11-23-2013, 09:27 PM
I think I have to step in here and mention this.
I believe Peshitta is written by the disciples of Jesus Christ in first century AD. The integrity of Aramaic started to weaken only after 106 AD (when Nabatean Kingdom ended).
The integrity of Aramaic began to fall apart after 130 AD when Bar Kokhba came to power in 131/132 AD and he tried to revive Hebrew for the sake of his messianic idealogy and tried to make Hebrew the official language of the state during Bar Kokhba revolt instead of Aramaic.
In first century AD, we know that People from Galilee, Judaea, Jerusalem, Idumaea, Tyre, Sidon, Syria, and from beyond Jordan came to see Jesus for healing and to hear his discourses.
Mark 3:7-8 (Murdock Translation of Western Peshitto) ? ?And Jesus retired with his disciples to the sea. And many people joined him from Galilee, and from Judaea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan, and from Tyre, and from Sidon: great multitudes, when they heard all that he did, came to him.?
Luke 6:17 (Murdock Translation of Western Peshitto) ? ?And Jesus descended with them, and stood in the plain; and a great company of his disciples, and a multitude of assembled people, from all Judaea, and from Jerusalem and from the seashore of Tyre and Sidon; who came to hear his discourse, and to be healed of their diseases;?
Matthew 4:24-25 (Murdock Translation of Western Peshitto) ? ?And his fame spread through all Syria. And they brought to him all them that were very sick with diverse diseases, and them that were afflicted with pains, and demoniacs, and lunatics and paralytics; and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes from Galilee, and from the Ten Cities, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond the Jordan.?
Ten cities include cities from Israel, Jordan, and Syria. They all understood what Jesus was saying. That proves that Aramaic was mutually intelligible in first century AD.
This is also supported by Jewish Historian Josephus.
Jewish Wars (Book 1, Preface, Paragraph 1): "I have proposed to myself, for the sake of such as live under the government of the Romans, to translate those books into the Greek tongue, which I formerly composed in the language of our country, and sent to the Upper Barbarians. Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work]."
Notice the fact that he wrote Jewish Wars formerly in the language of his country and sent to Upper Barbarians. We read that Josephus translated into Greek for the sake of such as live under the government of the Romans. Josephus wrote Jewish Wars in 2 languages.
Jewish Wars Book 1 Preface, Paragraph 2 - "I thought it therefore an absurd thing to see the truth falsified in affairs of such great consequence, and to take no notice of it; but to suffer those Greeks and Romans that were not in the wars to be ignorant of these things, and to read either flatteries or fictions, while the Parthians, and the Babylonians, and the remotest Arabians, and those of our nation beyond Euphrates, with the Adiabeni, by my means, knew accurately both whence the war begun, what miseries it brought upon us, and after what manner it ended."
We read that Parthians, Babylonians, remotest Arabians, and those of his nation beyond Euphrates with Adiabeni knew accurately about Jewish Wars through Josephus. This easily means that Aramaic spoken by Josephus and his country (Israel) was also the same spoken among Parthians, Babylonians, and remotest Arabians.
The difference between the way Galileans spoke Aramaic and Judean spoke Aramaic was just like how Cockney sounds to a British aristocrat. Just think of Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller) and Professor Higgins (Leslie Howard) in Pygmalion.
The originality of Peshitta can be seen even through Greek manuscripts.
Talitha Koum in Greek
A few Greek manuscripts (Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus) of Mark's Gospel have this form (Talitha Koum) of the text, but others (Codex Alexandrinus, the text-type known as the Majority Text, and the Latin Vulgate) write Talitha Koumi instead of Koum.
In Peshitta Aramaic, "i" in Koumi is written. But it is not pronounced. So the pronunciation is "Talitha Koum" while it is written as "Talitha Koumi." What happened was the scribes of Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus wrote the pronunciation "Talitha Koum" while the scribes of Codex Alexandrinus and other manuscripts transliterated words "Talitha Koumi"as it is written in Peshitta.
Source - Wheeler Thackston's Book "Introduction to Syriac", section 14.6 "Imperatives section", Page 81.
Syriac is just another name for Aramaic. Greeks called Arameans "Syrians" and Aramaic (written by Galileans and Arameans in Estrangela script) as Syriac.
For Example, "Aram" and "Arameans" (in 2 Samuel 8:6 of Hebrew Masoretic Text) are called "Syria" and "Syrians" (in 2 Samuel 8:6 of Septuagint).
That is why NIV translates "Aramean language" in (2 Kings 18:26 of Hebrew Masoretic Text) as "Aramaic" and Douay Rheims Bible translates "Syrian language" found in 2 Kings 18:26 of Septuagint and "Syriace" in 2 Kings 18:26 of Latin Vulgate as Syriac.
Aside from mentioned above, the idea that Peshitta Syriac didn't exist before 3rd century AD wouldn't make any sense considering the fact that Book of Job in Septuagint was translated from Syriac.
Book "Targum and Testament Revisited: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible" by Martin McNamara, Page 96 - In Septuagint manuscripts (Manuscripts- Aleph, A, B, and C), there is an epilogue in Book of Job which is introduced with the words: "houtos hermeneutai ek tes syriakes bibliou."
