09-20-2004, 01:08 AM
Shlama Akhi Dave,
I hope this doesn't come across too crazy-sounding, but the Church of the East just recently (I mean in the last 50 years or so) has been becoming familiar with printed books. The churches before 50 years ago literally were still using hand-scribed texts on animal skins.
In our isolation in the mountains of southeastern Turkey, there were no printing presses or books. The church is just now getting back on its feet from being 80 million people across the entire continent of Asia in the 11th century to a mere quarter million today.
All the "lexicons" we have are still in either museums and unpublished, or within the personal collections of certain families of bishops, etc.
As for dictionaries, etc., the works of bar-Bahlul and Yukhanan bar-Zubi remain the authorititative reference. The only problem is that they are completely in Aramaic. There are some printed Aramaic-Arabic lexicons and dictionaries printed in the middle east, but those won't do an English-speaking audience any good, either.
The only work ever done in English has been the Way International's 15-year effort. And even then, they decided to use the Western Text. This is the basis for George Kiraz's SEDRA database which we use here (except for the Concordance portion, which I created myself.)
As such, it contains many inaccuracies because none of the Way International's team knew how to speak the language and it was based on existing English translations, for the most part, to determine the meanings of Aramaic words.
The most authoritative work, by far, will be the C.A.L. being produced by the Hebrew Union College.
I hope this doesn't come across too crazy-sounding, but the Church of the East just recently (I mean in the last 50 years or so) has been becoming familiar with printed books. The churches before 50 years ago literally were still using hand-scribed texts on animal skins.
In our isolation in the mountains of southeastern Turkey, there were no printing presses or books. The church is just now getting back on its feet from being 80 million people across the entire continent of Asia in the 11th century to a mere quarter million today.
All the "lexicons" we have are still in either museums and unpublished, or within the personal collections of certain families of bishops, etc.
As for dictionaries, etc., the works of bar-Bahlul and Yukhanan bar-Zubi remain the authorititative reference. The only problem is that they are completely in Aramaic. There are some printed Aramaic-Arabic lexicons and dictionaries printed in the middle east, but those won't do an English-speaking audience any good, either.
The only work ever done in English has been the Way International's 15-year effort. And even then, they decided to use the Western Text. This is the basis for George Kiraz's SEDRA database which we use here (except for the Concordance portion, which I created myself.)
As such, it contains many inaccuracies because none of the Way International's team knew how to speak the language and it was based on existing English translations, for the most part, to determine the meanings of Aramaic words.
The most authoritative work, by far, will be the C.A.L. being produced by the Hebrew Union College.
+Shamasha Paul bar-Shimun de'Beth-Younan
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