Prom a MS of Ussher(now in the Trinity Library of Dublin) the .same passage had been printed by de Dieu, 1031 (Animadvcrsioncs in quattuur Ecan- qelia). A third translation was due to the abbot Mar Paul, apparently Paul of Telia; a fourth has been printed by J. White (ex codice Barscdibcei at the end of the Go.spels in his edition of the Philoxeniana, i. [1778] p. 559). See on these and other piiints J. 0\\jnTi(rransactions, Dublin, 1881).
[b) While scarcely one Syriac MS is known in Europe containing all 27 books of the lucsent NT (see on this Gwynn, Transactions, 1880 and 1893 ; and comjiare what Rahmani states about the Mo.sul TaviinTTii, from which he published the Testa iiient um Domini noslri Jcsu Christi [Pra'fatio, pp. ix, x]), there are some MSS that contain books which are no longer included in the NT, e.g. cod. 1700 in the University Library at Cambridge, from which Tlie Epistles of St. Clement to the Corinthians in Syriac were edited by the late R. L. Bensly (Cambridge, 1899). In the MS the Clementine Epp. stand between the Catholic and Pauline Epistles, and are divided like these into lectures for Church use. There are, again, the MSS from which that other pair of letters ascribed to Clement, de Virginibus or de Virgin itate, were published by Wetstein {NT Gr. t. 1. 1751, Prol. pp. 1-20) and J. Th. Beeleu (Lovanii, 1850 ; see on them J. P. N. Land, 'Syrische Bijdragen tot de Patristik,' in Godi/eleerde Bijdragen van 1850-7).
{c) On the Clementine Octateuch added as number 77-83 to the 70 books of the OT and NT in the Mosul Pandektes jast mentioned, see Kahmani, I.e. p. X.
These and other instances show that the history of the NT Canon was in the Syriac Church diHerenl, from its history in most other branches.
5. The Palestinian Syriac. — One other version remains to bo noticed, namely, that used by the Malkite (Greek) Church in Palestine and Egypt, written in a dialect more akin to the language of the .Jewish Targunis ; long known exclusively from a lectionary in the Vatican Library, called the Ecangcliarium Hicrosoh/mitanuin ; described by A.ssemani and Adler (1789); pul)Iished in 1801-01 in two vols, by Count l''r. Miiiiscalchi Krizzo, ami again — as his last ivork — liy P. de Lagaide in his Bibliotheca Syriaca (Gbttiiigen, 1892); republished by Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. (iibson on the strength of two other MSS found on Mt. Sinai ( T/ie Palcstininn Syriac Lectionary of the Gospels, London, 1899, 4to). Quite rccentlj' new texts h.ave been added from Acts and the E|iistles of Paul, includinj; Hebrews and •]an\uii (Sludia Sinaitica, No. vi.),,Mncl the date and birthplace of this whole branch ul literature have been elucidated by F. C. HuiKitt (J'l'hSt, ii. 174-185). In spite of its secondary character, it is not devoid of interest for textual criticism. In the Apparatus its symbol has been hitherto syr'' or '" or "'"'."
• One of the urgent needs of textual criticism is tlltitiii •j-T^bols for the S> riac versioni of the NT. Tischendorf used
650
SYRIAC VEKSIONS
SYRIAC VERSIONS
II. Old Testament.— 1. Tradition.— The Syri- ans themselves believed that a part of the OT was translated already in the time of Soliivum at the reiiuest of king Iliraiu. Jesudad, bishop of Hadeth, c. 852 A.l)., mentions the books then trans- lated. Another tradition is that the version was due to the jjriest sent by tlie king of Assyria to Samaria ; whose name is variously given as Asa, Asya, Ezra, Uria, t(2N, k'Dk 2 K 17-^ 1 Ch 15'*, ed. Lee and Ceriani ; see the Literature quoted in Urt. p. 231, and add there Schatzhtihle, ed. Bezold,
192. 3 *iiK, codd. PL .tiikd, in Arabic ij „b- The
rest of the books are said to have been added in the days of Addai and Abgar (see p. 645»).
2. drii/ii). — Whether part of the version is of pre-Christian, or at least of Jewish origin (thus Rich. Simon, Hug, Geiger, Perles, Lagarde), is not certain, but it is po.s.sible. * There were many Jews in Mesopotamia, especially in Edessa, in early times. It may sutlice to recall queen Helena and Izates, and the Abgar legend. In the latter a daily reading of ' the OT and NT ' (p. 34) or ' the Law and the Prophets' (p. 44) is jjresupposed besides that of the Gospel, Acts, and Epistles (see p. 647°).
3. Extent.— The Syriac OT was, on the whole, the same as the Ilebrew Bible. Jesudad, for instance, knows that it counts 22 books ; but at a very early date the influence of the Greek Bible is felt. There are some notable peculiarities. Chronicles seems to have been wanting in the canon of the Nestorians, nor is it represented in the Massoretic labours of tlie Jacobites ; but it is found already in MSS of the 6th cent. (cod. Am- brosianus, Brit. Mus., Wright 25), with a division at 2 Ch 6' (in most MSS, not in Ambros. and Florent.). Neither is Ezra-Nehemiah found in the Massoretic MSS, nor Esther in those of the Nes- torians. In the Bibles of the Jacobites Esther forms, together with Judith, Ruth, and Susanna, the ' book of the women,' with 4463 stichi.
The arrangement of the books varies according to the MSS. The list on next col. gives them accord- ing to the order in the canonical list mentioned above, p. 647'' ; the figures for cols. 2-5 are taken from Abb6 Martin's Introduction a. la critique tcxtuellc du NT, Partie thi-orique, Paris, 1SS3, p. 667; cf., further, Grcgory-Tischendorf, 3. 112, 1303; J. R. Harris, On the Origin of the Ferrar Group, Loud. 1893, 10, 26.