What is the Peshitta?

This version is called the Peshito, which is interpreted to mean simple, but which some take to mean "faithful." It has been called "the queen of versions," as being the oldest and best, and is declared to be a most excellent translation. It was long since translated into Latin for the use of those who could not read Syriac. It has since been translated into English. The pure Peshito wanted 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and the Apocalypse.

The Curetonian Syriac. This copy was discovered in the British Museum by Canon Cureton. It contains the following fragments of four gospels: Matthew 1:1-8:22; 10:32-23:25. Mark 16:17-20. John 1:1-42; 3:6-7:37; 14:10-12; 16-18; 19-23; 26-29. Luke 2:48 - 3:16; 7:33 - 15:21; 17:24 - 24:44. It is found not only to be a different translation from the Peshito (though others judge them to have had a common origin) but also to have been made from a different text. It is judged to be of the fifth century. It has been published by Dr. Cureton with an English translation.

This version became known by being brought into Europe in 1552 for the purpose of being printed. It was finished in 1555. It did not include the Catholic Epistles nor the Revelation. John 8:1-11 was also wanting. (These portions have been found in other Syriac translations.) It found a place in the various Polyglots, and has been highly valued as a faithful record of the Greek text. It is commonly called the Peshito, 'or Simple.'

8.2. THE CURETONIAN SYRIAC. This takes its name from Dr. Wm. Cureton, who observed, bound up with other Syriac MSS in the British Museum, some leaves containing a large part of the four Gospels in a recension different from the Peshito. Its early date is undoubted, and it is highly valued. It has been published with an English translation.

The Churches of Syria were blessed with legitimate Scripture; for the Peshito Version in its original form — that is, the first Syriac Bible — followed the Hebrew Canon.

The Peshito Version of the second century is that of principal value. When independent of the LXX, as being literal, it is useful. It is one of the parallel versions in Walton. The Syriac may be studied by the help of Bagster's 'Reading Lessons'; and if any reader advance so far in the language as to require a lexicon, he will find the Thesaurus of Dr. Payne Smith the best book to use. But we would refer to what has been said under 'Arabic.'

The Syriac. — Hegesippus was bishop in the second century, and the Syriac was claimed as his version. Unhappily the Syrian church was divided into two in the fifth century — and in correspondence we have two Syriac versions: in the main they are the same, but yet different; then there are others drawn from each of them. There are manuscripts bearing the names of: 1, the Peshito (or "simple"); 2, the Curetonian Syriac (named after Dr. Cureton); 3, the Philoxenian Syriac (named after a bishop in eastern Syria); 4, the Jerusalem Syriac; 5, the Karkaphensian Syriac.

Il en résulte que, sans parler de tout ce qui a été fait pour améliorer les traductions de la Bible dans les langues modernes, on trouve, dans les langues anciennes, des versions qui diffèrent entre elles quant aux détails et aux formes d’expression. On peut citer comme exemple, l’ancienne version latine du Nouveau Testament. Elle existait dès le deuxième siècle; et fut plus ou moins remplacée par la Vulgate à la fin du quatrième siècle. De même, la version syriaque, dite Peshito, la plus ancienne de toutes, n’empêcha pas qu’on n’en fît une autre au sixième siècle.

Next, though the Peschito Syriac was made in very early days, we have no MS. of any great antiquity; and even if we had, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, with Jude, are supplied from a later version, and the Revelation from a copy in the Leyden library, whose age is so uncertain, and character of text so doubtful, that it ranges very low indeed in a critical point of view.

Next, though the Peschito Syriac was made in very early days we have no MS. of any great antiquity; and even if we had, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, with Jude, are supplied from a later version, and the Revelation from a copy in the Leyden library, whose age is so uncertain, and character of text so doubtful, that it ranges very low indeed in a critical point of view.

The Epistle is not found in the Peshito version. According to Bishop Westcott in his Canon of the New Testament there are in existence two classes of manuscripts of this version. Both omit the Second and Third Epistles of John, the Second Epistle of Peter, the Epistle of Jude and the Book of Revelation, but include all the other books. This Canon seems to have been generally maintained in the Syrian churches. It is reproduced in the Arabic version of Erpenius, which was taken from the Peshito. Cosmas, an Egyptian traveller of the sixth century, states that only three of the so-called "Catholic" Epistles were received by the Syrians. Later sources charge the Syrian churches with mutilating the New Testament by not having these books in their Bibles.

Then follow a host of witnesses. The first commentator, as far as we know, of the Revelation was Bishop Victorinus. He states positively that the Apostle John wrote the Revelation (about 303 A.D.). Ephrem Syrus (about 378), the greatest scholar in the Syrian church, repeatedly in his numerous writings, cites the Revelation as canonical and ascribes it to the Apostle John. The Syrian translation of the Bible, the Peshito, probably made in the second century, does not contain the book of Revelation, yet Ephrem Syrus possessed the Syrian translation. Scholars who have examined this question say that the Peshito in its original version had the book of Revelation, and that it was later detached, while others advanced the theory that the Peshito translation may have been made in the first century when the Apocalypse was not yet generally known.