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PeshittA English Translations

Janet M. Magiera

Why a New Translation?

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PeshittA English Translations

There are recent English translations of the ChurchOfTheEastPeshitta which vary (subjective opinion):

The Holy Aramaic Scriptures which is CoE (Eastern)
John Wesley Etheridge's is primarily The PeshittA except for a very few changes like Hebrews 2:9. The absence of Pericope Adulterae is in keeping with the PeshittA text of the Khabouris. Etheridge used the same words in his marginal notes as appears in the Khabouris."
Lamsa's which is mainly CoE, but he took personal liberties
Gabriel Roth - was based on Younan/Khabouris (Eastern) but discontinued. He "is not much of a translator as much as he is an interpreter, just like David Glen Bauscher is.
Murdoch which is PeshittO (Western)
BFBS/UBS - said to be a Critical Text of about 70 to 80 Aramaic Manuscripts, (Western see comment by the late Steven Silver)
The Way International - based on UBS PeshittO (Western)
Georgia Press Antioch Bible, avoid.
Bauscher - based on UBS Syriac Text (Western) not a Peshitta/o?
et alia

See PeshittasEasternOrWesternStats for a comparison of 29 passages for Eastern PeshittA vs. Western Peshitto. The CoE PeshittA translations (HAS Etherridge) should also be free from Constantinunist or Roman tampering, unlike the Western Peshittos which were intentionally Greeked. See also PeshittaVsPeshitto.

The PeshittA OT is said to be a translation into Aramaic from the Hebrew done before 3 c., so neither Masoretic nor LXX nor Constantined.

The discussions on this take/took place at:

Other discussions on the Peshitta take/took place at:

Janet M. Magiera

Janet M. Magiera has a good introdution to the English translations in her April 2006 introduction to her New Testament translation of Gwilliam's UBS 1906 Western critical text medley.

Why a New Translation?

She writes: There are two prominent translations that are out of print from the middle 1800s. One was by JamesMurdoch and the other by J. W. Etheridge. Murdock based his work on the western text and Etheridge on the eastern text. Both of them are still very useful in studying the Peshitta. In the 1930s, Dr. George Lamsa, a native speaker of Aramaic, completed a translation of the eastern manuscripts of the Peshitta and began to travel extensively in the United States, teaching about the value of studying Aramaic. From that time until the present, there has been a renewed interest in fundamental Christianity to know about the language of Jesus and what it has to contribute to biblical study.

Today there are several works available that employ different methods of translation of the New Testament or portions of the New Testament.

The Hebraic Roots Version by Dr. James Trimm emphasizes the Messianic beliefs of his branch of Nazarene Judaism.
Herb Jahn published a very literal translation using cognate definitions in his Exegeses Bible from a computerized lexicon along with distinctive interpretations and grammatical constructions incorporated by Jahn.
The Disciples New Testament by Victor Alexander, a native Aramaic speaker, uses an idiomatic approach to the translation and contributes much in this area.
The American Christian Press has produced an interlinear version of the New Testament in 3 volumes. Dr. Rocco Errico has translated the Gospel of Matthew in a parallel edition with useful footnotes.
Lamsa’s translation is still available for purchase through HarperCollins Publishers.
Another work of great value is by Paul Younan of peshitta.org, which is an interlinear version.
Light of the Word Ministry has developed this particular translation to fill in a need for a very accurate literal translation, but in modern English. The method employed in this translation is to preserve as much as possible the Semitic usage and sentence structure, but in readable English. Idioms are translated with dynamic equivalency. It adds many footnote explanations, providing a way for the biblical student to begin study from the Aramaic. There is a system of marking common expressions and idioms so that the footnotes can be clear and not repetitious. It is meant to be utilized with the complete library of references which are available through Light of the Word Ministry.

Each of the above works represents the distinctive beliefs of the translator.

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