08-14-2008, 08:45 AM
Hi Mike and welcome to the forum.
The first thing I think needs to be understood (and this is just my opinion) is the difference between the peshitta and the peshitto. The peshitta is that bible used in the East by the community that became the COE. This it seems is the original.
Christians to the west who became the SOC who also spoke Syriac or Aramaic use an edited version of the peshitta called the peshitto.
The peshitto has two alterations to the text. Hebrews 2:9 and Acts 20:28. Additionally the dialect is slightly different. So many of the so called variations are in fact due to these two different textual traditions.
A critical edition of the peshitta was published IIRC but again IIRC it failed to distinguish between the two textual traditions, so it may speak of many variants but these variants may just be varaitions between the eastren versions and the western versions (if that makes sense).
As far as i am aware no critical edition of purely eastern peshittas has ever been done!
One very important point o keep in mind while researching this topic is what can be misleading wording at times.
There are fragmentary mss known as the Old Syriac gospels. You will find some excellent threads on them on this forum. The present consensus (which is ripe to be overturned) is that these precede the peshitta.
Be very careful if you see references to a an old syriac gospel as this may , in some peoples minds, mean the peshitta.
The first thing I think needs to be understood (and this is just my opinion) is the difference between the peshitta and the peshitto. The peshitta is that bible used in the East by the community that became the COE. This it seems is the original.
Christians to the west who became the SOC who also spoke Syriac or Aramaic use an edited version of the peshitta called the peshitto.
The peshitto has two alterations to the text. Hebrews 2:9 and Acts 20:28. Additionally the dialect is slightly different. So many of the so called variations are in fact due to these two different textual traditions.
A critical edition of the peshitta was published IIRC but again IIRC it failed to distinguish between the two textual traditions, so it may speak of many variants but these variants may just be varaitions between the eastren versions and the western versions (if that makes sense).
As far as i am aware no critical edition of purely eastern peshittas has ever been done!
One very important point o keep in mind while researching this topic is what can be misleading wording at times.
There are fragmentary mss known as the Old Syriac gospels. You will find some excellent threads on them on this forum. The present consensus (which is ripe to be overturned) is that these precede the peshitta.
Be very careful if you see references to a an old syriac gospel as this may , in some peoples minds, mean the peshitta.