g ~

in odcl'n ' CJ: iti cs . Repre sentatives of

th i

s approach ' often' adapted


Biblical

Comm

entaries 65



to the Bible techniques whi ch ha d be en de velope d by sc hol a r s

of pagall Greek lit era ry texts.

Man

y ()f Th eodore's works were

tran s

lated iut

o Syr iac in

the

course of

the fifth

cc

nlur

y,

probabl

y

at th

e fa mous Persi

an School in Ede

ssa;

it

was

throu

gh

thi

s

school ,

and

it s

SUC

CCSW

I-

(from 489) at Ni sibis,

th

a t the A n ~ i

chene exegetica l tradition came to exert a pervasive influence

on m

any

Syriac writers. In th e Chu rch of

the

Ea st,

where

Theodore was reg

arded

as

th e Exegete par cxccllcl1cc, _ and

where Theodore's chr istulogy was co nsidered

normative,

it is

no

s

urpri

se

to

f j ~ d

his

exege

sis a s

dominant

too,

But

it

is al so

the case (hat Th eo dore

and

lhe Antioc

hcnc

exegetical tradition

exerted a ' considerable influence on

writer

s of

the Syrian

Orthodox: tradition like Jacob . of Serugh and even

philoxcnu

s;

thi s

happened

for the simple

rea

son

that

these men

had

once

them

selves be

en

s

tudents at th

e '

Persian

School,

an d

'

though

they

reacted

against its t.

heolo

gi

ca

l te

achin

g

J

they neverthele ss

remail1cd

influen

ce d hy its' tl"':l

diti

on of biblica l interpretation.

Since Theodore

of

.i\10psuesti a later lca rne

under

a cloud .

of

di

sappl 'oval

in

the Gl'cek

Church

, m ost

of

his writin gs ' have

been lost in Greek. Iviany ' of

hi

s works ' which , have "m a na

ge

d

to

survive

ar c

'

known only

'

from

their translation

into Syriac;

:tmongst these is ' a long

: and

im po

rtant Commentary

on

' St

j o

hn's Gospel: Quite

l

extensive portion

s of

hi

s

Comm

e

ntary

011 the Psalms is also ' available in

Syriac.

In pas s

ing

it should be

noted

that : a great many of John

Chrysostom's exegetical homilies "on different I:looks of the '

l iblc

were ' tran slated into : Syriac at '

an i.

ca'd y .datc; t 'o' judgc"

b)

t

number of m a nu scripts which survive, were ' widel y re a d.

Other work

s trans

lated

'

into

' Sv

ria

c were 'At han 'asiu s' Exposition

of

the P

sa

lm s (in a l o n g ~ r

a n c i

shorter ' fo

r'; '

)

and

G;'

egory

of

Nyssa's famous Commentary ' on th e·

So n

g··

l

Oftsqngs.

I "

.

. .

.

/

, ': :

The Alexandrian exegetical tradition VI \S di stinguished

fr

oIl}

t h ~

A l l t i

l l ~

b):

\ Y i l l ~

to

, n : p l ~ l J e g o r y as .a

me thod of biblical interpretation (Theodore in pa

rt i

c

ular

,was

strong ly opposed to the of ~ I l e g ; It would be a t a ~ e

fu)wc vcr,

to think

that aU

A I ~ x a n p r i n c interpretation

is

allego.

rical: mu ch

of it would

best be

c ~ j b c d

as (ypo)ogicaI

J

an d

.in

t hi s. I'lspect it ha s much in common with it s Antiot:h

ene

CQUIl

tcrparl. Alexandr ine exeges is has left mu c h less of :1l

impr

es

sioll Oil s

ub

sequc nt Sy ri

ac

t ra

di

tion, even thoug h

Synan Ortho

d ~ x

writer

s had ava il

ab

le in

Syriae

t

rans

lat ion severa l

of Cyril

of Al

exa

ndria's Commentaries (his Comm ell tary on Luk

e,

form of a seri es of homilies, survives onl y in Syriac t r a n

t ~ o n

, I '

.'

•

.:

The tw

o gr

ea

t Syriac po ets,

Na rsa

i (

di

ed c.500)

and

j aco b

of Scrugh (died

521) both

sta nd in

thc ~ n t j c ~ e g e

trad iti on,

eve

n though J aco b r eject

ed

An tlOc hcn e chn s

tolo

gy .

M a ny of their ve rse homilies (Hmemre") are in effect commen·

taries on particular biblical passages; , both : poets, for example,

ha

ve a se ries of homilies o n Creation .

,

.

, • ,

..

I I . ' d

. ": ;

. .

P h i l ,

of

Mabbug ' ~ i e d . ia s: commentaries

o n the P rologue or St. jl ).hl1, a nd , M a th cw

/,

P:nd L u ~ e e s ~

two survive on ly

in

fragmt:lltary fo rm ). The

commcntar

y. on

th c Prologue

of

, j ohn ,is in

the

Jo rm

of an extcnded

t heologica l

cxp

osi:i on.

J 1

: '

'of the' p r o d u 6 r c o ~ m e

~ t ~ y . J ~ t . ~ I 'is

.

n ~ w l l

of

.

1 ' . ~

~ y ,

' One <>

f

the m0 1"<; lnflu

e

nhal

of ...

c p l l 1 t a t O l

was Ahoh ' of Qatar (ill the Gulf)

whose

work ) 1; only

'from ..

qu

,ota tions i',1 much . la

tcr

A ~ o n g

.find s

0/

~ ~ ~ e r ) .. a n u n ~ t . n n ~ s,

'stci'Y

on Mount

Sina i it h

.

. r : e p 0 1 t :tat t.here l S

<;til

o

th er

wise

u n k n o ~ n o l ~ m e n t a r y

on"

thc

'

llibl

e " Jj{ thb

grea

t 'Ea ; t

~ y : · t.I<;.o

Jo

gi.an i c d 62" . r : .

..

. .

I . " "

T I ~ e chief lumin

ary in

the field

biblica l

.. ~ x e g e s i s

t 1 ~

s c v ~

n t h

ce

ntury was u n d o u ~ J t c d l y

th e

S y r i ~ n

O r t h o ~

'sc holar j acob

of

Ed essa (died 708).

ja

cob,

.Iike-inany

West Synan

autl;ors

of hi s

time,

knew G r e ~ k

well;

he , ~ r s o

k n e w

little

,H e

br

ew,

which

wa

s

exceptional

·

for

', a

Chri

st

ian

,

sc

holar

of

that

time ,. He · displa ys his knowledge of Hebrew . n a long a nd a ~ n e

note dtf th e Tetragramma ton,

the

Hebrew divine : n ame wnltcn

Y H W H '

but

r e ~ d as Ad onay ('my Lord', for

which

.

thc-Septua.

_

"gint h as "

and

'the'

l i t ~

M a,rya,

m e a n i n ~

~ o r d

Th is particula r hote is attached to

hl

s ' rcvlsed-tt's nslatlon_of ·the

H om ilies of S

cve

ru s

of

Antioch, but he ha s a lso le

ft

.. a

\yh01c

66 T

he

Bible in

the

Syriac

Tr a

ditio n

Biblica l Comm e

ntar

ies 67



i·

I ,t;,o

ser ies

of

scho

lia

a

nd

l

etters

on

part

icu

lar

bibli

ca

l t

op

ics in which

he di sp l

ay

s con sid erab le cr iti ca l acumen. His most

important

wo'rk of

exege

sis, however, is his Com m

entary

on the Days

of Creation (

Hexa

cm eron ). It had become a trad iti on by his

lime for co

mm

en ta ries on th e op enin g of Ge nesis to be

the

vehicle

for a grea t

de

a l of scientif ic

knowledge, ran

ging

from

.zoology to ge

og r?phy,

Ja cob 's co mm ent

ary

cer ta

in l

y lives up

to

th is

lraciirion,

an d it is a storehouse of l

earning on

a ll sort s

of t

op

ics. had

left

th

e wo rk

unfi

nished

at

his

death

,

and so it w

as

left to hi s equa

ll

y

learned

di

sc

ipl e Geo rge. bishup

of

th

e Arab

tribe

s ( di ed 7 to co

mp l

ete it.

Th e naInes of seve ra l East Sy

rian

co

mm entators

(such

as I-

In

a na of Ad iabene a nd Gabr iel uf Qatar ) are known

from

quo tat ions i l l l

ater

writel-s, but it is

1101

until t he latc e ighth

and th c ninth ccn lUry tha t

we

have SUl'vivi llg comme ntar ies_

From

tha t period

we

h

ave number

of important works:

- th e nook of Scholia, by Theodore bar Koni (late eighth

ce

ntury

); th is is in t

he

form of se ts of ques

tion

s and a nswer s on

se lec t

topi

cs in

every

b

oo

k

of

the

Pcsh i

tt

a

Bib

le . (

The

idea

of a

bibli

ca l

comme

nt a ry in t he f

or

m of a series of Qu estions

a nd Answe rs was ta ken over from Gree k writel-s ;tuch

as

Th co4

doret).

The Book

of

Scholia comes down to us in

tw o

,d

if ferent

r

ece

nsions, b

ot

h of wh ich have

bee

n publis

hed

in the Louvain

Corpu

s of

Oriental Chri

stia n Writer s

(C

S

CO).

A Commentary on the whole Bible

aga

in in t he for m of

Qu estions a nd Answer s, by

Isho'ba

rnun

J

Catholiclls of the

Church

of th e

East

from 823- 828 . Only th e

section

on

the

Pent

ateuch

h

as be

en pu bl

ished so

far

(by

E.

C. Cl

a

rke

, 1962).

-

An

a n

on

y

mous

commentary

on

Gene

sis

and

Exodus

(to

9:32) ; this ha s

recelltly

been pu h lished by L . van R ompay ( 1986)

in th

e

S

.

An anonymous comm en t

ar

r on the Old a nd the New T esta

4

ment ; o

nly

th e

sect

ion on

Ge ne

sis

1-1 7

ha s

be

en

pu b li

shed so

far

(A. Leve ne , 195 1).

C ,

mm e

l

ltary on the Old

a

nd

Ne w Testaments by I sho'dad

01

~ l c r (fl

ou r

ished c. 850) . Th e n t ~ r i c on th e

Old

Testa

m e nl have been published by C. va n den Eyndc in the C S '? 0

( 1950 - 8 1), a ll d th ose on th e New Testament by ·l.lJ. G ib son

(19

11

- 13).

All the se w0rks conta in a consid

erab

le a mo

unt

of ma teri a l

in

c

ommon, an

d they

all

serve

as repos

i

torie

s for ea rli er exege

4

ti ca l tr ad iti on.

The chie f SYI-ian Orthodox comm ent a tors of

not from

the

ninth century are J ohn of Da ra a

nd

,

especi

a ll

y,

o s h e ba r

Kepha, seve ral of whose commentari es on different b

oo

ks of

th e O ld an d New T es taments s

ur

vive. O nly th e

Commenta

ry

0 11

J ohn

by l'v

loshe h

as been publi

sh

ed

in

full

so fa r.

