The "O" argument

[Christina]

A quick note before I run off to do homework:
The unification of the Aramaic tradition. This is an interesting argument, which I find to be clearly paralleled in the argument used by Muslims to show the superiority of the Quran over the Bible. However, I'm sure you all know that the text was actually standardized under Abu Bakr, and variants were burned.

Actually the Quran was standardized under Caliph Uthman the 3rd "Rightly Guided Caliph", Abu Bakr was the 1st.

Likewise, the unification of the Peshitta tradition can be explained. It was used by only two communities, essentially isolated from outside influence. Because old versions are regularly burned or buried, we would eventually expect to naturally find no more variants, even where there were variants originally.

I believe in the "innocent until proven guilty" policy where this is concerned. In order to even consider the possibility whether the CoE did standardize the Aramaic NT mss, one first needs to find an example of them altering any of the readings in their mss collection, and there's nothing. It's the SOC who did alterations not the CoE, and western scholars often don't differenciate between the 2 textual traditions, either out of ignorance or convenience, always be aware of this. The fact is there are no grounds to accuse the CoE of standardizing or altering the Peshitta.