Couple of questions

[Burning one]

Shlama,

my replies are below:

Please accept my apologies for being unclear. As English is not my mother tongue, i sometimes express myself quite clumsy. The 0% referred to agreement, not disagreement. i will try to illustrate what i attempted to say.

Let's assume this to be a Chapter of a book:
1:1 The realisation of God's grace is a chief element to the obtaining of salvation.
1:2 Beginning at Calvary, the fire of the Gospel could not be extinguished.
1:3 God's grace can give salvation to everybody.

Now, the same "chapter" from a different source:
1:1 The realization of God's grace is a chief element to the obtaining of salvation.
1:2 Beginning at Calvary, the fire of the Gospel could not be obliterated.
1:3 God's grace will give salvation to everybody.

Now, exactly how much agreement there is, expressed in a percentage, depends on unit and method of measurement. For the above example, we could draw the following numbers:
There are 33 words, of which 32 agree in sense. This makes up for 96.97% agreement.
There are 33 words, of which 31 agree except for spelling variances. This makes up for 93.94% agreement.
There are 33 words, of which 30 agree exactly. This makes up for 90.91% agreement.

Also, we could say:
There are 3 verses, of which 2 agree in sense. This makes up for 66.66% agreement.
There are 3 verses, of which 1 agrees except for spelling variances. This makes up for 33.33% agreement.
There are 3 verses, of which 0 agree exactly. This makes up for 0.00% agreement.

Of course, the same can be done not only with words and verses, but also with chapters, and books (unit). Also, we could decide to measure not only spelling variances and sense, but also theological implications, errors in spelling, paragraphs, style, ... (method).

Seeing the numbers from Aland, and the ones you gave from the Peshitta, i kind of got the idea that there were different measures at hand, which makes the numbers unworthy of comparison, as Proverbs 20:10 says (Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.).

Still, i was able to comprehend that the Peshitta manuscripts are far more uniform than the Greek ones, irrespective of the exact numbers. And for that information i am, of course, thankful.

i definitely see what you are saying now, thank you for clarifying. i won't address it as extensively as i would have, as i hope the actual quote that Otto posted helped make better sense for you of what they were doing to arrive at the number. the book itself has a great chart that lists the variants per book of the NT, so you can tally it up for yourself. i'll see if i can find an image online to share with you, if it would help any further, in case you don't have access to a copy.

What about 1John 5:7-8?

there is no variant in 1st John 5:7-8 within the Peshitta. if you are looking at the verse parsing from the dukhrana page, which i am assuming is what you are referencing, then all you are reading is a difference in what part of the same content ends / begins the verses. both the 1905 and the Khabouris Codex contain the same readings, it is only the way that they are parsed into "verses" that make them seem different. if you read the content of the Aramaic, however, you will see that both manuscripts line up. the only difference is what is contained in the Peshitta and that reading found in a few later Greek manuscripts, which is extremely dubious in origin.

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Chayim b'Moshiach,
Jeremy