Aramaic Peshitta
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page XVII
III.-
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SYRIAC OF THE PESHITO-SYRIAC TEXT, AND THE POPULAR
SYRIAC DIALECT OF PALESTINE.
The Syriac words which are retained in the Greek text have a slight difference,
in form, from those of the Peshito-Syriac text; and show that the Syriac of
Palestine, used by the Redeemer, differed slightly from that of Edessa, for
which city the Peshito-Syriac was made. Professor Neubauer says, that the Syriac
words which are recorded in the Greek text, show that the Jewish Syriac
"was a distinct dialect, in some respects, from the Syriac of the
Syrians," (pg. 53) No book of the New Covenant writings has come down to
us, written in the popular dialect of Palestine. The Gospel of Matthew is said
by all the early Christian writers to have been written for the Christians of
Palestine in their own Syriac language. It has not come down to us in that
dialect. But Jerome (who died A. D. 420) said that he had seen a copy of it. His
words are these:- "Matthew, the first [writer], composed in Judaea, for
those of the circumcision who had believed, a gospel of Christ in Hebrew letters
and words. Who it was who afterwards translated it into Greek is not
sufficiently certain. Moreover the Hebrew gospel itself is preserved even to
this day in the Library at Caesarea, which Pamphilus the martyr collected with
the greatest diligence," (Jer. Jones on the Canon, part ii., chap. xxv.,
sec. 13; also Prager on Old Covenant Peshito, pg. 36) The siege and destruction
of Jerusalem are probably the cause of its having been so rare even at that
time. It seems also to have been afterwards corrupted and made worthless. But it
was much more important that copies of the inspired books should be preserved in
the more widely used Syriac dialect in which the Peshito is written, than in the
local dialect of Palestine. And God so ordered events that though whatever books
of the New Covenant were written in the Syriac of Palestine, seem to have
perished, those of the Peshito in the Edessa dialect were multiplied
exceedingly, and were copied with the utmost care.
The New Covenant Peshito Syriac, properly so called, NEVER CONTAINED THE WHOLE
OF THE BOOKS WHICH WE HAVE IN THE GREEK TEXT. The books 2nd Peter, 2nd and 3rd
John, Jude, and Revelation, were never regarded as part of it, though these
books, in a separate Syriac translation, were admitted to represent inspired
books. The extraordinary esteem in which the books of the Peshito were held,
shows that the Syriac copies of these were regarded as having had a far more
exalted origin than the Syriac text of the other five. The fact seems to be,
that at the later date at which the omitted five books were written, no inspired
men corrected them in the dialect of Edessa; and that for this reason the Syriac
translation of these five books was not permitted to be associated with that of
the other books, to prevent it from being regarded as of the same authority.