Aramaic Peshitta
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page XVI
THE
CONCLUSION to which such a concurrence of evidence leads is that Syriac was
unquestionably the language commonly spoken in Palestine in the time of Christ,
and that very few Jews had a good knowledge of Greek.
This conclusion leads almost of necessity to another; namely, that there must
have been some provision in writing, made by the apostles for the use of that
large body of Christians who knew no language well but Syriac. Whatever was
revealed as the will of God, whether written at first in Syriac or in Greek, was
to be taught, not to the Jews only, nor to the Gentiles only, but to ALL
DISCIPLES EVERY WHERE; that all might know it, and all be guided by it. Peter,
writing to Hebrews, said (2 Epistle i. 15), "Moreover I will endeavour that
ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in
remembrance." This could only be done by writing. The apostles knew well,
and must have remembered as Peter did, that what they had taught by voice would
soon be unknown to most, unless the disciples were well supplied with it in
writing. They must all, of necessity, have had Peter's desire. They must have
wished to make provision that what they taught by revelation to some one church
might be known to all churches, not only while they lived, but after they were
dead. Paul, who was willing to be made a curse, with view to the salvation of
the Hebrews, must have desired that what was revealed to him for the guidance of
Greeks, should be known also to Hebrews; and that it was known to Hebrews in his
life time, appears from the remark of Peter, who laboured chiefly among Hebrews,
and who, when writing to Hebrews, speaks of "all" Paul's letters as
well-known writings. In his 2nd Epistle iii. 16, he says of Paul, "As also
in all his letters, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things
hard to be understood, which those who are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they
do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction." His words imply
that all Paul's letters had been extensively read by Hebrew Christians, and that
they were treated with the same supreme regard as "the other
Scriptures." They cannot have been read by more than a few of the Hebrews
in Greek;
it seems almost certain that there must have been some Syriac translation. Such
considerations as these prepare us to receive readily whatever proof may exist,
that Greek was not the only language in which the apostles left written records
of God's will.
TREMELLIUS, a Christian Jew, who was a Professor in the University of
Heidelberg, and who published, in 1569, an edition of the New Covenant Peshito,
contended that unless God loved FOREIGNERS more than Jews he must have provided
these, as well as the Greeks, with the inspired writings in their own tongue. He
said that it seemed to be "wholly in accord with truth, that at the very
beginning of the Church of Christ, the Syriac version was made either by the
Apostles themselves, or by their disciples; unless indeed we prefer to suspect
that, in writing, they intended to have regard FOR FOREIGNERS ONLY; and to have
either no regard, or certainly very little, for those of their own
nation."((Gutbier's Peshito, pg. 29) We know that the apostles, instead of
showing less regard for the Jews than for the Gentiles, always went to the Jews
first, and showed a surpassing regard for their welfare. It seems to be
extremely probable that Paul himself took care that most of his epistles should
be written IN SYRIAC AS WELL AS IN GREEK, so as to inform his own countrymen
everywhere of whatever was revealed to him for the guidance of all Christians
throughout the world.