I n the first half of the eleventh

ce

ntury the: Eas t Syr ian

scho

lar Abd a lla h ib n at- T ayy ib (d icd 1043 wrote a number of

biblica l co

mm

e

nt

a ri es in Arabic, based la r

ge

ly on th e ea rli er

Sy

d ac 'co

mm

entary

tr

a di t ion. Th e se

were

widely rea d by

Ar

ab ic

speaking C

hri

st ia ns from all Chu rc hes, a

nd

their influence ha s

ev

en reach

ed

the

Ethi

op

i

an

co

mment

a ry

tr

ad

iti

on.

An

exte

nsive co

mment

a ry on th e E

ast

Syri an l

ec

tionary,

ca

lled the

Ga nnat Bu

ssame (G a

rd en

of Deli

g

ht

s),

belon

gs to

th

e

carl

v

,t

hirtc'

en th

ccntury. TJl is

work pr c

sc l:vcs . ma ny'

excerpts

f r o n ~ ea r

li

er comm entat

ors whose

wo rk s ar c. ot h erw ise ' lost.

(An

edit ion y G . Reinink in the C se is in

plcpara

tion). •

. A fitting climax to the \ Vcst

Syrian

tr aditio n

is ptl v idc d by

the

or o u ~ e of

s t e ~

by th

e

Syr

ian

Orthodox po

lymath G

reg ory Abu I FaraJ,

usua lly

as Bar Hebraeus (d ied 1286 ). Th is g reat work

covers

the

entire Syriac Bible. Only par ts

of

the rtAwsar Raze have so

far

b

ee

n

publishe

d

(the mo

st

accessib

l

e,

with Engli

sh

tr ans

la ti

on,

cover Genesis to Sa

muel

(ivL SprengHn g

and

IV. O . Graham,

193 1), a nd

the

Go spe ls (E. W. Carr, 1925).

,

11

II

i,

SECTf

ON

VI

"he ,Use of the Syr iac Bible 69,



1·

i

1

I

I

I

L

'

t

I

'

I :

THE USE

OF

THE

SYRJAC

BIBLE

1]1{

PREACHING

. Th e Bible has a lways bee ll the m1in sta rti ng point for

prea chin g in all Chr isti a n tr aditions. Here we sh a ll

co

ncent ra te

on som e f

ea t

ures

whi

ch a rc ch

aracte

ristic

of

t

he Sy

ri

ac:

t

ra d

itioll

and which ar

c

no

t fo und

wid ely

el

sew

here .

Th

e place of poe t

ry

h

as

a lw

il

)/s beeH ve ry

promillen t

i l h ~

in Syri

3c lit

e

ratu re as

a whole; it is t

hu

s not sur

pr i

sing to rind

that poe tr y plays an import a

nt

role in prea chin g and in th e

pos ition of the Bible in

th

e Syri ac C

hu r

ches. T\vo areas a rc pan i .

cul a

dy

notewort hy: the usc of d ia logue poe ms, wi th biblical

c ha r

ac

ters, in o

rd

er to hi ghlig

ht deci

sive mom

ents withi

n the

biblica

l

na n a li vc;

a

nd

t he usc of VCI'SC homilies fi)l' [he

pu

rpose

of r etelling

bibli

ca l e pi

so

des ill

it

d ra m:nic fa shion , Both lhese

may

be seen as excell

en

t

ve

hicles

fO

I popul ar cat cch

et

ica L instruc

whi ch d es er ve to b e red vcd

to

da y.

,

Th

e di a logue p

oe

ms

bc lo ll l to a

vc

ry

a nci

en

t litcl'

ar

y

ge

n

re

whi

ch ca n bc tr aced bac k a t least to th e

second mill

e

nnium

B C.

In th'cir Syria c fo rm th es'c poe ms

co

nsist or short s

ta n

zas wh e re

th e tw o biblica l cha rac ters spea k in a lter

nati

ng ve rses; there is.

alm ost always '

a

short na r ra tiv e introducti?n, pr oviding the

au d

i

ence (the co

ngl-egalion)

with th

e

biblic

a l se

ttin

g, a

nd th

ere

is s

ometimes

a ve

ry brief conclu

3ion (often in

th

e .form of a

doxology)_ Th c poe ms

no rm

a lly

take th

e of , :

n

a rg um ent

be

tw

ecn the

tw

o biblic

al

cha r

ac t

e

rs,

a

nd

in

th

e end one of the

tw o spea kers win

s

OYer th e oth eL T hus, for exa mp l

e, in th

e

dialogue be

twe

en the ange l Gabrie l and th e Vi rgin M a ry (th e

sce

ne

of

th

e An n

unci

a tion,

Luk

e

I :26- 38),

th

e

Vi r

gin

s

mindful

of £ \'e s ex per ience, and so qu c3tions th e a n

ge

l at fi r st:

Th e

a ngel

a dd ressed ' th

e

\ /

ir

gin a

nd sa

id ,

P

eace

be with you, 0 mot her of my Lo rd ,

blessed a re

ch ild

,

and ble ssed is

th

e J'rult

th

a t

is

within yo u .

,.

Angel

And Mar

y says, "Vho a re ' you ,. sir?

and wha t is t h

s

tha t you ut ter?,

\OVh at you a rc saying is re mote fr om mc,

and-

wh a t

it

m

ea

ns

I

h

ave

no

id

ea.

. ,'

, I

The Fa th er h

as

revea led

to

me, as

I do

now

to

you ,

th i

s 'm

ys tery whi

ch sha red be

tw

e

en him and

,his Su n,

whe n he

sent

me to

say

that fro m you he will

sh

ine o

ut ov

cr

thc w

or

ld s.

,

I a m a rrai d, s

ir

, to acccl?t you,

for whe n Eve my mo

th

e r

acc

ep ted

th

e serpcll t

who sp

oke as

her

friend

.

'

she

was

sl).lt ched a W

ay from

her

form er

g l

ory.

Hu m an ex perie

nce

a

nd th

e di cta tes

o

'l

c

as

on

'

al

so

pro

v

id e

'

a

h asis f

or

further qu esti

on

in g o n

£v

1

al

:y's pa rt:

a r y

'l'his meet ing w ith you and yo ur p resence here

a rc a

ll ve

r

yJ

i

nc, if

o

nl

y

th

e natu

ra

l orde r of

thin

gs

did not stir me

to

have d oubts at Iyu ur a r riva l

as to h'ow there can fruit in a v

ir

g in js

wo

mb. .

,

, '

"

I t

is onl y whe n thc an

ge

l

M,ary

fin

a

ll

y

accc

p ts;

m ent ions

th

e Holy S

piri

t that

, .

Angel

I was sent from the Father to bring

yo

u th is messagc,

that his love has compelled him ,

. 1;0 tha t

hi

s So n should reside in your womb ,

and over yo u

th

e ' H oly :Spirit

l l l

r.cs

id

Fo

In that

ca se, 0 angel, I will not a nswer bac k:

if th

e H oly

Spi

r

it

sha ll

co

me to m

e,

----. ; , -

am

hi

s maid

servant, and he

h

as

le t

it

be to

me in

a cco

rd

an

ce

with

y

our

wo

rd.

T hese d ia logue poe ms pr

ov

ide a very cf fec ti

ve

me ans o r

p j n ~ mome

nt

s ·of

dram

at ic te nsion with in ,th e biblica l

narra tive.

At ea c

h such dr a ma

ti

c

point th

e poe t (usua lly a nony·

m ous)

expl

ores t

he

in

ner

ps

yc

hol

og

ic

al

te nsio

ll

s a nd

th

oug

ht

s; in

th

e p r

oce

ss of .d oi·ng

so)

·hc ,.su

cc

essfullY

brin

gs out th

.c

imp ort a

nt

..i ,"

"

I

I

I

. I

I

70 The Bible in the Syriac

Traditi

on

rhe Use of

th

e ,Syriac Bib le

71



I

I

I

underl

ying

theological teaching of th e

pa

ssage in

qbcst

ion . In

ma ny cases these poems deal wit h

th

e con fli ct between

th

e head

a n d th e hea rt ,

between

hu m an re ason and fa it h : we . have seen

a little of thi s in th e di a l

ogue

between th e An

ge

l

and Mary,

but

it is a lso vcry

prominent

in

the

di a h gues between Zec

hariah and

the

Angel, an el between

' Joseph and

a r y . Zec ha r

iah finds

it

im possibl e

to

believe the ang

el

s

message

that his barren

an

d

~ d c r l

wife will bear a son: he tells the ang el tIt would

be

astoni

shin g

if

I

were to

believe

yO

ll

in

the

m a

ller

of

th i

s

talc

which you have told me: a tr ee already dried up ca nnot possibl y

pro

vid e fruit

'

,

In

va in docs

th

e angel tell Zec h ari ah of th e Old

Testament preceden ts, such

as

Sarah 'giv

in

g bi rt h ' to I

saac

in her

old age ; e ~

remains

s

tubb

ornly scepti

ca l:

' H owever

mu ch

you speak tr ying lOp

crsuade

me ;-your wo rd s still do not touch

Illy in tcllct:t' . In Zec hariah s ca.st: human rea son proves the

J . '

victor ' ovcr fa ilh - w

ith the re

sult tha t ,Zecharia h was made

' un a ble' to s

peak

until ' t'he

angel s

words

to

·

pa

ss . I ' ~ '

,

II

.

: . '

I i

.;' I

II

j I

, (. • • , I ,

> • I .

"

J

'

In thc

.

case

of J ose

ph

, on the ,ot her ha,n,d, fai.

th eventuall

y

• • " J . , . , ' , • I " . "

Wil lS thc

day,

. even though ,

external

a p p e a r a n ~ e s fiancee s

obv

ious pregnancy-make it

very

ha rd for him to be lieve in Ivl ary s

. im p robable '

explanation,

,.as appears ncar the beg inning of the

' a l

""" t

' " i ~ ' · ,t'j, I

t

, la ague: ,, ' '

,

.

"

• 1 / ,

Jo seph I am t o ~ n d at \vilat 'you say :

how can I jisten to ' your worels?

Virgins simply do not get

prcgnant

unlcss

the

y have

inter

course or get m a. rri ed .

,

,', ;

1vl ar y ' s pl'ltie,ncc in the fact; of his angry eventua ll y,

towa

rd

s th e

en

d of

the long dial

ogue. wins 'ov'er J osep h, and

he

haJf concedes th

at J\1

a ry mi ght

be te

lli ng

th

e

t1

'uth :

J oseph

Th ere

a rc two poss

ibiliti

es, and both dis

turb

mc:

if what you say is truc , 'it is mo st

frightening

for

mc

,

but

if

it is untrue; that ' is a gr

ea

t ·grief.

H ow I wish r could escape from

the

two.

To thi s Mary replies :

Now I sha ll pou r out m y r d s

an d

address

my Son hidden within

my

womb;

he

will reveal

to

you

i

.

that

I h ave . no ot her

c

hildren

, " ,ti ,

.

