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Best way to learn Syriac for cheap or free?
#27
borota Wrote:1) [...] it's not an official position.

Quote:"With reference to....the originality of the Peshitta text, as the Patriarch and Head of the Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East, we wish to state, that the Church of the East received the scriptures from the hands of the blessed Apostles themselves in the Aramaic original, the language spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and that the Peshitta is the text of the Church of the East which has come down from the Biblical times without any change or revision."

Mar Eshai Shimun
by Grace, Catholicos Patriarch of the East
April 5, 1957

http://www.peshitta.org/initial/peshitta.html

It's a position expressed by Eshai Shimun in the capacity of his office as head of the CotE. These aren't equivocal words.

On it's face, it's safe to call a spade a spade.

However, in the interests of being as accurate as possible, would it be better that I simply quote this verbatim instead of calling it an "official position"?

Quote:2) [...] dots were added later. So that could be translated as either sword or swords.

If the transmission of the Peshitta is indeed "perfect" as most Primacists claim, then the Seyame is correct.

But let's assume that the text is fallible (which is what you're implying) whether it is singular or plural, the pun of "sword" vs. "in the end" does not work in Syriac; only in Jewish Aramaic.

Finally, there is not a single Peshitta witness that expresses the singular. All witnesses outside the Peshitta attest to the singular, however, and it is the singular where the pun works.

In similar manner to "Rabbouli," the Peshitta stands alone, against the best explanation.

Quote:3) [...] Is that the only thing that puts Peshitta centuries later?

Certainly not. It's simply something that is easy to explain to the layman.

There are a number of grammatical and vocabulary considerations as well, but they are more difficult to explain without a background in the relevant languages and when I have the time to find more elegant ways of expressing them I'll be putting them up on that page, too.

Quote: it's not outside of the realm of possibility for me, for Yod to morph into Nun over time, and still have an older base text, if it should have been Yod indeed in the first place

Then the implications of that require that the Peshitta has been revised over time. Even the Eastern tradition.

This is another point which many Primacists categorically reject despite the contradiction of doing so.

Quote:For me Peshitta Primacy is not a matter of faith, so my faith would not be shattered if it turns out indeed Peshitta is not the original language in which Bible was composed.

That gives me relief, as it is a reasonable position.

I encourage you to keep up with the updates to the site over the next year or so. I have a lot more material to write up.

Peace,
-Steve
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Re: Best way to learn Syriac for cheap or free? - by SteveCaruso - 10-18-2014, 08:48 PM

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