Hi Felix,
This email was concerning the Peshitta translation.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php?topic=1449.0 ---------
Dear ch:
If Dr. Lamsa is a scholar, then I am a brain surgeon.
First, of all, the Peshitta is more modern than the King James Bible. You assumed that the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic. Where is there proof of this? And even if it was, there are NO ARAMAIC copies of any such Aramaic New Testament signatures.
The Pehsitta is a translation FROM GREEK into Syriac which was not a known language until 300 AD. Of what value is a Version that was translated from Greek, to Syriac, to English, over an English Version translated directly from the best and oldest known Greek manuscripts?
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v
I have already read a great deal on the subject, and I can't find ANY proof that the Aramaic or the Peshitta were written and copied from prior oritinal Hebrew and Aramaic signatures.
v
v
Greek was most assuredly spoken in Palestine during the first century A.D. Remember that that Alexander conquered Egypt centuries before Christ, and Greek was spoken from Egypt to India!
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This is from the conference 'How We Got the Bible.'
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,5815.0.html -----------
Now the first real translation that we can follow back in any language, that has been reproduced like the Greek manuscripts, would be the Vulgate in 382AD. But we are back 200 years before that and possibly the oldest translation from the Greek known, is the Peshito/Peshitta. It was translated from Greek into Syriac as early as 160-180 AD. Some refer to it as the Aramaic, but it’s Syriac. They don’t have a copy that goes back that far, but they have a historian quoting from the Peshito in Syriac in 1660 AD or somewhere in that area. So if he is quoting from it, it must have existed, see what I’m saying. But the earliest copy that they have is maybe around the 5th century or so. Pershito means - simple or easy to understand. So it’s a very precise, almost word for word translation.
This is a English translation of the Peshito, it’s called the ’Queen of the Versions’ and ‘The Syriac Vulgate.’ The reason they call it the Syriac Vulgate is because it apparently was a renovation of all these poorly done scriptures that were floating around.
Some say this was translated at Antioch. Remember in the Scripture the followers of Jesus Christ were first called Christians at Antioch. So it would make sense that they would want to have a translation of Scripture in their native tongue.
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Hope this helps.
mercy, peace and love
Kat