I,

I ,:,

and that I shall not be deprived o y,?u r comp apy. ,l

,Th is is

th

e

final verse

t the

dial

ogu

e,

b u ~ ill'

th

e fin a l 'n

a;

rat ivc

we

; c ; : ~

that

ve

rific

a ti

on

o'f

the

truth of

\\Iords is

v ~ ~

. , .'

, .

.

dcd

for,Jo

sep h.) . '

,.1

"

:

' , " , 'I '

( i , ' I ; , " ',;

, J oseph , slep t, and

the

an

ge

l a

rriv

ed , ' . . .

revc2lin g to

him

how th e mystery , liad tak e l)

place.

' '. . :

I ,

,

J, I'

,11'

1

,. J oseph ro se

up early

and knelt in worship befOle .

Mary

full of wo nd

er,

\vho ,

had

not li ed. '. I

,hI,; I . ' :,-;. )J (I I . : . . . . .

, " : ' .

I

f d . ( ~ ~

: · ' f ~ , l ~ i , : t t ; . 1

o g u e I b e t \ ~ ~ c i i Mary . : J d s

i . l l u

it .. f t c ~ the ·' i

n:te

lle cti'.·

lia

·s\ giVen w y

'

1 . r r i b a b l e

c1airt;s"

of

t H a t

e x t c r n t i O l

p ( o v i d c ,(in ~ s C ' ,

~ a s e

: ' : " d i e r ~ a :

i t h . . i

l n c i

.tgrounoed

in. rea lit

y:

"" i l ' l " ' ~ ' : , < r ~ l f t ~ " ll-:v.

/ t 1 : ,

i, : J , . - ~ r \ { r f ' ' ' t '

~ j ~

. 11

\ J

',tt

" f · . , . -

,\1

J

,.

Some, fift y/s

uch dialogu

e Ipocms

survive

~ p . c . v n a j o "

of

. thcse 1

inv

olvc biblica l ch'ar3tcte rs. ' B a s c d T c s ~ m e n t

wc

)lliave: A b e l . : . : ( G c n e s i s

4)

; f H ' ,

s a a c

(Gene; ;s e p h .,

and c,

Potiphar s ·j

wife

'I(Genesis

139);

, Jo

.seph

and

llcnjami n}la nd '

Job

'

and hi

s wife :'

Th e

'

di

alogues witli::New '

T estament

topics

arc

', rather

morc

nuhlcrou

s

J

a

nd include:

Zecha

ria h and

ti,e Angel,

'the Angel and M ary, J oseph and

Mary, Mary and the · 'lv ag i, 'J ohn the Bapti st an d " Christ, ' John

the

Bap

ti

st and th e Crowd , . Christ an d ' the Pharisees, i Christ

and th e Synagogue, th e ' Sinful W oman I alld Satan,

the i

two

thi eves

on

th e cross, the Cherub '

and

the thi ef" (Luke 22:' 42 - 3),

De a

th

and

Satan

(a

t

the

desce

nt of Chri

st

int

o

.s h

eo

l), ,

an

d

Mary

and the Gardene

r (t he ri sen C

hri

st).

The oldest dialogue poem s arc by none other than St.

Ep

hrem

(SOm

1

il Death an d Satan); most of these poems, how·

e ver , ar c ' a no though

in

the

Ea

st

Syrian

tr a dition' tbey

h ave usually

cen ascribed

to Nal'sai, ' Pr

oba

bly m

any of

them

..

/



74 The Bible

in

the Syriac' Tradition

The Usc of the Syriac Bible. ,. 75



l

·

i:

I

Although th e poet ha ndles the biblical nan

'

alive

(Vilh

a

good cleal of freedom, he docs 50 in orde r to impress 'on hi s

readers

and

hearers the underlyin g message inherent ,in the

piblical t

ext;

',

this

. he does" by .

a n s of.various

dramatic effects

whi ch ·he introdu ces int Q, retelling

of the

,biblical ',story.

We $hould not, of ourse, suppose that. he iS i\ tr yin 'S to provide

a historicql reconstruct ion of the episode:"

th i

s . would

to

s u n d e r s t ~ n 9

Jlis .

intention

s totall y

and

completely.

"

The

..

narrative

:

verse

,

on

the

prophet

,

Elijah

p r o ~

vid es.

another

exa)Jlplc

of the

. way · n which the

p o ~ t

see ks to

} ~ c i g h t ~ n

the

dram 'alic force r of ~ h c biblical ~ t r a \ i v e . td Kings,

17:1 ' tells . ~ I ~ c prophet ibound the sk ies ulld

er

an oath , not

allowing them to let fall a ny rain or dew 'except by my word'.

The

resulting .

d r o u

was to be a

punishment

for th e nation' s

c k e d

ways . La

ter

on in

the

chaptcr th e \bibli.cal narrative tclls

thc same prophet

rest:orcd ,

lif

e

to

thc de.

ad

son o

the

,

Wid

ow

at S a r e p t a

(-I

,

King

s

17:22).

Then ; :"\t ' rhe ·

end

of

chap

ter

18,

.we

the en d, O f i l h ~ terriblc drought. ,. In b i b l i c ~ 1

account

no dil 'cct connection between the raising 'of the wid

ow's

son

and

the end of ;

the drou

g

ht

, is' m'ade , ·

but th

'c author ·

of th

e Syriac

ver se.

homily

01)

Elijah

'

doc

s

link the

·

two in

a, .

vcry

· d

rama

ti

c

wa

y

(in so d ~ i n g hc wa s in fa ct fo llowing J ewish tradition) . \ ' hen.

the heavens

complain

1lo '

God

, about

E l i j a h ~ s

laction,

God

,pdinls

out to them

th at

he should respect hi s prophctls,ta uthority, s l . ~ c

that, Elija.h

had

specificaBY is.lated

that

tIle'

heilycn

.w;

erc

,

bound

until

he

release th cm . 'B e. pqt ient with , m c, for a

litti

e

while' , God tells "th e ' heavens, 'and wait

until

I go d own to ,visit

I: ' r

il l

' go

011

proposing

to

h,im rcasons, ;uqtil . he . cv/ utual1)?-

u.ecomcs i l e d

with

, you". 'Aftcr various

f \ t ~ e m p t s

to ge t,

Elijah

to

lift his ban

an d

. so

end the

.droug)tt. ;

Gq d

, finally se

nd

s

him

off to

widow

of

Sarepta

who

will feed

him despite

the

fa mine. She tells. him that all she has left

ve r

, is ,a li t.tle- flour

in a bowl

and

a

small

quantity. .0fOlI (I Kings t7:12),

but

the

p r o p l

l \ s ~ u ~ c

:

hcr:

N;ei

the

' shall ' the bow 'l of fl our '1..1\

nor sha ll the h

or

n

of

oil .

• I I

, , '

woman runs oIT ' to t ryout the , word 'of thc ' prophet', and

as ' she plunged

her hand into th

e bowl

,

1

f1ollr, ca

me

leaping lip

to mcc t it '

- and

thc S:.

Ul l

C tlliilg happened

with

ihc" oil. Tht,:

prophet, th

e widow and

her are t l 1 U assured

,

of o o d J a n ~

a ll gocs well for a w h i l But the c;lrough,t

famme

C O ~ t l ~

HUC sin ce Eljjah has not yet liftcd ' his ba n }

I

Thmgs are 'ge ttlOg ,

so bad

th at God

decides

to

. esort '

to

. son;ething " rri<?rc

di'amatic

I I I

order

to g c ~ Elijah to relent

and show

compassion:

.

,01

j

, . , 111 , . • " :1 . ...

./.

:, ·t

He l l t an

ange

l totake'

away

I i\ ;

.Ill

'

' I '

t he soul

of

th e widow's son. " .

Ht: look '

away

' his lso

uJ

, al1d so

hi

s hlcithcr ..• .

.

hi "111 ?f fl

. In

)

to do battl e

Wit

t

le

upng , t . ', :

th e woman took hold of him 'and stood there, I

.q

••

read

y

[0 argue with him

as a rl:1Urd

cr

er : dr' ".• ,·1

'Give

me

back my : only child', she cried, '

' fol' he wa s killed because of you. "

I will seize h oJd of you t r a i ~ h y a

: , ,

. :'

.

and thrown you into the 'hands " i . " . I.·

of Ahab and Jezebc:J, to evil fatt:'.

Elijalt answere

d

. " r • .• •

I

:

lh',,-· I I

, I ', to s p o k e n

thesc

·t un gs:

, • I.

(Never a n y o ~ e ,been kiBed b y me, '

and

you

ar c

'

oa

lling

me

a l,Durd.

erer.

Am I

God to

be

able

to revive yo

ur

son?

Or

is his in I

H)'

hands, " " , , ', J ," ,.

.seeing that you' are requiring him m ) ' h ands,?' I

,:

';."

" : ..

,j l

,:., . . , \,. , " ' ,p

.'

• • .. ,

: ~ ,

, j .

111

. :::

The woman said

reply

to EI1Jah,

,.1. '. ,',:

..

. I n ? e e d ~ ,?y th f God wh,

om

I ~ ~ r ~ e " I ', ':

H '; "

li

a

. .

this ' j s assured for : ., II . ' . , . ,'

.the floUl: hcarq you al}rl:

,

leapt up" .\ I ::1 ",Ii " 1 I

' and if the oil

h e a ~ d

you a.l)<i

spurted

.c0nl\". ; .,,

.

~ ~ n

the ,

:ord to

.y'o,u, t , )

. 1' P,"

i,l:

'

arid will give you back the soul

of

·the boy :: ...

:

, . ,.,1 ' · d'

Then Elijah

took the boy

brought him to

the upper room;

he knelt an d began to say . :'.

in sorrow

and

in sufTcring:

'0 Lord,

I beg of you,

as a sc rv

ant

I

spea

k in

your

presence;

il

76 The Bible in the Syriac Tradition "

,



,1

.

. If

l

i

II

jll

I

1

' 1

I·

I

I

"II

I"

i

Ii

'

I

I

r

I ,

II

wh>,. Lo

rd,

ha \'c you

repaid with

such loss

thi s widow who has received me ?

Wh y did you send me to her,

why did you bring her son forth from her womb?

Lord , I call upon you

with

feeling,

I

bC'

g

of you

mercy;

Lo

rd

, to your servant' s pr aye

r:,

alld return the soul of this boy'.

Our

Lord

an

s

wered

and

said to Elijah

;

tOll

owe me one debt

:

repay it , and I .willlisten to YOli

.

In your hands is placed the key to the heavens ,

in my

hands

is

the

soul of

the

child'.

The holy man opened his

mouth

as hi s

heart

r e j o i c ~ d

and

exulted;

he

released the

heavens whil

:

h he

had

bo .

md

- and the soul of the child returned.

[n order to heigh te n I he dramatic effect

the

biblica l

narrative

the

poet has

.

introduced

the b C ld id ea ' of a

hargain

struck

b

et

ween God

and

Elijah.

Th i

s

ha

s

the

eIre ct

of

emphasizing

the doul>le underlyjng Ilicssagc which the

poeL

sees in the biblical narrative : th e nee d for ' compassion on. the

part of those who arc zealou s for God 's ri

ghteou

sness,

and

Ih e

example

of the

wid ow's.

in God

's

ability to work

miraclc '

through

his

pr

ophet.

