01-09-2008, 10:38 PM
January 9, 2008
Here is my understanding of the Western Five, and the changes made in the Peshitto by alteration of the original Peshitta text and the addition of five extra books
According to Eastern tradition, the 22 books of the Aramaic Peshitta were obtained from the Apostles. Later, these and other Aramaic documents were translated into Greek by Greek Christians. The 22 books of the Aramaic Peshitta have been carefully copied, checked, and protected through the centuries by eastern Christians as far away as India. It is unlikely that any Western influence or careless omissions have affected the Peshitta text.
Since all of the New Testament documents were originally written on fragile vegetable materials such as papyrus, their life span was relatively short and they had to be repeatedly copied as the old versions were damaged or destroyed. This continued for hundreds of years until writing on hides began in the Fifth Century.
The Greek Christians had to translate the Aramaic documents into their language. Over time the Greek scribes obviously made numerous changes that were thought to be improvements in the translation from the Aramaic original and added notes that were later inadvertently incorporated into the text and adopted by other scribes. One of those notes that may not have appeared in early Greek versions is the so called "Pericope de Adultera", the woman caught in adultery found in verses 1-11 in Chapter 8 of John in the currently accepted versions of the Greek New Testament.
In 70 AD the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and copies of the Tanakh and the Caesar issued a decree that all Jewish writings were to be destroyed. That, of course, included the documents of the Jewish sect who were followers of Jesus. This may have led to the widespread use of Estrangela since it did not look like the Hebrew Ashuri
At some point over the centuries the information that there even was an Aramaic version was lost since the Greeks were exceedingly proud of their language and saw no reason to keep documents written in a foreign language. By the Middle Ages European Christians apparently did not know about the Peshitta. The only ???original??? New Testament documents that they had were in Greek. Aramaic versions were later rejected as not original scripture.
Sometime after the deaths of the Apostles, perhaps in the Second Century the western Aramaic speaking Christians with close contact and under the influence of Greek Christians made some accommodation in the Aramaic text to reconcile some theological problems associated the differences including adding an Aramaic version of the "Pericope de Adultera" in the Western Peshitto version of John's Gospel
Obviously, the history of the original text was not understood by the Greek Christians or the Western Aramaic-speaking Christians. Under the Greek influence some even translated a Greek New Testament into Aramaic, producing the so-called Old Syriac text (called ???Old Scratch??? by Paul Younan), an obvious translation that is unrelated to the Peshitta.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Aramaic-speaking Christians carefully protected the true Peshitta and the knowledge of true source of that text.
Therefore, the Western Five and the "Pericope de Adultera" are all of uncertain origin and uncertain authorship. Other variants in the Western Peshitto of the basic 22 books are probably alterations made to accommodate the Greek and Western Churches.
Since over many hundreds of years thousands of fragile copies of Greek New Testament documents were made, some versions may have been lost by not being copied before they fell apart, and other versions received various modifications. The resulting hodge-podge of translations, revised translations, altered versions, added books, and damaged translations, provide the basis of the Greek documents that are used today to form the Greek New Testaments. I write this in plural because there are two primary texts, the so-called Majority Text (basis of the KJV and NKJV) and the Minority Text (basis of the NIV, RSV, etc.). Forty percent of the verses in these two Greek documents are significantly different in that they have at least two important words that differ in a meaningful way. In addition, many other verses have important minor differences that significantly affect the meaning (e.g., Luke 2:14 is only different by one letter, a sigma, but that meaningfully changes the message of the angels).
These ideas have come from my personal reading and from posts on Peshitta.org over the last several years. I welcome constructive criticism and comments.
Otto
Here is my understanding of the Western Five, and the changes made in the Peshitto by alteration of the original Peshitta text and the addition of five extra books
According to Eastern tradition, the 22 books of the Aramaic Peshitta were obtained from the Apostles. Later, these and other Aramaic documents were translated into Greek by Greek Christians. The 22 books of the Aramaic Peshitta have been carefully copied, checked, and protected through the centuries by eastern Christians as far away as India. It is unlikely that any Western influence or careless omissions have affected the Peshitta text.
Since all of the New Testament documents were originally written on fragile vegetable materials such as papyrus, their life span was relatively short and they had to be repeatedly copied as the old versions were damaged or destroyed. This continued for hundreds of years until writing on hides began in the Fifth Century.
The Greek Christians had to translate the Aramaic documents into their language. Over time the Greek scribes obviously made numerous changes that were thought to be improvements in the translation from the Aramaic original and added notes that were later inadvertently incorporated into the text and adopted by other scribes. One of those notes that may not have appeared in early Greek versions is the so called "Pericope de Adultera", the woman caught in adultery found in verses 1-11 in Chapter 8 of John in the currently accepted versions of the Greek New Testament.
In 70 AD the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and copies of the Tanakh and the Caesar issued a decree that all Jewish writings were to be destroyed. That, of course, included the documents of the Jewish sect who were followers of Jesus. This may have led to the widespread use of Estrangela since it did not look like the Hebrew Ashuri
At some point over the centuries the information that there even was an Aramaic version was lost since the Greeks were exceedingly proud of their language and saw no reason to keep documents written in a foreign language. By the Middle Ages European Christians apparently did not know about the Peshitta. The only ???original??? New Testament documents that they had were in Greek. Aramaic versions were later rejected as not original scripture.
Sometime after the deaths of the Apostles, perhaps in the Second Century the western Aramaic speaking Christians with close contact and under the influence of Greek Christians made some accommodation in the Aramaic text to reconcile some theological problems associated the differences including adding an Aramaic version of the "Pericope de Adultera" in the Western Peshitto version of John's Gospel
Obviously, the history of the original text was not understood by the Greek Christians or the Western Aramaic-speaking Christians. Under the Greek influence some even translated a Greek New Testament into Aramaic, producing the so-called Old Syriac text (called ???Old Scratch??? by Paul Younan), an obvious translation that is unrelated to the Peshitta.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Aramaic-speaking Christians carefully protected the true Peshitta and the knowledge of true source of that text.
Therefore, the Western Five and the "Pericope de Adultera" are all of uncertain origin and uncertain authorship. Other variants in the Western Peshitto of the basic 22 books are probably alterations made to accommodate the Greek and Western Churches.
Since over many hundreds of years thousands of fragile copies of Greek New Testament documents were made, some versions may have been lost by not being copied before they fell apart, and other versions received various modifications. The resulting hodge-podge of translations, revised translations, altered versions, added books, and damaged translations, provide the basis of the Greek documents that are used today to form the Greek New Testaments. I write this in plural because there are two primary texts, the so-called Majority Text (basis of the KJV and NKJV) and the Minority Text (basis of the NIV, RSV, etc.). Forty percent of the verses in these two Greek documents are significantly different in that they have at least two important words that differ in a meaningful way. In addition, many other verses have important minor differences that significantly affect the meaning (e.g., Luke 2:14 is only different by one letter, a sigma, but that meaningfully changes the message of the angels).
These ideas have come from my personal reading and from posts on Peshitta.org over the last several years. I welcome constructive criticism and comments.
Otto