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Salam,

The other day I was just glancing over the book of Yashar [<a href="http://www.kivits.com/Jashar1.htm" target="new" title="link to the Book of Yashar">source</a>] and I was pondering on what the Eastern [compared to the Western] thought might be!

And, since I was trying to find out about this in the Eastern ???thought??? I went back to the Peshitta TaNaKa that is available through the web and looked at Joshua 10:13.
And to my surprise Yashar was not mentioned. Instead I found, <FONT face="estrangelo (v1.1)" size=5>0txb$t</font>, which meant ???praise/psalm/glory/splender/hymn/dogma???

Then I turned to a Hebrew writing and if I am correct, it read, ???Yashar???. <!-- sHuh --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/huh.gif" alt="Huh" title="Huh" /><!-- sHuh -->
Can anyone who knows about this area please elaborate on this topic for me?
[is it talking about the same Book as Yashar? Etc???.]

I also want to ask, would the earlier people who would have used the Peshitta have had any more knowledge about this Book, say for example through texts that have survived to this day?

It will be intresting what will come out of this!! [something good and knowledgable i hope]
[p.s. no quarreling in this thread; it make me <!-- s:onfire: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/onfire.gif" alt=":onfire:" title="On Fire" /><!-- s:onfire: --> ]
Thank you,
May the Mercy-of-our-God and the Compassion-of-our-Lord be with you all.
I couldn't say anything about the Aramaic, but there is something going on in your post that begs elaboration. That is, you're transliterating "Yashar" instead of translating it, then drawing an analogy that doesn't quite work. "Yashar" means something like "straight" or in ethical connotation "right" in Hebrew. So, this is really "book of the straight/right" or "the straight/right book" depending on how you translate it. So, this is "Sepher Ha'Yashar" and not "Ha'Sepher ha'Yashar" or "Ha'Sepher Yashar" etc.

So, I would be willing to wager it is the same book in both texts; but you're translating the Aramaic word while at the same time transliterating the Hebrew word. In English, I would have to render that, "The book of the right" or something similar.

What I am saying is that, say, in the LXX at 2 Sam 1:18 this is written as "Bibliou tou Euthous". So, "Yashar" is being translated as "Euthous" (right) because both words mean the same thing. But I'm not going to ask, "Why doesn't this say 'yashar' in the LXX" because 'yashar' is a Hebrew word which corresponds with 'euthos'.

I'm not sure what book is meant by this (maybe a common record scroll or something) but I don't think it is that pseudo-biblical work called "The Book of Jasher".

I haven't read any targum or any commentator of earlier commentating state anything about a "lost book of Jasher" or whatnot (I don't even think that is correct Hebrew, since the definite article is prefixed to 'Yashar'). Usually "the book of the right" is said to be a reference to one of the "books of Moses".

I'm not really knowledgable on the other aspects of your post.
shlomo


According to some christian commentaries the "Book of the upright"
is an early chronicle of the hebrews like the "book of the wars of the lord"
(sefer milh'amot YHWH) , now lost.

But according to rabbinical sources sefer hayashar = torah.
The targum goes in this sense : sifra d'orayta (The book of the Law)
orayta is the "normal" translation of torah in Jewish Aramaic.

But if it's the torah , what is it referering to ? (i don't know)

The peshitta translation makes me think it maybe was an early
book of liturgy, but that's just a guess.

Too bad syriac commentaries are so hard to find ...