Biblical Hebrew Forum

[shella <shella AT cswnet.com>]

Dear brothers, sisters, and friends please study these notes and let me know 
which ones you feel
may be incorrect.  I greatly appreciate your help very much, Debtor (Ron 
Pound).

Here are what I understand to be the oldest translations from the Ancient 
Hebrew Text, not the
MT which came after the New Religion:

1. The LXX finished by at least BC 132.
2. The Peshitta, finished near the close of the First Century;
3. The Italic (not Origin nor Jerome, but sometimes called the Waldensian 
Bible) finished about
the same time as the Peshitta.

Gleanings from the Jewish Encyclopedia

The Jewish Encyclopedia, Ktav, ed.,

Article:  Bible Translations,  The Peshitta, pps. 188-

Subject, The None-Greek Translations; The Peshitta, note that there were two 
Peshittas, the
first made near the close of the first century A. D. was clearly 
anti-Trinitarian, being the
product of Judo-Christians (later called Ebonites) while the next Translation 
was made by
Trinitarians.  The anti-Trinitarians produced Peshitta No. 1 while 
Trinitarian Christians
produced Peshitta No. 2.  In this case the older translation was very faulty, 
coming from faulty
New Testament manuscripts.  Most, if not all of the so-called questionable 
portions of the N. T.
Canon were missing from Peshitta No. 1, and they make up the common anti 
Trinitarian or
Judeo-Christian texts.

1. The Peshitta, or Syric translation of the Old Testament came directly from 
the Hebrew; p.
188. NOTE: The Hebrew does not mean the original Hebrew Text, but copies made 
from the Mesoratic
Text of that Hebrew which Text was assisted by the LXX, see Conybeare's and 
Strock's Grammar of
Septuagint Greek, page iii. This basis for this translation was the Mesoratic 
Hebrew text
developed after the Maccebean era.
2. At Antioch, during the third century A. D. and at still later periods, it 
was revived so as
to make it conform to the LXX, p. 188.
3. Its history is obscure:
 a. It was probably made in Mesopotamia during the first century;
 b. As to who first translated it, there is much uncertainty;
 c. Perles, Progert, Gottingen and Bacher believe it is a Jewish work, p. 188;
d. Dathe, Eichhorn, Hitzig, Noldcke, and Renan, claim that it owes its origin 
to
Judo-Christians;
4) The Judo-Christian view seems more probable p. 188;
5) Peries shows the unmistakable evidences of the Targum's influence upon the 
Peshitta,
especially in Genesis; p. 188.
6) Cornill shows this in Ezekiel; (Das Buch's Ezekiel, p. 154), p. 188;
7) S. Frankel shows this in Ezekiel, (Jahrb. Fur Protestantische Theologie  
1879);
8) Stenig-Job  (De Syriaca Libri Jobi, Interp. Hesingfors, 1887)
9) Mandl (Peschitto Zu Hiob Leipsic, 1892)
10) Hauman in Stade's Zeitschrift xix, p. 29;
11) The closest agreement is found in the Book of Proverbs;
12) In Proverbs the Targum reflects the Peshitta and not vice versa, p. 188. 
(Pinkus in Stade's
Zeitschrist, Duval, Litterature Syriaque, p. 1899. pps. 31.)

In Conclusion:

 Studies about the Peshitta are important because it is a very old 
Translation.  It's New
Testament is one of the oldest Translations. It was one of the main 
Translations used by
anti-Trinitarians to discredit I John 5:7, and it is relied upon strongly by 
the Oxford Movement
which produced the Westcott-Hort Text.  The Unitarian views of Peshitta No. 
1, and the
corrections made in it from Peshitta No. 2 are discussed by Dr. Gill in his 
Body of Divinity
when he defends the doctrine of the Trinity.  In is interesting to note that 
the Peshitta No.
1's New Testament came forth with a very faulty Text.   The large omitted 
parts of the New
Testament were replaced from No. 2.  These omissions in the first translation 
clearly shows
Peshitta No. 1 to be the work of Judo-Christians, later called Ebionites.  In 
points note:
 1) The Psehitta is a very old Translation, with a faulty New Testament; 
showing that the older
texts are not reliable simply because they are old texts;
 2) The first Peshitta was later corrected from the second Peshitta as John 
Gill points out in
his Body of Divinity;
 3) The Jews give us the documentation about the second Peshitta and help us 
realize that the
first Peshitta was the work of Judo-Christians, later called Ebionites.

End of These Notes

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