By ,'etcliing

thc

' biblical 'narrat ive in a

lively and

i m a g i ~

native

way

, these

anonym

ous SYl'iac poets have

provjded

n very

ef f

ec

tive

fo

rm of popular

prcaching.

The

vcry

that th

ey

take

some Jibertles

with

the biblica

l.

text

c n c o u r a g c ~

thd,: readers

and hearers t9 go back to the biblical text and

r c ~ d j s c o v c r

it

for thcmsc Iv cs.

P< * P<

SECTION '

VII

THE USE OF THE SYRIAC BIBLE

IN : rHE LITURGY

>

. Th e ,

Syria

c Bihle

fe

otures in

liturgical worship above all

in

th

e cycle of b i b l i c ~ l

readings

and in the use of the' Psalms.

Here , howeve r,

wt;

shall consider another. aspect: : the way, in

w h i ~ h the phraseology , of the Syriac Bible . s ingrained , in the

very prayers and hymns of the Syriac Churches. 'We shall look

at two examples, based

on

Genesis 1:2

and

'on Luke 1:35 . . . ,

The second

half of

Genesis 1:2 reads in . the

Peshilta

'a

nd the

Spirit of

God was hovering

(lImrahhefa ) over the

su rfa

c;;

c of the water'. The verb

tahhef

is · used in n c u t e l ' o ~

llomy 32:

11

of a female bird hovering over her ' chicks, '

and the

noun u mrahfana'"

19 found

sev

eral

times in th e ' Peshitta as a

parallel

to

'

u m r a l u ~ a n a , 'compassionate'.

'

Modern

English

tr ans lation

s us

ually

provide

two

po

ssible alternative

,

t r a n l a t i o n s

for

Genesis 1:2, (the ·Spirit. of God' and 'wind ·

or

:God'

(or,

'strong

wind',),

s

ince

ruah

in

Hebrew (and

H r u h a

in

Syriac)

ca n

mean

either · (spirit' or

'wind',

This 'he sitation

on

.the part

Or modcrn

translators

is

in faCl

nothing

new, for

the

early Church

Father

s were al so

divided over how

to

interpret the

verse:

docs

it refer to the

Holy Spirit

,

or

to a spirit/wind? The

fact

that

the Greek has a passive vcrb follo)Villg ('was carried') suggested

0 Some Greek c o m m c n t a t o ~ s that

(the

spi,rit' , her<; c Q 1 ~ d not

refer to the Holy Spiri t.

The

·Syriac Fathers -share th is un ce

rtainty

over the inter-

pretation

of Genesis

I :2,

and

many

qf them, from St. Ephrcm

onwards,· prefer

not

to introduce the .' Holy Spirit h e r ~ in

their

exegesis

of

.

the

passage.

This

line

ofintcrpretation

was

adopted

in order to avoid

certai:\

heological mi sunderstandings o c i a ~

te d with ,

the

v c r s ~ , a n d it was follo\ycd by several later

c m m ~

entators

,

and in

pa rticula -....by .Theodore

of

tvlopsucstia, (rom

whom

it was

taken

over

by tht School of Ede

ssa

and

by it s

successor

at ,

Ni

sib is, Accordingly, the vast majority of lat er

S } ' r i ~ c c o ~ m e n t a r i e s , especially th ose III the East Syrian tradition ;

.

78 The Bi b le in the Syr iac Tradit io n

take

the

view

th

at

th

e

' s

pirit

of G

od'

The

of

th e -Syr.

Bible

' in liturgx 7.9,

t hank s

to thc

ll SC of

the

vcrb Hrahhe'f'" in connecti o n with the



I,

t

1I1 the ver se

is

n

ot the

H oly

Spirit.

-

••

:

"

,

'j i

Nevertheless, sp it.e: 9f.lhi s a t ~ i t J d ~ on the part of som e

? g i a n ~

it

seem s that i

different

understanding w

as

d

eeply

mg r

a

mcd

In

th

e liturgica l tradition , f

or th

ere we ca n find m

any

pa

ssages wh ere Genesis 1:2 is under stood 'as rcfcn:illg to

the

H oly

Spirit: '

Th i

s can be see n above a ll in

prayer

s

n c l

hymhs CQIlI1 -

cctcd : with bapt.ism; her e we often" find a pa ra llcJism dr awn. ' bet

ween

the

'

creative activity

:

uf

the

H oly

Spirit

ov

er

-

the

pdmor

'

dia

l

wa te rs, on th e one ' hand, and the : sa me cIca t iv e activity of the

Spirit

aVCl

' th

e &a pt isma l wa ters , ' wh e

re the

ba ptized b

eco

me a.

'new creation

'.

1:'hlJ5 in olle of the Epiphany H)'lnn s a ttributed

to S, : 'Ephrem ' vc have:

At crea ti on th e Spirit hove

red

over t he c r s ~

,

the

y conce ive d and gave birth

to

reptile s" fi sh 'and

bird

s.

The H oly

Spirit.

h

as

h

ove

red over

th

e b

ap t

ism a l watel

',

I. ' a nd has given birth to

eag

les in sy

mb

ol,

th

a t is, to the vi r

g ins

and

lea d er

s,.

,

and

to

fi

she s in sy mbol, that is, to th e ch as te a nti th

e

in t

ercesso

rs,

, " 'an d ,to reptiles

in'

s

ymbol,

t ha.t is, to the cunning who h

av

e

' " be come

' : ' : s

implea.

dov . (M a tthc,Y

: 6 :

(H

)' innso

n' Epiphan)' 8:15)

T he same

id ea

is

al

so found in

the

IvIaronite

bapti

sm a l

ri te, ill

th e course of the long p ray er at the sanct if ica tion of the wa ter:

As

the

H oly

Spirit hovered

over

the water

s at

th e esta

bli sh-

ment of cl

'ca

tion, so ma y your H ely

Spi

r

it

, '

0

Lord , hover

over th is b a p t i m a ~

wa t

cr which is sp iritual

womb,

a nd

m ay he rc st upon it and

sanc

ti fy it and makc' it fruitfuJ

w

ith

the

h

ea

vcnly

Adam

,

place

of

th

e

ca r th l

y

Ad

a

m.

The pa ra llelism betwecn th e wa

tcrs

at creat ion a nd th e

bapti

sma

l wa t

er

is richly suggesti ve, but

it

is

rarely

bro ug

ht

out

in,

a n e ~ p J i w

a:y

--p e,'

ha p

s as a

result

of the different :

exegesis

of

Gene

sJs 1:2 w}lIch

dominated

,

th e

' Schools "of

Edcssa

N isibi s.

ut

'very

of

ten we

do find the - pa"al

l

cl,

sm ' II

" '

vcs trgJ _r . _p,illcnt , -

ac tiv

ity

of th e Spirit at baptism , Th u s St. Ephrem ) wh o ' specif i:-

ca lly does not

take

the 's pirit of

God'

to re fer

to th

e

Holy

, Spirit,

nevcr thcles;i d oes use th e ve rb "rahhef" ' hover ', with q:ference

t o baptism whcn we

say

s 'The Holy

I

Spiri t

ho

vers over th e

st rca ms' (

th

at is, o{

thc

ba pti s

mal

wa ters) [Hymn s on '/\{irginity

7:8] "

Likew,; s

e,

in m tex ts'o[ the Syrian Orthodox · 'bapti

sm a

:

serv.ice ,

thc

deacon ,

says

, at ,

th

c , sanctifica tion

t h e

baptisma l

watcr,. fea

rful is

th i s :: hour whe n .,t "

livin

g' i and ' ;H6ly

,

Spirit

,

from the

u p p e ~ m o

height

s ,a'

nd

' P

hovers'

,'

and

on ("

the

: water ;l ' sanctifying d

t, just

. as;,the :

Joqian.'s

.

, , I " ,

streams wcre t i f i c d

[a

,t lthe bapt i

sm

',oC',christ], .. t nl l

, • ,

\ '

, ,

' . ' ,

I ,

, , ' I " .

" • , , ' ' , , ( t' . ,

,I,

" 1/ 11

" ~ ' '1

It

,'I ,\. "

Lik ewisc, ou tside r he context of

b a p t i and

the

m a ~

litu rgYJ wc

not

infreq uentl y

find

th e Spirit

dcscribed as

'hoy,ering',

where '

the

ver b o v e r is

derived

fr om ,

th

c t Peshitta" tcXt ' o f

Ge

nesis 1

:2.

Thus in .

,l sevcra

l We st

Sy

'rian I Anaphoras e r ~

is used as one

of

the v

er

bs desc ribing

the

ac t,ivi ty

of th s,

llio1Yi

Spirit

at

th

c Epiclesis. One such case' is

th

e Syriac Ana

phor

a

a sc

ribed

, to

St.

J o

hn o s t o m .,(

quite d i r [ JrolI '

Greek

A

nap

hora

I

, ,' : ' ' ' " " ,\ " ,

rv

[

ay

yo ur

Spirit

your P

ower

over

sha do w tit is ,

holy

a lt

ar

a nd it s 'offeri ngs;

an d

, ma y

rest

and resi

de over tqe

, an d ' it ~ ~ , ? ' l J ~ ,o ,}c:

Body.:.. "

Th

e wordillg of ,this

particular

: e piclcsis ' co

nven

iently in

tr oduces us to tlie other biblica l ~ s s a g e under ; cons ideration in'

th is s

ect

ion, f

or

the "

vcrb 'over

sh a dow' is' derived from ' Luk e

1:

3jJ : ' " JJe _Ho ly -Spi.i t - shall- come 'and ' the 'Rower 'of the " Most' ,

Hi

gh

sha ll

overshadow

' ("nagg'<fn" )

you'. '"

I'

,

;

'

j , j ' " , : ' " ' ,

I.J ,

if " " i t

'

, 'Phe verb uscd to ' translato the 9 re ek : wor:d ·herc ,fo ri

a

very

inter

est ing onc"

f01

: '

it

has

'a

back

gro

und

in Jewi sh

~ r a I l a i c '

,

The

ve rb

"aggen"

occurs

n u m e

o f

li mes

in

the Jewi sh Ar a m a ic translat ions of the Heb rew " Bible ,

almo

st, a

lw

ays in the co ntex t

of

God's sa lvi fi e ac t ivi ty. The

.

Syria

c '

tran

slators ,of

the

' New,

Te

sta m'en t ev id eil tl r i? herited

the

ter,m from ,J

ew

ish Ar amaic, and us

ed

it in a. numbc r( of 1different

pa

ssagcs,

including

Luk.e l: 3.5 ,

: Among

·the 'othe r passages where

, '

ii

I

j

,

SO Tho Bible in tho Syriac Trodit io n

the transla tors, employed

thi

s verb

c:aglScnH al'e John

1:14 (w hcroc

Th e ' use of th e Syr. Bible in Liturgy

81



,

"

I,:i

q

,

the Greek has (The Word dwelt

,

or

tab

ernacled

,

among

u

s')

and Acts 10:44 and 11 :15 (

"here

t he G :eek h ,. ;

the

Spirit feel

upon .. ).

