Aramaic Peshitta
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XLVI
TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM THE PESHITO FOR CHRISTIAN BODIES are themselves testimonies that its authority was deemed as great as, or greater than that of the Greek text. Faust Nairon, in the Introduction already named, refers, as Bishop Walton has done also, to a Syrian Commentator on Psalm xix., who asserts, in reference to the "New Covenant," that "though the Armenians translated from the Greek, they afterwards compared their copy with the Syriac, and made it agree with the Syriac in particular places." (pg. 9.) An Arabic version in part, and a Persian version, were made from the Peshito. (Wichelhaus, pg. 241, also pg. 152.)
In the above testimonies, NO ELEMENT IS WANTING OF PROOF HELD TO BE DECISIVE, that a book is what it is said to be. They give, by their universal and continuous harmony, from very early to the present time, proof that the Peshito had its origin in the time of the Apostles, and was made under their care. They fully satisfy the rule of Bishop Huet. They equally satisfy the rule laid down by Dr. Westcott in his book on the Canon. They are testimonies respecting the belief of large Christian bodies; a belief attested by the treatment of the book as "sacred," and as a Divine Rule of faith and practice. The Peshito is a witness, such as the utmost efforts have failed to find in Greek copies of early date. Vain, as yet, has been every attempt, by means of Greek copies, to give a text which is proved to be "brought back to the condition in which it stood in the sacred autographs." (Scrivener, Int. pp. 6, 520.) But the Peshito, in the opinion of Wichelhaus, who has studied it and its history with the greatest care, possesses a Syriac text so ancient and so well preserved, that even if it were due only to a human translator, it would be proved to represent, with a few exceptions, a Greek text "most like to the autographs of the apostles." (Wichelhaus, pg. 264.) Canon Cook also, the Editor of the Speaker's Commentary, says that the Syriac Peshito, is the version which probably COMES NEAREST TO THE AUTOGRAPHS of the Evangelists, especially in Matthew; " and that to it, and some other authorities, "a higher value is to be assigned in some cases," than to any Greek copies, because this version is "MORE ANCIENT, and BETTER ATTESTED than any manuscripts." (First Three Gospels, pg. 143.)
SECTION VI. -- INTERNAL EVIDENCE THAT THE PESHITO WAS MADE IN CENT. 1., AND IS NOT A MERE TRANSLATION OF THE GREEK.
JESUDAD said that the New Covenant Peshito is "a translation made by the care and solicitude of Thaddaeus and other Apostles." Books written, as the Gospel of Matthew was, in the Syriac of Palestine, needed very little change when translated into the Syriac of Edessa. Paul's letter to the Hebrews, the letter of James, the first of Peter, and the first of John, were all addressed to Hebrews, and probably, therefore, were first written in Syriac, the language of the Hebrews; and needed but few changes when translated into the dialect of Edessa. These few changes were probably what Jesudad called a "translation," so far as the word had reference to these books. The Apostles, when taking the care and oversight of the translation of all the books in the Peshito, were not bound as an uninspired translator would have been, to follow always the exact words of what was translated. They had divine authority to use whatever difference of expression the Holy Spirit might guide them to adopt, as better fitted for use in the translation.
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If, therefore, in comparing the Syriac with the Greek text, we find that they both express nearly the same MEANING, but that in places a supposed Greek original so differs IN WORDS from the Syriac, that if the Syriac had been made by an uninspired translator, he would be justly condemned for licentious departure from his Greek copy, the reason may be, that the inspired translator has been divinely guided to make that difference; and if, in some of these cases of different wording, the Syriac meaning be more clear, or exact, or better adapted for Syrian readers than the Greek wording is, those very differences become evidence of the correctness of the Syrian belief that the Peshito was made "by the care and solicitude of Apostles." For it is evident that an uninspired translator could not, as a rule, bring light out of darkness, clearness out of obscurity, exactness and correctness out of ambiguity and uncertainty. Persons familiar with the Peshito admit the truth of Faust Nairon's remark, that the Peshito does really sometimes "make clear, things difficult or doubtful in the Greek." (Introduction, pg. 9.)
Bishop Walton quotes with approval the remark of De Dieu, that "the true meaning of phrases which often occur in the New Testament, can scarcely be sought from any other source than the Syriac. (Polyglot, Prolegomena, xiii. 19.)
J. D. Michaelis says, "the Syriac Version leads us sometimes to just and beautiful explanations, where other help is insufficient." (Marsh's Michaelis, vol. ii. pg. 44.)
WICHELHAUS REJECTS THE SYRIAN TESTIMONY that the Peshito was made by "the care of Apostles," and gives this reason for doing so, -- that it "does not in all things express and religiously follow the Greek text;" (pg. 259.) But these differences, according to Syrian testimony, are differences made BY SOME OF THE APOSTLES THEMSELVES, in writing or revising the same things in two different languages. If, in some places, the expressions in the Syriac are more exact, and make the meaning more clear, than the Greek does, the fact that they differ from the Greek more than a faithful translator from the Greek would have dared to differ, favours the Syrian belief that they are due to that apostolic authority which had a right to vary the mode of verbal expression, where this was thought to be desirable, in a different language.
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The following are specimens of those differences which Wichelhaus mentions, and which, as he contends, COMPEL the conclusion that the Syrian belief which has existed from the first ages till now, is a complete delusion. The reader will probably think that, instead of proving this, there is nothing in them which is inconsistent with that belief.
