Aramaic Peshitta
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page XXIV cont. - XXVIII
DRS. WESTCOTT AND HORT published in 1881, six years after Dr. Westcott's fourth edition of his work on the Canon, dated 1875, a long and mysteriously made introduction to a new Greek text, full of strange changes. Both editors are responsible for the principles, arguments, and conclusions set forth in this introduction, but it was "written by Dr. Hort" (Intro. pg. 18). The following suggestions made by them are founded wholly on IMAGINATION, without one word of proof. "The popular Peshito version, till recently, has been known only in the form it finally received by an evidently authoritative revision......An Old Syriac must have existed as well as an Old Latin. Within the last few years the surmise has been verified. An imperfect Old Syriac copy of the Gospels, assigned to the fifth century, was found by Cureton among MSS. brought to the British Museum from Egypt in 1842, and was published by him in 1858." This is ASSUMED by the writers to be the Peshito "in its original form," and is said to "render the comparatively late and REVISED character" of the Peshito, "a matter of CERTAINTY" (pg. 84). Upon this dream of the imagination, continued references are made to the Peshito as "not coming up to the requirements of criticism," etc. (pp. 84, 92, 136, 156, 158-159). Sadly often have "false witnesses risen up." But it must be deemed an alarming proof of the diseased state of biblical criticism, if we find even leading men indulging, not only in wild fancies, but even in false accusations against the most truthful of witnesses. The late Dean Burgon in his work, "The Revision Revised, 1883," pp. 273-278, said in reference to these conjectures, "Not a shadow of proof is forthcoming that ANY SUCH RECENSION AS DR. HORT IMAGINES, EVER TOOK PLACE AT ALL." He has, "firstly, assumed a 'Syrian Recension;' secondly, invented the cause of it; and thirdly, dreamed the process by which it was carried into execution." After reminding Dr. Hort that Bishop Ellicott has said that, "It is no stretch of the imagination to suppose that portions of the Peshito might have been in the hands of the APOSTLE JOHN," the Dean said, "The ABOMINABLY CORRUPT document known as 'Cureton's Syriac,' is by another bold hypothesis, ASSUMED to be the only surviving specimen of the unrevised version, and is thenceforth INVARIABLY designated by these authors as the Old Syriac." "Not a shadow of reason is produced why we should SUPPOSE, first, that such a Revision took place, and secondly, that all our existing manuscripts represent it." "These editors even assure us that 'Cureton's Syriac' renders the comparatively late and 'revised' character of the Syriac Vulgate," i. e., the Peshito "A MATTER OF CERTAINTY. The very city in which it underwent revision, can, it seems, be fixed with 'TOLERABLE CERTAINTY.' Can Dr. Hort be serious?"
These painful details are given for the double purpose of guarding the reader, first, against wrong conclusions as to the Peshito itself; and secondly, against placing confidence, without due examination, in the conclusions of the most influential critics of the day. The habit of substituting mere conjecture for proof, is far too common with respect to the Peshito.
One illustration of the great importance of some of the questions which these editors try to decide by the aid of conjecture, is worthy of special notice. In John i. 18, they have placed words, meaning that Christ is "the only begotten God." They have placed these words in the main text. The Revisers of the English Version have not put these words in the chief place; but say in the margin, "Many very ancient authorities read, 'God only begotten.' " In two of the three creeds in the Prayer-book of the Church of England the semi-Arian belief is avowed that the Word, the second person of the GODHEAD, was BEGOTTEN by the first. In the Athanasian creed he is said to have been "begotten before the worlds." In the creed used in the communion service he is said to have been "begotten before all worlds, very God of very God, begotten not made." The Peshito has in John i. 18, "the only God," without the word "begotten." He who called himself "I am," declared that, like the Father, he, the Word, is self-existent (John viii. 58). God tells us by Luke, that Jesus is called the Son of God, in respect of his manhood, not of his Deity (Luke i. 35). But these eminent scholars, by following corrupt copies, have introduced the false teaching of the creeds, as to the DERIVED and INFERIOR Godhead of the Word, into the Book of God itself. This false reading not only ascribes to the Redeemer a double Sonship, one, that of his humanity, another, that of his divinity, of which Scripture says nothing; but it provides a theme for the scoff of infidels; and builds a barrier which prevents the godly from asserting the absolute "oneness," and the underived equality of the Deity of the Father and the Word.
