The Age of the Peshitta

[ScorpioSniper2]

I try to limit using the word "Syriac" so as to not offend the Assyrian brethren on this forum such as yourself. The very word "Syriac" has been used to make distinction as if the language of Jesus and the language of the Assyrians were different languages, rather than slightly different dialects of the same languages. In this article on CARM (to read, click here: http://carm.org/manuscript-evidence), the author says, "As you can see, there are thousands more New Testament Greek manuscripts than any other ancient writing. The internal consistency of the New Testament documents is about 99.5% textually pure. That is an amazing accuracy. In addition, there are over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages. The total supporting New Testament manuscript base is over 24,000." This an example of how much confusion has resulted from referring to this dialect of Aramaic as "Syriac". I only use the term "Syriac" in conjunction with "Aramaic" in order to make distinction between different dialects (like Galilean Aramaic, Judean or Hebrew Aramaic, Mandaic Aramaic), but I try to make it as clear as possible that it is only a difference between dialects (no matter how small), but not between multiple languages. I find you to be a very reliable source on Aramaic linguistics, as you are an Aramaic speaker. Scholarly inquiry isn't something that can exceed the experience of a native speaker of a particular language.