The passages which ARE NOT IN THE SYRIAC, are not on that account to be deemed of doubtful authority; for if they are well sustained by Greek copies, that is evidence that they were afterwards added by Apostolic authority. Dr. Scrivener says that some various readings are probably due to additions made by the sacred writers themselves to some copies of their writings after these were first issued. He says," It may be reasonably thought that a portion of the variations [in ancient copies], and those among the most considerable, had their origin in a cause which must have operated at least as much in ancient as in modern times, the changes gradually introduced after publication, BY THE AUTHORS THEMSELVES, into the various copies yet within their reach. Such revised copies would circulate independently of those issued previously, and now beyond the writer's control, and thus, becoming the parents of a new family of copies, would originate and keep up diversities from the first edition, without any fault on the part of transcribers." (Intro., pg. 18.)
In MATTHEW, six differences named by Wichelhaus as proof of bad translation, are certainly not so. They are cases in which the common Greek text is admitted to be corrupt, and the Revisers of the English Version have followed the Peshito readings. They are v. 27; ix. 13 ; xxii. 44 ; xxvi. 9, 60 ; xxviii. 9. In xiv. 24 also, some Greek copies have, as the Peshito has, "many furlongs distant from the land," instead of, "now in the midst of the sea;" so that it is doubtful whether the true Greek text differs from the Syriac there. In vii. 14, the Syriac has, "how narrow"; the Greek has, "for narrow." In x. 10, Syr., 'staff'; Grk., some copies, 'staves'; some 'staff.' xiii. 18, Syr., 'seed'; Grk., 'sower.' xiv. 13, Syr., 'on dry land'; Grk., 'on foot.' xvi. 27, Syr., 'holy angels'; Grk., 'angels.' xxi. 34, Syr., 'that they should send'; Grk., 'to receive.' xxii. 23, Syr., 'the Saducees were saying'; Grk., 'the Saducees who say.' xxii. 37, Syr., 'and with all thy might'; Grk. has it not. xxvii. 9, Syr., 'by means of the prophet'; Grk., 'by means of the prophet Jeremiah.' AN ERROR, for the words are in Zechariah xi. 12, 13. In Matt. xxvii. 60, Syr., 'was hewn'; 'they rolled, placed, departed'; Grk., 'he had hewn'; 'he rolled, and departed.' xxviii. 18, Syr., 'And as my Father sent me, so I send you'; Grk. has it not.
IN LUKE, ix. 34, Syr., 'And they feared when they saw that Moses and Elijah entered the cloud'; Grk., 'and they feared when those, (some copies have, 'when they') entered the cloud.'
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In JOHN, vii. 39, the Syriac has, 'The Spirit was not yet given'; the Greek, 'The Spirit was not yet.' In viii. 1-11, the Syriac has not the account of the adulteress. In the Greek some copies are without it; but others have it. It probably is due to an addition made by John himself after his Greek Gospel was first issued. (See the remark of Dr. Scrivener, quoted pg. xlviii, from his Introduction, pg. 18.) It has in itself strong evidence of Apostolic origin.
In ACTS, iii. 21, Syr., 'until the completion of the times of all those things of which God has spoken'; Grk., 'until the times of the restoration of all things, of which God has spoken.' v. 37, Syr., 'in the days in which men were enrolled for the head-tax'; Grk., 'in the days of the enrollment.' x. 22, Syr., 'in a vision by a holy angel'; Grk., 'by a holy angel.' xii. 1, Syr., 'Herod the king, who is surnamed Agrippa'; Grk., 'Herod the king.' xii. 10, Syr., 'the iron gate'; Grk., 'the iron gate which leads into the city.' xiii. 13, Syr., 'Paul and Barnabas'; Grk., 'those around Paul.' xvii. 19, Syr., 'to the house of judgment which is called Areopagus'; Grk., 'to the Areopagus.' xviii. 5, Syr., 'was restricted in speech'; some Grk. copies have, 'was pressed in spirit'; others, 'was hindered in word'; rendered in Revised English Version, 'was constrained by the word.' xviii. 7, Syr., 'Titus'; Grk., 'Justus.' xx. 4, Syr., 'Timothy, who was of Lystra'; Grk., 'Timothy.' xxviii. 13, Syr., 'Peteoli, a city of Italy'; Grk., 'Peteoli.' xxviii. 29, Syr., nothing; Grk., some copies, 'And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves.' Other Grk. copies, and Revised English Version, have nothing.
In ROMANS i. 1, Syr., 'Paul, called, and a Chief Messenger.' The Grk. has not the word 'and.' The Greek meaning is uncertain. The Common and Revised Eng. Vers. have, 'called [to be] an Apostle'; but the Grk. may be rendered, 'One called, an Apostle.' v. 9, Syr., 'how much more shall we now be declared just'; Grk., 'how much more, having now been declared just.' xv. 6, Syr., 'God the Father'; Grk., 'the God and Father.' So also in 2nd Cor. i. 3; Eph. i. 3; 1st Peter i. 3.
In 1st Cor. vii. 35, Syr., 'but that ye may be faithful to your Lord in a comely manner, not setting thought on the world'; Grk., 'but for what is comely and serviceable to the Lord, without interruption.' x. 2, Syr., 'were immersed by means of Moses'; Grk., 'were immersed into Moses.'
In PHILIPPIANS, ii. 13, Syr., 'to will and to do that which ye wish'; Grk., 'to will and to do on behalf of [his] good pleasure.' ii. 15, Syr., 'pure sons of God, who dwell among...'; Grk., 'children of God without blemish, in the midst of...'
2nd Thess. i. 7, Syr., 'with the power of his angels'; Grk., 'with the angels of his power.'
1st Tim. ii. 15, Syr., 'but she is to have life [-bliss] by means of her children, if they, [the women]', etc. Grk., 'but she will be saved by means of the bearing of children, if they, [the women],' etc.