When we sift through the dust of time, decay, and long forgotten faith we sometimes find unbelievable treasures crafted by careful hands and ink. Scraps of parchment or vellum, so old they seem, like the bones of the monks who made them, ready to evaporate in an alien time. The passionate faith their makers breathed into them calls out to us in a quiet whisper, and beckons us to resurrect faded ink on new paper.

The calligraphy of a long dead hand becomes a new fascination for the patient and curious reader. Its pen strokes carry the history, philosophy, and faith of the past to the present.

Inspired by this call of the ancient scribal spirit, I have created Beth Sapra, literally the "scribe's house" or "scriptorium," to investigate and promote Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ, and the Peshitta, the Aramaic version of the Bible preserved by Oriental Christendom.

Towards this prayerful objective, it is my intention to revive the millenniums old scribal arts with modern tools and techniques. To approach this endeavor not as an anachronism, but as living faith. To clothe the past with the raiment of the present.

My primary focus is to produce legible, elegant, and comprehensible tools for the study of the Peshitta. I invite you to join me in a journey through the Aramaic Peshitta, to find an almost forgotten tradition of language, art and faith. May it enrich your life as it has mine.

— John Marucci