A3 w a ~ the case with Genesis 1:2, ; 10 too with Luke 1:

35

there

' has ' been a dilTercnc:c of

opinion

-

about

its precise interpre

tation. Is ' the Power of the ~ l o s t Hi gh" the same as ' the Holy

Spirit' carlier

:

in

thc ' verse, or is the

Powcr

1

tO

'l b

e )d

cntified as

the divine

'

Word?

On

the

whole

onc

can

say

ch

,a t Ea st

Syrian

exegetical

tradition identified the

Power

as a synonym for

t';-;

Holy

Spirit,

.

while We

st

Syrian

tradition normally

under

stoo

d

' the Power of the

Most

High'

to

refer to

the ,p

re -existent

" T

ord;

v c r ~ l

e x ~ e p t i o can,

;

h ~ c v c r be

'

to

:

this p ~ t t c r n

of

il1- -

lerpfetation ill l,. both ' traditions. In the' casc o(th 'c

yVes

t

S y r j a l ~

tradition '

it

" is ' c lear

that the Pe

s

hiua's ue ': f thc

"\

ame verb,

d'aggen'" at John '·1:11 b

een

influential, ; foJ' there ·

the

W

ord

• . " . I

;i '

s

ubject

of

the verb.

' .

,; '. " . ' , • ' . ' . . ' . • • 'ff "

..

.

In

view

·of'this differen

ce

over -the intqrprctation

of Luke

I :35,

one

would

expect to find

n:

minisccncc

s 'of

Luke

:1

35, whc

'rc

th

.e Holy.

Spirit

,is

understood

to be

th e

.

subject

of thc verb

. , ' . "

.

.

I

o v e r ~ J : t a ~ q w ~ , .

,

only in Syri

a n

liturgical text

s, and not

in

West Syrian . ones. Th is, howe ver, is not the case, and

in

fact

we

'

find many

s

uch rcmini

scences

in

both

litur

gi

ca

l

~ ~ ' a d i t i o n s ,

It is.

particularly sig nifica n t wherl

reminhcencc;s

of Luke

I :35 occur in th e·

Epiclesis of

the ·

Eucharistic

. I:iturgy. ,

,In

th e ,

East Syrian liturgical tradition this occurs in

the .J=:ast

Syrian

Anaphora of .Theodorc,

where

th e ' invocation , opens ·with the

words 'May the

grace

of the Holy Spirit come upon .us and

upon thi

s

offering and reside

in :l.nd

overshadow this bread

.. .

In

\'\'est" Syria.n .Anaphoras . the use of .rovershado\v\,in ·the epj-;.

clesis " is

e s p ~ c i a l l y common,

and thc

.:

:example: quoted

i above,

from ·the 'Anaphora of St.

John

Chrysoitom; · ..

onlyone

· out of ,

many '

Anaphoras where rovershadow'

is used

at

·

this

, p o i n t ~

1

'/'

' . , : " < " .. ,f, . : J ,

·

The

use

of

the

word

rovershadow' '

in

the epiclcsis ' dtJi.

berately draws

'

attention to

the

important

p

ar a

lleHsm

I between

the

activity of

the

Spirit

over l'vIary and the activity

of

the

Spi

.

rit

,

over

thc

eucharistic Orferings. In hi

s

Commentary on

the

Li

tu rgy

the Syrian O r t h o d o ~

writer

rvlo

s

he

'

bar Kcpha

says

"

Ju

st a s

th H

oly

Spirit

'

descended

to

th e

'

womb

'

of

M

ary

(as

the angel

,

said

,

'for

the · Holy Spirit . ,hall

come

.. ) .

and.

made

the body of God the

Word from

the nesh of

the Virgin, so too the

Spirit

descends on the

bread

and

wine on the

'

altar

a

nd

'

them

;

into

'

the Body

and th e '

B1o

od '

ofGod

the Word ,vhich originated '

from

I V · . '

J' ' .

··r·

' J

' ( '

1

-'

1

IC

lrgul.

" . '

.J

..

.., ,.

I

;

II : '"

If

I . " . \

. t; r ·

I . ; , I

The implications

of

th i

s

impli

c

it

parallelism between

the

Annunctation I a nd · t I ~ e I E u t : h a r i are i m p q r ~ a n t . A n n u l l " : "

j a t i

.

lvlary's

,

williqg c o ~ o p e r a t i o n

.

with S p i r ~ ~ . t ; t l t . < : \

the

hl,fth'

f l ' o m q<?

)d thp

,t W ? r ~ ;

~ ~ y ~ ~

~

arc

tv.'o ·dl,(rercllt

a s p , c c ~ s

_

f

.

l ~ e /l

actJvl:y.; I

of

'.

the

.\

~ t . \ 1 ¥ f .

th ro

ll

g h th.e

C I ~ u r

f m t h f ~ l ~ o ~ o p ~

r a ~ l O n

With

the .

U · I ~

at

the

EPlclcS

1S,

the

euc

harl

s

tJ

c Olfcnngs ·

ar c ·, W l ~ q ' a n 9 .

become

the Body

and Blood

of

. Christ;

secbndly, if

tho

se-

Jcccivc

1,

Coml1}union

t imitate

:1

Mary s o - o p e r a l i o n w i t ~

the

Holy

Spirit;;

they

.

to< >

,

will

·

give b i r t h

s p i r i t , ~ l l y to·I

Go ;1

·t ,e .

Word

. . ',

Thus

: th e :

e i g h t h , ~ ~ ~ t l J r Y E a s t r l a ' Josepli

.

thc

" ,

Visionary

writes

' '

hi

p r a y

be'•

J:

-

ecited

b e f q r e C d m m . ' "

l l n i o r i rlvlay I

receive

y·ou

;·

J

Lord

;\ not

intqn;

the '

l

s t o m ~

w h i c h

helong

s to the body's

limbs

, but into the womb of '

my mind

,

so

th

at YO

LI may

be

conceived there,

as in

th

e

womb

of

thc--

V r g i J ~ '

.

,

.

Syriac

liturgic

al

texts

,

are

full of

,;

such.

biblica

. r,

eImIll,

c e s ,

,

and the

.

theological ..

,

richness

of

these texts

,

w ~ l l only

become

' truly apparent

when

.

the

se

reminiscences and

ag,- sions>

arc recogn

ized. Sometimes

these allusions

refer

to twording

wbich

is found

uniquely)n the Peshitta (this

l

applies

.tq ,.

s o m ~

extent, l, ·at

,· lea

st; to the . e ~ ~ m p J ~ s .. a l ~ 9

applies notably to the

form

o ( " t h ~ , i n

tq e;

Syriap

,

Ji

.

turgics,

for the wording 'heaven and earth ar c '

f ~ l l . of

his

'{praises" ,

\( ra

ther than

:

'his "'

glory')" ' is' :

taken

:

. ·

froID'·

P . C s h i t t t e x t

"

of

6:3). ·-

Becau

se Syriac ' liturgical prayers.

;hymns

.ar e ,so

soa

ked in

the

phraseology of

the

,syriac Bible, we can accordingly

sec the importance of ; having translations"based'

on

th e :j Pc:shitta

for

the purposes of liturgical readings from

' the Bible. ', :

,.

. I . ,

,

"

The Deshi tta as th e Basis .for ,8

. • I • ' "

$

J >

: " •

te rm is used to de scribe a pa

th

or way, such a s I sa ia h . 26:7,

'S t ra igh t

and

clear '

(

shafya

)

is the way

th

e ri g

ht

eous '.

l

But



"

;

II

II

SE

CTI O N VIn

THE PESHITTA

AS

THE

,

BASIS

FOR

SYRIAC SPIRITUALITY

Th e Pcshitta is

th

e source f

or

a g reat ma n} term s wh ich

were to become impor tant in th e history of Syr iac sp

iritu

a li ty.

Be fore loo kin g a t a few of th ese in m ore de ta il, we ca n notke

th

e foHow ing in pass ing:

~ th e term rushm

a

or rmark' is rllgula rl y used in Col rly

S}riac lit era tu re [0 ;

th

: bap t isma l a noint ing o n

th

e forehe

ad

(

or

,

by

extension, it

may a lso refer to th e whole bapti sma l ri te ). Th e

source for th e term is the Pcshi tta tex t of Ezekiel 9:4_ w here t he

proph et Ezekie l has a v ision of

th

e sla ug

ht

er of g UillY in

j e rusa lem; in thi s vision 'a ma n clo thed in jin en' ev ide nt ly,

,

a n a ngeli c be ing, I is told

by

God

to

pass

th

rough

th

e

city

of

J eru sa lem a nd ' pu t a m u k ru shm a on th e fore hea ds of

th

osc wh o g ,'

oa

n in t

orm

e

nt

ovcr a ll the a bomi na tion s a nd evi l

d oings th at a l c' being

per

f

or

med in th e city ' . I n Heb rew th c'

wo

rd

for fma

rk'

h

ere

is

ff

t

aw

, t he le

tt

e r

T 3

whose

sha pc in

th

c o ld H ebrew sCIipt was th at of a cro ss. At the p l c-bap ti

sma l a nointing th e

pr i

es t a noin ts a c ross on

th

e f

or

ehead of

th t:

pcrson bein g ba ptized wi th oB, whi ch symb o lizcs (a m ong m :.l.nr

o

th

er things)

pr

ote ction aga inst

th

e forces of

ev

il.

- n

E;

ast Syr

ia

n

wr

iters like St. Is

aa

c of N in

eveh

(7t h c

en tu r

y)

concept of fpu re pr

aye

r ' beco mes a very im port an t one. T he

on,Iy bibli cal v

er

sion wh ere

th

e ac tua l te

rm

f

pur e

p

raye

r '

OCC

u r

s

is th e Peshitta , a t ' I Ch ro nicles 16: 42: Th ese holy, men (

wh

o

'were .ministering before '

the

Ark of

th

e Covena

nt

) ga ve ' pra ise.

'not

i t ~ mu

sica l ins

trum

e

nt

s o f p rai se

3

b

ut

·

with

a j oy ful m ou

th

'

and

wi

th

pure

and

perfect prayer' . '

. , .... . .

U

" . ; - ' "

- one.of t he ce

nt r

a l conce

pt

s ' of

Syr

ia c sp ir itua li

ty th

e id ea l of

,ffshafy ut ha, j .th e Sy ri ac ter m has no sing le Eng li sh equi va le llt ,

put cove rs

a:

wh ole variety of d

if f

e rent : id ea s, , such as 'l uc id it v

.lumin

osit y, puri ty, ,clar i ty , sereni ty .

In

) th e Syri ac . , Ribie

there

a re a number of ,im p

or

ta

nt

p

as

s,ages ' la dj c;c l.h.

