RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bible Versions
liar Abba (d. 552) is said by Bar Hebraeus, Ebed Jesu, and Amru to have translated and explained the Old and New Testaments from the Greek; but nothing more is known about it.
In 5CS Philoxenus of Mabug with the help of his coadjutor Polycarp translated at least some parts of the Old Testament and undertook a new version of the New Testament. Parts of Isaiah preserved in a manuscript of the British Museum may belong to this version (ed. A. Ceriani, Monumenta sacra et profana, v, 5, Milan, 1873, 1-40). Accordins to Bernstein, the Gospels are contained in manuscript A2 of the Angelican library at Rome. Isaac II. Hall published a Syriac Manuscript. Gospels from a pre-Harklensian Version, Acts and Epistles of the Peshitto Version, Written (probably) between 700 and 900 A.D. Presented to the Syrian Protestant College [Beirut] (Philadelphia, 1884). The minor epistles, first published by E. Pococke in 1630 and since often found in editions of the Syrian New 1'estament, are very likely part of this version, and so is the version of Revelation discovered by J. Gwynn and published by him (Dublin, 1897).
About one hundred years later the work of translation was resumed, for the Old Testament, by Paul of Telia (the so-called Syro-Hexaplar version; see above, I, 1, § 6), and, for the New Testament, by Thomas of Heraclea (Harkel in Mesopotamia). This version was published by J. White under the inappropriate title, Versio Philoxeniana (Oxford, 1778-1803). A lacuna in the Epistle to the He brews was filled in by R. L. Bensly (Harhlean Version of the Epistle to the Hebrews xi, 28-xiii, 25, London, 1889). W. Deane began a new edition but was prevented from finishing it. Its completion, especially for the Acts, is much to be desired. For his marginal notes, Thomas made use of a manuscript closely related to the Greek codex D (cf. A. Pott, Der abendlandische Text der Apostelgeschichte, Leipsic, 1900, and Hilgenfeld, in ZWT, xliii, 1900, p. 3). The Syriac text of Revelation published by De Dieu (Leyden, 1627) and now in the common Syriac New Testaments belongs to this version (cf. J. Gwynn, in Hermathena, 1898, 227-245).
On the revision of the Old Testament undertaken by Jacob of Edessa in 704-705, cf. Kamphausen, in TSK, 1869, 753, and A. Ceriani, Monumenta sacra et profana, v, 1 (Milan, 1871).
Mention must also be made of the Palestinian version (used by the Melchite Church in Palestine and Egypt). Of the Old Testament, only fragments remain. The New Testament has been known from an evangeliarium at Rome since 1789 (published by F Miniscalchi-Erizzo, Verona, 1861- 1864, and by Lagarde, Bibliotheca Sijriaca, Gottingen, 1892). Since that time many new texts have been brought to light, especially' through Mrs. Lewis. A hjll list is given in the Lexicon syropalcestinum of F. Schulthess (Berlin, 1903), pp. vii-xvi. F. C. hurkitt (JTS, ii, 183) gives reasons for believing that this literature may have a connection with the attempts of Justinian in the fifth century to extirpate the Samaritai s, and of Heraclius early m the sixth century to harass the Jews. This II.— 9
peculiar dialect is important lexically, as being closely akin to the language spoken in Galilee.