BISHOP HERBERT MARSH, Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, in his "Lectures on the Criticism of the Bible, 1828," maintained, as most persons do, that CONJECTURE must not be "applied to the sacred writings," (pg. 26). It is indeed self-evident that conjecture cannot possibly prove a book to be of Divine origin; nor can possibly be a fit reason for believing that any words in it have such authority. We have to insist that evidence, not fictions, shall guide those who profess to teach us what words are those of God, that readings approved by the mass of the faithful both of earlier and of later centuries, shall have a full hearing; that mere foundling copies, without a history, full of copyist errors, and tainted with semi-Arian untruth, shall have a low place and little regard; that copies exactly written, and well attested, as having descended from the very time of the Apostles, shall be treated with all the honour which is their due.
V. - THE BELIEF OF THOSE CHRISTIAN BODIES WHICH HAVE USED THE NEW COVENANT PESHITO-SYRIAC BOOKS.
The fact that the New Covenant Peshito Books were never, for many centuries, combined with any Syriac translation of the five omitted books, though the omitted books were also believed to have had a divine origin in some other dialect, is, itself, a proof that the origin of the Peshito text was believed to be so much above any uninspired translation, that it would have been a sin to bind up any uninspired translation with the Peshito. Wichelhaus says, "In all copies of the Peshito version, those [five omitted] books are sought for in vain" (pg. 221). Yet "it is very well known that the Syrians did not reject those epistles" (pg. 63).
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There is an account of the use of Syriac books called "The New Covenant" by the converts of Thaddeus, one of the seventy who were sent forth by Christ himself in his lifetime. Matthew says that the fame of Jesus "went throughout all Syria" (Matt. iv. 24), and the following are not idle tales, but well authenticated historical facts. Abgar was the king of a small Syrian kingdom called Osrhoene, which, as Gibbon says, "occupied the northern and most fertile part of Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Its capital, Edessa, was situated about twenty miles beyond the Euphrates." (Decline, chap. viii.) Eusebius says that he himself, translated into Greek from Syriac, for his history, the account then existing in the public records of that kingdom, of the manner in which the king and many of the citizens became true Christians. Abgar was afflicted with an incurable disease. He heard of the cures effected by Jesus. He sent a messenger to him asking that he would come and heal him. Jesus is said to have replied, that after his ascension to heaven, he would send one of his disciples to heal him, and to teach both him, and those with him, the way of life. Eusebius says that after the ascension of Jesus, the Apostle Thomas, by divine direction, sent thither Thaddeus, one of the seventy. Thaddeus did great miracles. Abgar was healed by him, and many others.
Dr. Cureton found among the Syriac manuscripts in the British Museum a very old one, copied, he said, "certainly not later than the beginning of the fifth century." Its title is, "The Teaching of Thaddeus the Apostle." It relates what Thaddeus did and said, and what results followed his teaching, down to the time of his death. The Syriac original, and a translation by Dr. Cureton, are before me; also the Syriac, and an English translation of another copy published by Dr. George Phillips, President of Queen's College, Cambridge. Thaddeus, whose first address to the citizens is recorded in this document, spoke in a manner which remarkably corresponds with such a divine mission. In the course of it he said, "Though ye were not near at the time when the Anointed suffered, yet by the sun which was darkened, and ye saw [it], learn and understand how great a convulsion there was at the time of the crucifixion of him whose message has been spread abroad through all the earth, by the miracles which his disciples, my companions, are working in all the earth, and who, though Hebrews, who knew only the tongue of the Hebrews, in which they were born, behold! today are speaking in all tongues; that those who are far off, as well as those who are near, may hear, and may believe, that this is he who confused the languages of the arrogant in this region of the ancients; that it is he who teaches by means of us today, trust in what is true and real, by [us] the lowly and uncultured, who are from Galilee of Palestine. For I also, whom ye see, am from Paneas, from the place where the river Jordan goes forth: and I was chosen, together with my companions, to be a bearer of tidings.....And the seed of his word I sow in the ears of every man; and those who are willing to receive it, theirs will be a good reward of [their] profession: but against those who obey not, I shake off the dust of my feet, as he [Jesus] commanded me. Turn, therefore, my beloved, from evil ways and hateful deeds; and turn to him with a good and honest will, as he has turned to you in the compassion of his rich mercies.....Flee, therefore, from things made and created, as I have said to you -- from things which by name only are called gods, but are not gods in their nature; and draw near to him who, in his nature is God eternally and from everlasting.....Because though he clothed himself in this body, he is God with his Father." "Get that new mind which worships the Maker, and not the things made; [the mind] in which is to be formed an image of what is true and real -- of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit of holiness, when ye shall trust, and be immersed in the threefold glorious names." (See Cureton's Syriac copy, pp. 8, 9, 11).