Translation - "this was translated from the Syriac book".
I believe Peshitta is written by the disciples of Jesus Christ in first century AD. The integrity of Aramaic started to weaken only after 106 AD (when Nabatean Kingdom ended).
The integrity of Aramaic began to fall apart after 130 AD when Bar Kokhba came to power in 131/132 AD and he tried to revive Hebrew for the sake of his messianic idealogy and tried to make Hebrew the official language of the state during Bar Kokhba revolt instead of Aramaic.
In first century AD, we know that People from Galilee, Judaea, Jerusalem, Idumaea, Tyre, Sidon, Syria, and from beyond Jordan came to see Jesus for healing and to hear his discourses.
Mark 3:7-8 (Murdock Translation of Western Peshitto) ? ?And Jesus retired with his disciples to the sea. And many people joined him from Galilee, and from Judaea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan, and from Tyre, and from Sidon: great multitudes, when they heard all that he did, came to him.?
Luke 6:17 (Murdock Translation of Western Peshitto) ? ?And Jesus descended with them, and stood in the plain; and a great company of his disciples, and a multitude of assembled people, from all Judaea, and from Jerusalem and from the seashore of Tyre and Sidon; who came to hear his discourse, and to be healed of their diseases;?
Matthew 4:24-25 (Murdock Translation of Western Peshitto) ? ?And his fame spread through all Syria. And they brought to him all them that were very sick with diverse diseases, and them that were afflicted with pains, and demoniacs, and lunatics and paralytics; and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes from Galilee, and from the Ten Cities, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond the Jordan.?
Ten cities include cities from Israel, Jordan, and Syria. They all understood what Jesus was saying. That proves that Aramaic was mutually intelligible in first century AD.
This is also supported by Jewish Historian Josephus.
Jewish Wars (Book 1, Preface, Paragraph 1): "I have proposed to myself, for the sake of such as live under the government of the Romans, to translate those books into the Greek tongue, which I formerly composed in the language of our country, and sent to the Upper Barbarians. Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work]."
Notice the fact that he wrote Jewish Wars formerly in the language of his country and sent to Upper Barbarians. We read that Josephus translated into Greek for the sake of such as live under the government of the Romans. Josephus wrote Jewish Wars in 2 languages.
Jewish Wars Book 1 Preface, Paragraph 2 - "I thought it therefore an absurd thing to see the truth falsified in affairs of such great consequence, and to take no notice of it; but to suffer those Greeks and Romans that were not in the wars to be ignorant of these things, and to read either flatteries or fictions, while the Parthians, and the Babylonians, and the remotest Arabians, and those of our nation beyond Euphrates, with the Adiabeni, by my means, knew accurately both whence the war begun, what miseries it brought upon us, and after what manner it ended."
We read that Parthians, Babylonians, remotest Arabians, and those of his nation beyond Euphrates with Adiabeni knew accurately about Jewish Wars through Josephus. This easily means that Aramaic spoken by Josephus and his country (Israel) was also the same spoken among Parthians, Babylonians, and remotest Arabians.
The difference between the way Galileans spoke Aramaic and Judean spoke Aramaic was just like how Cockney sounds to a British aristocrat. Just think of Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller) and Professor Higgins (Leslie Howard) in Pygmalion.
The originality of Peshitta can be seen even through Greek manuscripts.
Talitha Koum in Greek
A few Greek manuscripts (Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus) of Mark's Gospel have this form (Talitha Koum) of the text, but others (Codex Alexandrinus, the text-type known as the Majority Text, and the Latin Vulgate) write Talitha Koumi instead of Koum.
In Peshitta Aramaic, "i" in Koumi is written. But it is not pronounced. So the pronunciation is "Talitha Koum" while it is written as "Talitha Koumi." What happened was the scribes of Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus wrote the pronunciation "Talitha Koum" while the scribes of Codex Alexandrinus and other manuscripts transliterated words "Talitha Koumi"as it is written in Peshitta.
Source - Wheeler Thackston's Book "Introduction to Syriac", section 14.6 "Imperatives section", Page 81.
Syriac is just another name for Aramaic. Greeks called Arameans "Syrians" and Aramaic (written by Galileans and Arameans in Estrangela script) as Syriac.
For Example, "Aram" and "Arameans" (in 2 Samuel 8:6 of Hebrew Masoretic Text) are called "Syria" and "Syrians" (in 2 Samuel 8:6 of Septuagint).
That is why NIV translates "Aramean language" in (2 Kings 18:26 of Hebrew Masoretic Text) as "Aramaic" and Douay Rheims Bible translates "Syrian language" found in 2 Kings 18:26 of Septuagint and "Syriace" in 2 Kings 18:26 of Latin Vulgate as Syriac.
Aside from mentioned above, the idea that Peshitta Syriac didn't exist before 3rd century AD wouldn't make any sense considering the fact that Book of Job in Septuagint was translated from Syriac.
Book "Targum and Testament Revisited: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible" by Martin McNamara, Page 96 - In Septuagint manuscripts (Manuscripts- Aleph, A, B, and C), there is an epilogue in Book of Job which is introduced with the words: "houtos hermeneutai ek tes syriakes bibliou."
Translation - "this was translated from the Syriac book".