E. Nestle.
Bibliography: The first parts of the Bible printed in Syriac are in Ambrosius Theseus, Introductio in Chaldaicam linguam, Syriacam atque Armenicam, Pavia, 1539 (cf ZDMG lviii, 1904, 601). The Old Testament appeared first in the Pans Polyglot, vols, vi-ix, 1632-45, then in the London Polyglot, vols, i-iv, 1654-57, reprinted by S Lee for the BFBS, London, 1S23 (other copies, 1824; on their differences— one set contains Ps. cli, the other not — cf. ZDMG, lix, 1905, 31), and at Urumiah (with modern Syriac added), 1852. The text is very bad, resting on a single late manuscript at Paris adapted by Gabriel Sionita, editor of the Paris Polyglot, from which the London Polyglot and Lee took it with scarcely any correction, the Urumiah edition, at least in some parts, with but few corrections (cf. W. E. Barnes, An Apparatus criticus to Chronicles in the Peshitia Version, Cambridge, 1S97; G. Diettrich, Ein Apparatus criticus zur Pelitto znm Propheten Jesaia, Giessen, 1905). Bernstein and Rahlfs have published emendations, the former in ZDMG i;i 1849, 387-396, the latter in ZATW. ix, 1889, 161-21u! A. M. Ceriani published a photographic reproduction of the Codex Ambrosianus, Milan, 1S76-83. The Apocrypha was published by Lagarde, Leipsic, 1861. The first critical edition of the Gospels was by P. E. Pusey and G. II. Gwilliam, Oxford, 1C01; for the rest of the New Testament thara are the editions of the American mission at Urumiah, 1846, New York, 1S46, etc. The edition most used in textual criticism hitherto has been that of J. Leusden and C. Schaaf, Leyden, 1709 and 1717, reprinted by Jones, Oxford, 1805 (cf. Tischendorf on Matt, x, 8, with the note of Pusey-Gwilliam). The entire Bible was printed by the Dominicans at Mosul, 1SS7-91. A list of editions to 1SS8 is contained in Nestle, Litteratura Sijriaca (reprinted from Syrische Grammalik, Berlin, 18SS), 17-30. Consult further: Beck, Editiones principes Novi Testamenti Syriaci, Basel, 1771; J. Le Long, Bibliotheca sacra, emendata . . ab A. G. Masch, i, part 4, pp. 54-102, 5 vols., Halle, 1778-90; A. M. Ceriani, Le Edizioni e i manoscritti delle versione Siriache del vecchio Testamento, Milan, 1869; Printed editions of the Syriac New Testament, in Church Quarterly Review, July, 1888, 255-297; Syriac New Testament translated into Eng. by J. Murdoch, with a bibliographical Appendix, by I. H. Hall, 6th ed., Boston, 1893; G. H. Gwilliam, The Ammonian Sections, Eusebian Canons and Harmonizing Tables in the Syriac Tetraeuangelium, in Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica, ii, Oxford, 1890; idem. Materials for the Criticism of the Peshitto, ib. hi, 1891; Scrivener, Introduction, ii, 6-40; F. C. Burkitt, Evangelion da-M epharreshe, Introduction, vol. i, London, 1905. On the Old Testament in the Peshito consult: J. Prager, De veteris testamenti versione Syriaca quam Peschittho, Gottingen, 1875; J. Perles, Meletemata Peschitthoniana, Breslau, 1860; J. M. Schonfelder, Onkelos und Peschittho, Munich, 1869. On parts of the Old Testament: L. Hirzel, De Pentateuchi versionis Syriaco3 indole, Leipsic, 1815; S. D. Luzzatto, Philoxenus sive de Onkelosi Chaldaica Pentateuchi versione, Vienna, 1830; F. Tuch, De Lipsiensi codice Pentateuchi Syriaco, Leipsic, 1849; E. Schwartz, Die syrische Uebersetzung des 1. Samuelis, Berlin, 1897; J. Berliner, Die Peschitta zum 1. Buch der Konige, Berlin, 1897; S. Frankel, in JPT, 1879, pp. 508, 720 (on Chronicles); A. Oliver, A Transl. of the Syriac Peschito Version of the Psalms, Boston, 1861; F. Bathgen, V ntersuchungen iiber die Psalmen nach der Peschito, Kiel, 1878; idem, in JPT, viii (1882), 405, 593; F. Dietrich, Commentatio de psalterii usu in ecclesia Syriaca, Marburg, 1862; B. Oppenheim, Die syrische Uebersetzung . der Psalmen, Leipsic, 1891; J. F. Berg, Influence of the Septuagint upon the Peshitta Psalter, New York, 1895; Techen, Glossar, in ZATW. xvii (1897), 129, 280 (on Psalms); Baumann (on Job), in ZATW, xviii-xx (1898-1900); J. A. Dathe, De ratione consensus Syriacce Proverbiorum, Leipsic, 1764; A
S. Kamenetzky (on Ecclesiastes), in ZATW. xxiv (1904); G. Dietrich, Die Massorah der ostlichen und westlichen Syrer, London, 1899; idem, Textkritischer Apparat, 1905 (Isaiah); C. H. Cornill, Das Buch dc Propheten Ezechiel, pp. 137-156, Leipsic, 1886; C. A. Credn r, De prophetarum minorum versionis Syriaca indole, Gottingen, 1827;
Bible Versions