Aramaic Peshitta
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Acts 7:38 - plural variant
Younan found this Greek variant explained by the Aramaic original:
Acts 7:38
In the "Majority Text"
Greek family of manuscripts, the reading is "Living Word" (singular), but in the
"Textus Receptus" and the "Critical Text" the reading is "Living Words".
The difference can easily be explained with reference to
the underlying Aramaic as recorded in the Peshitta text.
The Aramaic words
Fyx fm
("living words"), at a time before the diacretic markings known as Syame were
invented, can be either singular or plural.
fm
- "mela"
= "word" (singular absolute noun, SEDRA #12109)
fm
- "mele"
= "words" (plural emphatic noun, SEDRA #12110)
Fyx
- "kheytha" = "living" (singular adjective, SEDRA #6960)
Fyx
- "kheyatha"
= "living(s)" (plural adjective, SEDRA #6961)
In Aramaic, the adjective agrees in number with its noun
counterpart. Notice that the singular/plural forms are written exactly the same
way if Syame markings aren't present (which would have been the case during the
1st-century when the Greeks translated the Aramaic NT), and the difference in
pronunciation is a mere short vowel