He is taking liberties with the Aramaic in that verse. The Aramaic phrase for "I am" is
ena 'na, which is a divine utterance 97% of the time it appears in the Peshitta Tanach. He translates it as "I AM THE LIVING GOD" in order to show that Jesus is using that phrase in order to claim deity. Paul Younan states in his interlinear, "In Semitic thought, the phrase ?Ena-na? (I am) conveys a thought of eternal existence reserved only for God." It should literally be translated simply as "I am". The clearest way in which the Peshitta declares Jesus to be the God of the Old Covenant is in it's use of the word
MarYa, which means "Lord Yahweh" or "Lord Yah".
Mar means "Lord" and
Ya is short for "Yahweh". Here is how this fascinating word is translated in the different versions I recommended:
Bauscher- THE LORD JEHOVAH
Magiera- LORD (Messianic version: Marya)
Roth- Master YHWH
Lamsa: LORD (Old Testament), Lord (New Testament)
The Way: Lord
Murdock: Lord
Etheridge: Lord, LORD in Philippians 2:11
Here is a link to purchase James Murdock's translation in hardcopy:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Syriac-Testame...nt+murdock
Here is volume 1 of John Wesley Etheridge's translation (Matthew-John):
http://www.amazon.com/The-Syrian-Churche...+etheridge
Here is volume 2 of the Etheridge translation (Acts-Revelation):
http://www.amazon.com/Apostolical-Epistl...+etheridge
In order to compare the various translations of the Peshitta against the original Aramaic, I highly recommend you go to
http://www.dukhrana.com and utilize their "Peshitta tool" and their lexicon. It's a great resource. I also highly recommend utilizing the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon by going to
http://cal1.cn.huc.edu/. You can actually study the Peshitta Tanach on this site.
The Way International and Janet Magiera produced the most impartial translations of the Peshitta that are available in modern English, in my opinion. Paul Younan's interlinear is also impartial, but incomplete. Glenn David Bauscher and Andrew Gabriel Roth still did great jobs, but some theological bias slips in occasionally (but not as much as in the Lamsa translation). Andrew Gabriel Roth's AENT sticks closer to the Eastern text of the Peshitta than any other translation though.
Here are some other Peshitta translations:
Ancient Roots Translinear Bible- A. Frances Werner
Aramaic New Covenant- Herb Jahn
Aramaic Scripture- Vic Alexander
Hebraic-Roots Version- James Scott Trimm
The Message of Matthew- Rocco Errico
The Testimony of Yeshua- Lonnie Martin
Aramaic Gospels and Acts- Joseph Pashka
A Translation, in English daily used, of the Peshito-Syriac text, and of the Received Greek Text, of Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, and 1 John: With An Introduction on the Peschito-Syriac Text, and the Revised Greek Text of 1881 and
A Translation, In English Daily Used: Of The Seventeen Letters Forming Part Of The Peshito-Syriac Books- William Norton
I can't really recommend the translations by Vic Alexander and Lonnie Martin. Rocco Errico was a student of George Lamsa, therefore he follows in some of his errors, but his translation is still decent (be leery of some of his commentary). James Trimm translated from the Shem Tov Hebrew Matthew, the Old Syriac Curetonian and Sinaiticus for the remaining three Gospels, the Peshitta, and the Crawford manuscript for the remainder (leading to much criticism from Peshitta primacists). Trimm also plagiarized from the Way International's interlinear.