-:e

s ha fya , 'clea r, lumi no us

7

,

etc. , occ u rs; i ll some of these th e

the mo st im por tant passage is Lu ke 8: 15,

wh

ere 'th e te rm ' is

associa ted wit h

the

'hea rt :

I

' Th e seed ' in ' the

goo

d ' ground

re

f

ers

to th ose '·wh o hea r'

th

e W ord with a hl m irlous ' :' (hs ha'fya ' ;) L.ahd

good hea r

t'

(the G ree k 'fa n' e x c ~ good p ea t

t'

).

Taking

th is a s

th

e

ir

st

ar t

ing po

in t

; la ter

Syr

i

ac

' writ

ers

'

q uently

re

fe r. to

th

e ideal o fts hafy

ut

l

eb

b it , ' lu ir{ino sit y

. . ' : ' .

, ;

; ,

.

"

.

-

anoth

er impor ta

nt

an d dist inc tive te

rm

in

th

e

hi

sto ry

of

r iac .spi ritualit y is Hmsa rrqut

a

' self-emp tyin g'; th is . is . used

bot

h in

th

e sense of

th

e s

trip

pi

ng

a way . of · e

xt

er

na

l posse,ssions,

a

nd

in a n

in t

eri or sense, '

th

e self-em p tying of he

art'

, '

th

e stripp

ing away of self-will in ord er to follow

th

e will ? f- C hr ist. ' :Such

's elf-em

pt

ying ' is in fac t a n imi ta ti on of C hri st 's own ' self-emp ty

' in

g, ba

s

ed

on

Sl.

Pa ul ' s le

tt

er to

th t: Philip

pia ns 2 :7,

'C hri

st e

mpt-

ie d (Hsarreq ) hi msel f, taking

th

e f

or

m of a ser va

nt

:

- ' Sy r iac tr a di tion m a kes grea t use of the imagery ?f

in

expre

ssing: ma ny

.

di fferen t c a r id

eas

: In the

them e of th e

'r

obe, .or

ga

rm e

nt ,

' of. ' p r < : ~ . is comm only

used

to

de scr ibe

th

e wh ole cou rse

of

salva

ti

on h is

to

ryl: in ,

Ad

a m a nd ·Ev e were cloth ed in th e ga rme n t of g l

ory

before th eir

d isob

edie

nce to

Go

d 's

co

mm

a

nd. At

t,he F a ll

hu m

a

nity

' lost

th i

s ga rme ll t, a np

th

e

whole

p

urp

ose of tJle

In

ca

rn

a

ti

on was t o

m a ke it possib.le for hu m l llity to p ut on; once , aga

in,

thi s ga r

m e

nt

of g lory; to brIng

thi

s

abo

u t,

th

e

\V ord

f

put

,on .

bod y' at the inca rna t ion, a

nd th

en, a t hi s Ba pt ism in the ri

ver

J

or

d a n, he places

th

e ga

rm

e

nt

'of g

lor

y

in

th e Jo rdan

wat

e

r,

re a'dy for the in d ividua l chri stian ' to ' put on a t his 'o r her bap

ti

sm in

th

e bap ti sm a l wate r , I n

thi

s wo

rld th

e'

ba

p tize d possess

thi s garme nt of g lory in po tent ia l, bu t it beco mes a rea lit y

in

th

e \vorld to come : prov id e d

the

y · have '

g a r i n e

un

sullied by sin in the present li fe, Th e '

im

age

or

the robe or '

ga

r

m ent of glory thus ' links toge

th

er all

the

ma in

po

in ts'

in

sa lvation

hi stot y, a

nd thu

s vivid ly

brin

gs.ho

me the

clo se

re

la tions

hip

twe

en th

e individual chri stia n today'

and th

ese p as t '. e ve

nt

s' in

sa l

va

tion .

hi

story: 'E

ar

li est Syri

ac

christi a

nit

y cvidently :took·

th

e

id

ea of Ada m and Eve being clo

th

ed in pa ra dis e with

th

e robe

of gl,Dry from an

ea r

ly J ewish i n t e of

~ e ~ ~ ~ ,3:21 (the

d ocs' n

or

oecur in

th

e b i ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

84

The

Bible

in

th e

Sy riac

Trad it

io

n

though the Hebrew

,

Cree

k and

S)'riac

texts

ther

e spc:lk

or

AI'PEN[) X: SOME S I \ ~ TRANSLATIONS FROM



•

I

ment

s of skin ' being provided for Adam a nd Eve, the J ew ish

.

Aramaic

translat ion,

kn

ow n

as the

T drgum , interpre ts [

hem

H

'g arments of honour/glory '; similarly, a famous Rab bi,

Rabbi

vIcir, is

sa

id

to ha

ve had a Hebrew text

which re ad

'gar

ment

s

.

of

lig

ht H( 'o

r

)" in

st

ea

d of

(garments

of skin

tt 'or)"

' . A

ccord.

jog

to

th is

in

ter pr

et a

tion th ese

ga

rments

of glory

or light

be.

l

onged to Adam

a

nd

Eve " before"

th

e

Fall

WhCI'C

' l S

accord-

ing to th e n

orma

l translat i

on, 'gar

m

en

ts of s

kin'

; hcv wer e

g i

ven

to

them

"aftc

r"

the

Fall

(

the

Hebrew

text

co

uld

"be

in

terpret

ed either way, as far as

the

point in lim e is

co

n

cer

n

ed

).

Although the

Syriac

transl

ato

rs

of

the

Pcs

hitta did

not

introduce

this id ca at Genes

is 3:21,

they

do a

llud

e

to

it in some

other

passages; thus at Psa lm 8:6 th e Peshitta has

'yo

u (God) c reated

man a

littl

e less than

th

e

angc

ls;

in

h

onoU1

: and g lo ry

did

you tfcloth

c"

him'

(t he

He b

rcw

anti [he Greek boLil have

rc r

own

him' , not 'clothe him') ' Likewise

at

P

sa

lm 132 :1 6 the

h i l t

(bu t

no

t

the Hebrew an

d Gn.:ek)

spea

ks

o( 'g

l

ory' <l

i

th

e clothing

of

th e

ju

st. (n

th

e Pes

hitta New

Tcstam t:

nt

the

t o r s

h

ave

int

roduced thc idea

of th e l n a t i

O I l as

'P

Utl -

,mg

on th

e body' ,

at tw

o places in the Letter to

the

H

ebrcws:

at

H

ebrews

5:7

Chri

st

is de

sc ri

bed

as

'b e

in g

clothed in flcsh'

( th e Greek has '

in the

da ys of h is ~ ) ; and at Hebrews 10:5

'

(where

' P

sa

lm 40 is quoted as a prophecy of

Christ)

t

lt

c SY iac

h

as 'Yo

u

clothcd me

in

a bod

y' ,

whe

r

eas the Greek ha

s

'YO li

prepared a

body COI-

me'_

- have a lready secn

the im portance

of t he

term

Hag-gen,i

_(lJqscd c S p e ~ on Luke _1:35 and J ohn 1: I'f) in t he Syriae

litu rgica

l

tr

adiLi

on

. In so

me later Syriac writers

(n

ot ably

St.

I

saac

of the ter m al,'1O ' beca me:

n

impor tant one .for

.des.cl'

ibin

g

th

e

t r a n s r m i [ ~ g

,

action of the

H oly Sp irit

o n' the m·

Jcnor

.: ra lttti·

of thc c a l t ~ .

' . ; . ' ,

..

All

these

te

rm

s ' a

rc

'

bc

'

found

on

ly ' in '

the

S\' d

ac

:oth<: . ' b i b l i c ~ I tCrms i c H

'spiritua lit y,

but

e ~ e

nre

H cbrc\v, as

\vell '

as

in"

th

'e

• 1

ba

sed 'on some

di

stin

ctive

i'ca

turc to

Bible.

'There

'a l:e,

of

·

cou

rse.

man

y

nrc likewise ' charactcl"istic of Syri ,tc

al so 'to be

found

in the G reek and

Syriac Bible.

'

Further i n r ~ r m a t i o n

on s

ubject can

be

(ound

in

Course

on

Syriac Sp irillin li i

y

.

THE

SYR

lA C BIBLE

r

I ,

The

following pa ssage, J o

hn

6: I -12 , ill

ustra

tes

the

l{clation-

ship betw

ee n the two O ld Syri

ac

manuscripts, S

[Sinaiti

cus] and

C

[Curcton i

an

L a

nd the

Peshitta

[£1]. For much

of

the ti m

e

th e),

arc

nearly id

enti

ca

l,

but

towards th e end,

especia

lly, there a re

places wh

ere they differ.

T he

tran

slat i

on

is

deliberatel

y

very

li tera l; (

_

) denote s wo rd s supplied for th e sa ke of English idi

om;

(

..

]

denote

s

pa

ssages

where

S is illeg

ible.

John

6: I

SCI' After

these things ou r

Lord

(Je sus

CP)

WC lll

to

t he far sid e

of

the l

ake

(sea P)

of Gali

lee -of

Tiberias,

2

and

t here

we

nt

after

him a great crowe d ( many

crowds

P), for th ey

were

see ing

the

si

gns

w

hi

ch he was

performing upon

(a

ll P) the

s ick. 3 And

our

Lo

rd (Jesus CP) we

nt

up to the

mo

unt

ai n, and

(h

ere he \Vas

s

itting with

his

di

s

cip

les.

4 S And th

ere wa

s close at hand the Feast

of Un

l

eavcm·d

Bread

of

t

he J ews.

4 C Anq ther,e

was

close at hand

Pesakh)

the Fea st

or t

he J ews,

4 P

Now

there

was

clo se at hand

the

F

east

of

Pa sc ha

of

the

,

J c ' ~

5 SC I' And

our l.ord

(.Jesus

CP

) lifted up

hi

s eyes and

saw

"

grea

t crow d

(C many

crowds)

th

a t h

ad

come

to

him

.

And

(S o

mi

ts) he

sa

id

to

Philip, From where sha ll

we

' buy

bread

f

or

these people to cat

(C so

that the

se

people m y ea

t ;

P

for

the

se

t o cat)? 6 Now he as if test ing

him

asked him (P

Now

th is he

sa id

,

testing him

); [or

he him

self

knew

' w hat he

wa

s

going to do.

Philip sai d

to him,

Two

hu n

dred

denarii of bread

is I

ot

surf'ici·

c

nt

l

or them, though

th

ey cal vcry littlc

: (P

th

ough

c a ~ h one take

very

Iiltle). .

_

_

-r

8 One

of

his di sciple s said to

hi m,

whose name was A n d r e ~

(C P

Andrew was

his name),

the

b

ro t her

of Simon ,Kcpha:, ,

9 5

On

a boy thcre is h

ere

fivc loaves

of

barley and tWo fishes,

9 C ,

There

is

a

boy

h ~ r e

who

ha

s

on him fiyc

,l

oaves of barley

,

a nd two fi shes', " :

9 P There is here a boy who

ha

s on

hi

T.

v ~ s

of ba rle y

'

and tw

p

fj

sh

es,

"

i i I

S

but

for

all

tilcse

what

will

,.

ci )

but what will

the

se do for a ll these?

