08-27-2008, 10:05 PM
Shlama to you Brother Mike,
I would only like to add that most of us agree that the oldest SURVIVING mss of the Western Five (2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude and Revelation) were most certainly done in Greek. Also, almost no one in the Aramaic Primacy Movement argues with the idea that the current Aramaic versions of these books that we now have were translated from the Greek. The translational nature of these books is very obvious and in deep contrast to the compositional Aramaic that is the hallmark of the 22 book Eastern Canon. The fact that no assembly has seriously doubted any of the 22 books (except for a few anti Semites on James and Hebrews and even these were shouted down by the Catholics) and that the Western Five had a very hard time of getting included even by Rome speaks volumes as to the strength of these traditons. I support a 27 book canon, but I admit there is gap in terms of textual criticsim between what I believe and what I can prove.
However, having said all this, many of us on the Nazarene side (including yours truly) also believe that ORIGINAL mss of the Western Five WERE done in Aramaic (some say Hebrew but I don't think so) but these Aramaic versions were lost to us. One day perhaps they may be restored, but the current state of evidence suggests that but for a miracle these are gone forever.
Even so, when I and some others talk about say Aramaic evidence relating particularly to Revelation, what we are talking about is the idea that BOTH the surviving Aramaic AND Greek versions may hark back to the Semitic originals that have eluded us and are now lost. I detail this evidence in my book "Path to Life" (not to be confused with essay of the same name on my website but there is a free version of the Revelation article there), but this should never be confused with the idea that current versions of these works are compositional-original Aramaic. They are NOT.
2 Peter, 2 and 3 John and Jude are honestly very small compositions with little evidence either way. Revelation however is another matter, but make no mistake: The two Aramaic versions of Revelation (Peshitto-Harkalean and Crawford) are BOTH translations from the Greek.
Hope this helps clarify things a little!
Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth
I would only like to add that most of us agree that the oldest SURVIVING mss of the Western Five (2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude and Revelation) were most certainly done in Greek. Also, almost no one in the Aramaic Primacy Movement argues with the idea that the current Aramaic versions of these books that we now have were translated from the Greek. The translational nature of these books is very obvious and in deep contrast to the compositional Aramaic that is the hallmark of the 22 book Eastern Canon. The fact that no assembly has seriously doubted any of the 22 books (except for a few anti Semites on James and Hebrews and even these were shouted down by the Catholics) and that the Western Five had a very hard time of getting included even by Rome speaks volumes as to the strength of these traditons. I support a 27 book canon, but I admit there is gap in terms of textual criticsim between what I believe and what I can prove.
However, having said all this, many of us on the Nazarene side (including yours truly) also believe that ORIGINAL mss of the Western Five WERE done in Aramaic (some say Hebrew but I don't think so) but these Aramaic versions were lost to us. One day perhaps they may be restored, but the current state of evidence suggests that but for a miracle these are gone forever.
Even so, when I and some others talk about say Aramaic evidence relating particularly to Revelation, what we are talking about is the idea that BOTH the surviving Aramaic AND Greek versions may hark back to the Semitic originals that have eluded us and are now lost. I detail this evidence in my book "Path to Life" (not to be confused with essay of the same name on my website but there is a free version of the Revelation article there), but this should never be confused with the idea that current versions of these works are compositional-original Aramaic. They are NOT.
2 Peter, 2 and 3 John and Jude are honestly very small compositions with little evidence either way. Revelation however is another matter, but make no mistake: The two Aramaic versions of Revelation (Peshitto-Harkalean and Crawford) are BOTH translations from the Greek.
Hope this helps clarify things a little!
Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth