Comparative Edition of the Syriac Gospels

[SteveCaruso]

I don't identify myself as a Peshitta primacist either but it seems to be the oldest Aramaic text of the New Testament to study.

The Old Syriac is conventionally acknowledged as the oldest Syriac text of the NT. There are also portions of the Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament that date as early or earlier than our earliest Peshitta manuscripts. The CPA NT, however, makes itself an obvious (if early) translation from the Greek. For example, all names are transliterated literally, so instead of Yeshua, we see Yesous; instead of Yohanan, we see Yohannes, etc.. Then again the "Melkites" received the New Testament in Greek.

Ironically, despite that the actual Christian Palestinian Aramaic dialect is much closer to the Galilean Aramaic that Jesus and his disciples spoke than Syriac is (grammatically and vocabulary-wise).