86 The Bible in t he

Sy

ria c

Tra

dition

l OS He s

aid

to th em,

a k c

th e

peop

le

c c l i n ~ .

Now th

en:

was

mu ch

Appendix: Some Sample

Tran

slati

ons

.... 87



i

I

I

i

I

I

I

10 C

10 P

s

Je sus s

aid

, Co , make the peop le recline by group s. Now

th ere wa s mu ch

Je sus said to Get a ll these t? recl ine.

Now

th ere

was mu ch

g ra ss in th e place. H e sa id to Ihc':JlJ Co nuke th e peop le

recline on the '

C gr a

ss

ill th at

place.

Alld th e peop le ,"cclined , ia Ilumber

fi

ve

thousa

nd

.

P

grass

in

the place.

And the

men

recl ined , in

numb

er

fi

ve

thousand.

II S

II

C

I I

P

S

C

And whe n th

ey had

~ d c

th

em

reclill

e,

then Je

slis too k

th ose five

(pie ces of) br

ea

d

and

[cye:] , heave n

(pi eces

of) hr

ead,

And J esus tonk those

And .J

es

us lOl)k the

the two

fi

shp.s, a nd he rai sed his

P bread,

nd hlessed and divided for hi s disc

iples

[ J

C and

ble

sse d a nd

gave.::

to th o

se '

wer c rcci il

ling .

And

Ji

.kcwise also

. P and bl essed a

nd

di vid ed to t llose

\ v

11

0

I' .

were .rec

11l1llg .

.

And

lik ew ise a lso ' ' .

S

['

'.

1

C \lith the fj sh, a s mu ch

as

they wallted.

from the

fi s

h,

as

mu

ch

as they wa nted.

12

SCP

And wh<:n

were

satisfied, he sa id ' to his disc

iple

s,

Gather fragments so , that nothing (P les t ' a'nything;

C

+

at a li i perish. ..

13 S

And the

y g<:,-thered

the

,fragment s whi ch were lert over

them ' "

13

C An d '

th

ey

ga

th e red

13 P And they gathered

S a nd th ey fjIled tw elve b::t.skets with what was left over fl'om

those five . . '

G a nd they fil1cd twelve b.lSkcts of fJ :agmcnts ' from the five

J> and

they

fHled

tw

elve b

as

kets

of

fragmen ts whic,h

were

le

ft

over

2.

S l

oaves

of ba rl ey and th ose two fishes. Now the men who

were

eating

of

th is bre a d

were five thou

sand.

C c c ~ s ) of ba rle y bread , what wa s left over by ' those

who

ate

.

P .

by th ose who

ate

from the five (pie ces of ) bread.

Pete

r

3:9- 2

1.

The Pcshitta is

quite

o

ften offers an

interpretative transla

tion in the Le

tt

ers of Paul, J a me s an d Peter. If o

ne

compares

the

ft)ll owing t ransla tion fr om th e Peshitta with one

of the

st and

ar d English

translation

s from the G ree k, onc will di scover

a

num ber of

3

mall differences .

cr

l P

ete

r

3:9 For the rea

s

on

why

you

h

ave

b

ee

n

ca

ll

cd

is in

or9-cr that you

may

inherit the ble ssin g.

,

1

Therefore,

who-

ever

wi she s for life (or: salvation)

and

to sec good

tim

es,

he

should guard his tongue from

evil, .and J ~ t . l 1 i lip

s not uller

deceit.

11 Let him cross over fr pm ,

v i l and

do w,ha t is

.

good:

l

et

him

sec k

for

p

eace,

a

nd

run

af

te r

.

it

12

For

the

eyes

oCthe Lord arc upon the ri ght

eous

: his cars arc (there) to hear

them .But the L

or d'

s face is (a lso)

up on .the

. wicked. .1 3 Who

will

do

evil

to you

if

you

arc ze a lous for what is , goo d? 1

t

And

if

y

ou

shou ld suf fer . for the sake

of

ju stice,

hlc

ssed are you; and

h

fvc

no fear . who'y 'y

0

, h t ~ n dd. ot

be

up set. 15 In stead, c

ry

(h ol

y'

to

the

Lord qhrist

in

your ,heart

s)

and be prepared to ma ke a d efe nce to all ' who require ' of

you

some word concerning th e .hope of your faith,

16

(d o ing so) in

humility

and in fear, h

av

ing a

goed consclencc,

.

so

:

that th

ose

.who speak aga inst you , as

if

aga inst

~ v i k d

-people, may

be

asliamcd

.

as people

who bea utiful ,yay of Hfe in' Christ.

17 'Fo; '

it

is e f i c ~ a ,for while pcrfoming gO ld wOI'ks,

you

sh

ould endure

' ev

il

,

if

thi s IS the

will

of God, rather than

(that th is should happen ) when.you perform evil. 18 . For Christ

,

top

pnce died for

a

l i I sin s: a

ju

st

pe r

son on

beha

lf of sinn

ers

, in

o rder to i n g yo u close to God. H e both qied . in th e body

and

came

to life in spirit. · 19

And he

preached to

th

e sou ls which

were held in Slu'ol, 20 th e ones which of old ha d not been obedi-

ent in, the cla ys of Noah, when God's patien

ce gave orders

that

f8 Th e Bible

in the

Syriac Tradition

there

s

hould

be th e

Ark

, in

the

hope

of their repentance-but

SYRIAC BIBLE "' "

.

,,:

..



I

: I

i

,I

I

I

on ly eight souls entered it and

were

saved in the water. 21 You

too

in

th at sa me manner (literally, type) arc alive (or: saved)

ill

baptism-not washing

your

body

of

dirt , but

acknow

1edg ing God

w

ith

a

pur

e consc i

ence,

and

the

re s

urrection of Je

sus

Ch r

ist who

W; S

ra ised

up

to heave

n.

where he

is

at the

right

hand of

God;

: Ild the . ~ n g c l s authorir ics and

puwers

have

been

subjected

to

.

him.

The

expansion

ill verse 20 is

of part

icular in terest, for the

translator

is clearl y aware

of

the

Jewi

sh

tradition

(taken up by

Aphrahat and

Ephrcm)

that God

provided

a l

ong

tim e for

the

hui lding

of

the

Ark in order that everyone

s

hould ha

ve a chan

ce

to

repent.

FOR FURTHER READING

For the

Pcs

hitta

O ld

Testament

th

ere

is a

good

c n c y c l o ~

p; c

dia article by

th e Es

tonian

Syriac h ~ l a r A. Vool>us,

in the

Supplcmclllill'Y volume to the I mcrprctcr's Dictionary of the

Bible (1976),848-5+. A mQre up

to

date one

is to

be published

before

l

ong

in

the An ehol' Di

c

tionary

of the Bible. In French

there

is m o rc detailed

article

hy

evan

Pu yve lde

in

the Dict

iOl1llairc de la Bible Supplement VI ( 1960), under the heading

'O rie

ntales,

versions'. All t hese

i\

'rtic1es

also cover the Syriac ,-

New I Testament as well.

For th e various Syriac vers ions of the New Tcst.;u;ncnt

there ,is a good chapter ,in n.

~ I .

e t z g c r , ,Early ,Versions of the

New Testament (1977).

A more detai led Select Bibliography for the Syriac Bible

is

available at SEER .

FOI' trans l

at

ions

of

some

of

the

Dialogue POCI11s '

mentioned

in Sect ion 6,

sec

S.

Br o

ck,

Sogiatha:

Syriac

Dialoguc

·

Hymns

(

The

Syrian C

hur

ches Series

XI,

1987;

ed. Jac

ob

.

Vcllian). "

For

passages illus

trating th

e '

i n t c r p r c t ~ t i o n

'

of John

19:34

(Sect

ion 5) set: S Brock,

Studies in

·

Syriac

Spirituality

(Syrian

Chu rches Series

13

, 1988; 'cd Ja cob \Iellian), chapter 7. '

000

,

A.

' .

Select Bibliography

EDITIONS

(1) Entire Bible .(Pe'hitta)

2)

G. Sionita (Paris Polyglot) (1645) I ,

B. Walton (London Polyglot) ' (1657)

,.

S. Lee (1823)

>

UBS (

197

9

+

apocrypha)

Vrmia edn (1852) >

Jo

seph .de

Kelayta;

·Trin.

,:

Bible

,Soc. 1913

: I i :

Mosul

edn

1887

9 ;

.J2l

(194,6)59

rp

Beirut

1951 [see:

~ o s t e , "SeT"

Old

(a)

Testament

"PESHITTA"

Lciden

Pcshitta

Project:

.. ,

I , .

I

I

..

"Sample edition" [Cant. Tob.

IV

' EzraJ ' (J966j

"V.T.

Syriace" ;

.

1.I

Gen

. -Ex

. (1977),

IlL '

Isa

i ah

(1

98'1)

1I.2 Jud.--:Sam. (1978) Il .3 Ezekiel (1985)

II.3

Psalms (1980) XTI Proph. Dan

II . > ' Kings (1976) ·· IV.3 ApocBar, IV£(1973)

II.5 Prov.Wis.Qoh.Cant.(1979) IV. 6 Odes; Ap?cr.

ILia J ob 1 9 8 ~ \ 11. :';' '. . .

~ s ~ S ~ ~

Ezra

c r i t i c ~ I . e d i t i o n s

.. · 1. '

; , .

,. . ' ..

" I :

•

Pentateuch ·(W. ~ s , i914) ' ' . i 1

1

1

Psalms (W. Barnes, 1904). .

: . t l} ' ~ " _ t \

Lamentations

(B.

Albrektson, 1963) " . I

Wisdom

·

of

Solomon

(j .

-A:

Emerton;

' 1959}

·i

: ~ p o c r y p h a

(P.

de Lagarde

;

:),861)

.

I , • ,

(b) "SYRO-HEXAPLA"

A. Ceriani, "Codex syro-hexapli

nis;' ''';

'

('1874) I •

. P. dc 'Lagarde; " Bibliothecae Syria cae"

•••

(1892):.

,'W.

BaaF. ' New

Syro.hexaplaric

Texts

(1968) ,

90 The Bible in the Syriae Tr adi tion

- for new ms wi

th

Syro

-h

ex. Pentateuch; see A. VnnlHls.

B i l l i i ~ g ~ . p h ~ 9'1

,

"

· (f) CH R IS

T IA N

PALESTIN IA N

ARAMAIC



'.'

T he Pentateuch of th e Syro-hexapl. ( 1975).

(c)

JACOB

OF ED ESSA

sec

W.

Baars, in

VT"

18

(1

968) 54U·5'

f.

--

(d) CHR ISTIAN

PALESTINIAN

··ARAMAIC

i\

,

1. H. Gos hen -Gottstein, tiThe Bib le ii 'l the Syro-Pales

tinian Version

, . I (1973).

(3) New Testament

(a)

. ,DIATESSARON " p t e d text, from Ep hrem's

,

Commentary) , .

' .

I.

