05-08-2005, 12:59 AM
May 7, 2005
Although Lamsa was an Aramaic speaking Assyrian, he was educated in Turkey in Anglican schools, and learned English through the KJV of the Bible. In the U.S. he maintained his Anglican links by attending the Bible-centered Episcopal Virginia Theological Seminary. I spent an evening with him in Albuquerque in 1969 discuaaing his translation and related issues.
It is important to remember that what Lamsa did was create a modern English Bible translation merging the Aramaic Peshitta and the KJV. His may have been the first 20th Century modern English Bible. If the Aramaic reading did not markedly differ, he essentially copied the KJV wording while appropriately modernizing it! In addition, he felt is was important to decipher Aramaic idioms, such as demon-possessed really means a lunatic.
I believe that Lamsa's intention was to provide an improved version of the KJV using the original Aramaic sources. As he wrote, "No part of the New Testament was originally written in Greek or any other foreign language!" He found the Aramaic versions of the 5 missing New Testament, books that he believed to be reliable.
Otto
Although Lamsa was an Aramaic speaking Assyrian, he was educated in Turkey in Anglican schools, and learned English through the KJV of the Bible. In the U.S. he maintained his Anglican links by attending the Bible-centered Episcopal Virginia Theological Seminary. I spent an evening with him in Albuquerque in 1969 discuaaing his translation and related issues.
It is important to remember that what Lamsa did was create a modern English Bible translation merging the Aramaic Peshitta and the KJV. His may have been the first 20th Century modern English Bible. If the Aramaic reading did not markedly differ, he essentially copied the KJV wording while appropriately modernizing it! In addition, he felt is was important to decipher Aramaic idioms, such as demon-possessed really means a lunatic.
I believe that Lamsa's intention was to provide an improved version of the KJV using the original Aramaic sources. As he wrote, "No part of the New Testament was originally written in Greek or any other foreign language!" He found the Aramaic versions of the 5 missing New Testament, books that he believed to be reliable.
Otto