Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Wisdom, Eccle- siasticus, minor prophets, Jeremiah, Baruch, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. Norberg published, at Lund in 1787, the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel from a tran- script which he had made of the MS. at Milan. In 1788 Bugati published at Milan the book of Daniel; he also edited the Psalms, the printing of which had been completed before his death in 1816; it was pub- lished in 18-JO. The rest of the contents of the Milan Codex (with the exception of the apocryphal books) was published at Berlin in 1835, by Middeldorpf, from the transcript made by Norberg; Middeldorpf also add- ed the fourth (second) book of Kings from a JIS. at Paris. Rordam issued Lihri Judicum et Ruth secundum Versionem Syi'iaco- 1 lexapalarem ex Codice 3Iusei Bri- tannici nunc primum editi, Greece translati, Notisque il- lustrati (in two fasciculi, 1859, 1861, Copenhagen, 4to). A competent scholar has undertaken the task of edit- ing the remainder — Dr. Antonio Ceriani, of Milan. In 1861 appeared his Monumenta Sacra et Prof ana (Lili- an, tom. i, fascic. i), containing, among other ancient documents, the Hexaplar-Syriac Barucli, Lamentations, and the Epistle of Jeremiah. In the preface the learn- ed editor states his intention to publish, from the Am- brosian MS. and others, tlie entire version, even the books printed before, of whose inaccurate execution he speaks in just terms. A second part has since appeared. Besides these portions of this Syriac version, the MSS. from the Nitrian monasteries now in the British Muse- um would add a good deal more : among these there are six from which much might be drawn, so that part of the Pentateuch and other books max be recovered. These MSS. are like that at Milan, in having the marks of Origen in the text, the references to readings in the margin; and occasionally the Greek word itself is thus cited in Greek. The following is the notation of these MSS., and their contents and dates :
12,133 (besides the Peshito Exodus), Joshua (defective), cent. vii. "Traiislated from a Greek MS. of the Hex- apla, collated with one of the Tetrapla."
12,134, Kxochis. A.D. 6!iT.
14,434, I'satms formed from two MSS. cent, viii (with the Song of the Three Children subjoined to the second). Botli MSS. are defective. Subscription, " According to the Sei)t."
14,437, Niimbcrs and 1 Kings, defective (cent, vii or viii). The subscription to 1 Kings says that it was translated into Syriac at Alexandriii ni the year 927 (A.D. 616).
14,442, Genesis, defective (with 1 Satii. Peshito). " Accord- ing to the Sept." (cent. vi).
17,103, J?«(?jrc.s and Ruth, defective (cent, vii or viii). Sub- scription to Judges, " According to the Sept. ;" to Ruth, "From the Tetrapla of the Sept." Rordam issued at Copenhagen in 1S59 the first portion
of an edition of the MS. 17,1(13: another part has since
been published. Some of these MSS. were written in the
same century in which the version was made. They may
probably be depended on as giving the text with general
accuracy.
C. Other Texts.— The list of versions of the Old Test, into Syriac often appears to be very numerous; but on examination it is found that many translations, the names of which appear in a catalogue, are really either such as never had an actual existenci?, or else that they are either the version from the Hebrew, or else that from the Ilexaplar text of the Sept., under diflferent names, or with some slight revision. To eiuimerate the supposed versions is needless. It is onlv requisite to mention that Thomas of Harkel, whose work in the revision of a translation of the New Test, will have to be mentioned, seems also to have made a translation from the Greek into Syriac of some of the apocryphal books — at least, the subscriptions in certain MSS. state this.
II. The Syriac New-Testament Versions. — These we may conveniently enumerate under five heads, including several recensions under some of them, but treating sep- arately the notable " Curetonian text."
A. The Peshito-Syriac New Test, (text of Widman- stadt, and Cureton's Gospels). — In whatever forms the Syriac New Test, may have existed prior to the time
SYRIAC VERSIONS
117
SYRIAC VERSIONS
of Philoxenus (the beginning of the 6th centur_v), who caused a new translation to be made, it will be more convenient to consider all such most ancient transla- tions or revisions together; even though there may be reasons afterwards assigned for not regarding the ver- sion of the earlier ages of Christianity as absolutely one.
1. Date. — It may stand as an admitted fact that a version of the New Test, in Syriac existed in the 2d centur}' ; and to this we may refer the statement of Eusebius respecting Hcgesippus, that he '■ made quota- tions from the Gospel according to the Hebrews and the Syriac," t/c re tov kci^' 'ElSpaiovc tvayytXiov Kcii Tou '^vpuiKoi' (///,v/. Feci, iv, 22). It seems etiually cer- tain that in the 4tli century such a version was as well known of the New Test, as of the Old. It was the com- panion of the Old Test, translation made from the He- brew, and as such was in habitual use in the Syriac churches. To the translation in common use among the Syrians, orthodox, Monophysite, or Nestorian, from the 5th century and onward, the name of Peshito has been as commonly apidied in the New Test, as the Old. In the 7th century at least the version so current ac- quired the name of old, in contrast to that which was then formed and revised by the Monophysites.