Ortiz de Urbina

,

HVctus

Evangcliu'm Syrol um;

Dia

tc'ss

aron

Tatiani" (1967) cp R . : v I u l · r a y ,

e y ~ h l ' o p

Dournal

10 ('69)

J. Molitor

, Latin

tr. "oc"

6 9 ~ 7

(b) 10LD

SYRIAC

·

F. C, Burkitt (1 90

4

) - based on C

. A.

Lewi

s

(1

910) -

based

on

S.

I.

O;iiz de Urbina (sec

above,

. (a)

'

) .

Kci'chcnstc:inc'r, Bl:ou. z.um a ll syr. · Ak tatcxl, CfBib l"

' 45 (64) ".1 i '

I "i d

, "Del'

altsyr. Pall illste

xt" (CSCO

315, 1 9iO)

. (c)

PESI:

ITTA

,....

" ' ., ' .J :

. .

.j

;:

G

os

pels: Pusey a nd Gwilliam ( 190 I)

whole

NT:

BFBS 1920 and reprint s,

The Wa y

In t

ernationa l,

....

,

often wi t h' Psalll11- )

"

1 i . I ; 11

(d) PHILOXEN A :r . ;, .:. '. ' : .

•

I. ' 1

: ..

Catholic' ' Ep istle s ('Pococke ' Epp.' ):

J,

Gwynn

"Rem

-

min

ts

of

La ter

Sy"

iac Versioits' '' ,(.1909) ·

: :

.

Apocalypse ('Crawforcl Ap oc.:): J. Gwynn, ( 1897 ).

(e) . HARKLEAN '; . I.

J.

Wliit

e ( 1

778f.,2

vols; '

;'n

' . tide wrongly. ca lled 'P hil ox

iana'

): ' Apocal)'

p.e:

· Voabus (

19.78)

,

, Ca t

holic

Epp,

Alan d ·

.,

B.

A.

Lewis

and

\1

'. u

The

.

'

Sy,

:iac '

Lcctionar; .

of the Gospels" (1899)" '" :. ,J · .. L \ '

(for uther texts see list-now in complete-in IF.

Schulte

t

Lexicon Syropa lestinu m (I 903 )

cp

also C. Perrot,

Un fragm"n t chr.

-p

al. ,decouvert '

a ' Kh

ir bet Mird [Acts

10 ) ,

"RB"

70 (1 963) 506-55) .

• , t •

(4) Translations

· G.

M.

Lam sa

(Philadelphia

1957;

London

' 1

961

)

J. Murdock

( NT; Boston/London 1851 ) :

A. O liver (P

Sl

; Bos ton 1861) .

. , •. ' • • ' J .

l

W.

Norton (NT

Ep p .;.

London

1890 )

.,

. . .

'

.

STUDIES

, .: . ,

(1) " General Surveys" . OT

&

NT

:'

: j . t

f

.1.

H . I ~ 9 s p c The -day ,state of; .res,

ca l

;ch OLl the

Pcs

hilt

a in "S tu dies ... d c d i _lp ·:

f I.

:Yf1Obbink"

( Utn :cht , 1

964).

, , . . "

, ' ..:. ' .:

.

:,

, i . . '

C . van Puyvclrlc, . in "D iet. de la Supplement"

· VI (1960), 8 .

-

,

A. Voobus.

in

HI

ntcrprctor

's Dictionary of the Bible,

Suppl. Vo

L

(1

976 ) 848 - 54 - ' . 'I .. r

A. Voobus, in "Ncw Catholic , Encyclopedia" · . .2 (1 967)

>\-33 - 6 -; ( ~ :

:' j

t .

, :

n.

Alan,d & S: o ~ k J ~ . o g i s ~ c l ~ ~ y k d i c

6 (1 980) 181-96 . : .. 1 :" .,

:

.;-1: , 'ifni)

(2) Old Testament

W.

Barnes,

On

th

e

i n f 1 u c n c e

of

th

e'

LX;X

'on

the

Pe.

'1 jT S 2.(1901) . . , ', ': ', ;. ,

J.

Bloc

h,

The

influ

ence

of

the Greek

Bible

on the

Pc

,

, . ' " .

I. :

:,

,'

: 1'

'/ '

AjSL" 36 (1 919/20 , . '

"id", The authorsh

ip

of the

Pe.

AJSL" 35 (1 918 /9

H

id",

Printed editions

of

the Pe

OT,

A]SL" 37

(1

92011 )

S .

1'

. Brock;

Jewi

sh traditions in

Syr

iac sources, JJ8"

30 ( 1979) ,

\1'

- ,\


P. B. Dirksen and M. J . Mulder (edd

.), The

Peshill :

ri.

.,

,.

) ~ i · (7 " \1

~ i b }

g I p ' ~ r .

'

3) New Testament

"

.

/ ..

. :

., ;iI

.I I .1

.



\

'I

/

'Ii

I

,

'

, ,

Hi

ts early te xt

and history"

(Lcidcn

1988 ) .

J

A. Emerton, Unclean birds

and

the origin of the PC ,

uJSS" 7

.1 Goshen-Gottstein, Prolegomena to a critic:d

edition of th

e

Pc, (CScr. Hicro

so

l

".

8 (1 9G I)

Hid , review

of Voobus,

"Pe

sch. und

Targ".

, in

rr JSS"

6 (19 61)

:L.

Baefdi

, Die Peschitta des AT " (AI t. Abh. I

i:

I ,

1927)

S. Isenberg,

On

the .Jewish Palestinian or ig ns o f the

Pe

to the Pentateuch,

lBL

90 (1971)

M. D.

Koster

,

T

he

Peshitta

of

Exodu

s"

(1 977), Part

I. C and

VI.

E: Levinc, The Syriac version of

Ocn

4, . (rVT 26

(1976 ) 70-8.

Y. Maori, "The Pcshilta version

of

the Pent. ~ 7 5 J

J.

'

c r l c ~ , l e l c t e m a t a Pcschitoni tlna, (1859)

. J Pinkerton , Origin and car ly histo

ry

of

the

Syriac

Pent. JTS

15 ' (1914). '

.I. P. M. van der Ploeg, The Pc

of

the OT, OCA 18G

(1 970)

A. Voobus, ({Pesch. und Targumim, des" Pentatcuchs"

(1958) [Ex

15

and

Dt32)

.

1 . Wcrnberg-

·

Miler.

"

(Pc.

Pe

nt

: · : and

Targum.),

Studia

Theologica

" ,

15

(1961)

" lid",

Prolegomena

to

a

recxarrlin"tio,\

of

the

Pal. Tg.

fragment pubiishcd by P

Kahle

and the ir relations

hip

to

the Pcshitta ,

JS S

" 7

(19

62 ) ,

(lid,", '

Some

scribal

and

linguistic feature,s of the Genesis

pa r. of the oldest

Pc

ms (ll M Add 14425), - lSS 13

(1 968) • ,

-

/t

'

\f . Black,

The

Syr iac Ver sional' '

evidence

; in

cd. K.

Aland , " Die alten Ucbersetzungen des NT,. (1972)

" " , ' ' : ~ ' ". , i (

C. Burkitt,

u E a ~ l y t c r n C h r i ~ n i t y ~ c h ~ II

°B. M. Metzger, The

Early

Ve rsions of ' the

NT

·

(1

977 ).

A. Voobus, ('Studies

in

. the history of thc Gospel text

in

Syriac

(1951) . .

i d . ,

"

Early version

s of

the

NT

(1954).

·

oi

d. Syrioc

Versions' in lOB

Supplem.

Vol.

(1976)

S: P.

BROCK,

The

r

es

olution

or the, Phi/oxo

nlon/Horkleon

problem ,

in

:

E

ssoys

in

honour or B

M. 'Metzgh (1981)

.

c. TOOLS ·

InSS.

List of OT

Pe

shitta Manuscripts (Lciden 1961)

J T,

Clemons, "

An index

of Sy.riac mss containing the

Ep p

.

and

Apocalyp se;,

(S

tudies

and Documents

33, 1968)

carly

editions:

E. N estlc,

"Syriac

Grammar with biblio-

graphy. (p p . 17- 30 of '

Litteratura

Syriaca ' ).

lexicon/concordance: C.

Schaaf,

HLcx i

co

n syr iacum con-

co rdantiale

" . (L eidcn 170

9) [NT

only)

L., Techcn , Syr.-hebr.

Glo ss

al

zu

den

Psalmen aach del'

pc

ZAW 17

(1897)

R'Smend,

CfGriech.-Syr Heb r.

Index

lour

Weisheit

des Jesus Si raeh (1907)

w.

Jenning.s, L c ~ i c o l l

to

the

Syria

c

NT (Pc)

(1926 )

W.

Strthmann, KorRordan z des syr. Kohcletbuches

(1973)

(Pe and

Syh)

N. Sproengel",

"Konkordanz zum

syrischem

rsa1ter"

( 1976 )

.-

94 The Bi b le in the Syr iac

Tradit

ion

M.

:tvl.

Winter, t A Co nco rd ance to the PcShitta version



of Bcn Si

ra

976)

\OV Strothmanll ct alii, C< Konk ordanz z ur

sY l'ischen

Bibcl .

Die

p;oph

cicn 984);

Del' Pentateuch (1986).

Anon. u

The

Concordance to the Pcshilta

Version

of the

Ar ama ic

NT

(1985) .

bibliograph y: C. :i\'lo ss, Catalogue

of

Syriac printed

b

oob

a

nd

r

elated

lit

erat

ur

e in

th

e.13

M

(1962)

[up to

1959]

S. p , Brock, Syriac Studies 960 197

0),

Pa role de

I 6ri

c

ni

, 4 973) 405

1

0; ( 1

97 1-80) in

'

Pa r

olc

de

I ' Or icnt I .0 98

2) , 306 :'14 .

id , C. T. Fritsch & S. Jellicoc , A Class

ified

Biblio

gr

aphy

of the SeptuaJ>i

nt

973),

89

- 94.

[01

books

t

rn

nsl froUt Gree

k: i

c Ap oc ry

pha

,

Syh, Jac.

Ed.

and CPA

]

. .

: '

',

..

QUESTIONS

The answ

ors

should be

brief

and

to the point

.

They

should

reach

The

Director.

S,

C. C. late st by

31st

of March, 1989.)

Virtua ll y all carly biblical translations arc basica ll y text·

oriented ratlle r tha n rca dcr·o riCp 1Cd . Exp lai n.

2 \Vhat are the con sequences of the distinction between

r i p ~

tural

authe

nticity an d literary authen ti city, which have affcc

ted the translations

of

the Dibl

e?

3 '

'''r

ite s

hort

n

otc

s on:

I.

Pc

shina 2. m r o n 3.

Early

Sy l'iac Commentaries

0

the

Bible 4.

Biblica l Inter pr

etat

ion

in

th

e :

Syri ac Tradi-

tion.

4 BI icfly describe some of the mo st imp orta nt features eharac·

tt.r istic of

the

Syri ae tradition in the use of the St riae Bible

for

p r e ~ \ e

5 Show how the phraseology of the Syriac Bibl r is ingrained in

the and hymns of the SYl' i:lC Liturg ics.

6 Bring alit the relat ion between Syriac Spi l'ituality

Pcs hitta.