Peshitto Syriac New Testament in English Translation: Gorgias Press Edition (2020)

Gorgias Press is shipping the Syriac-English New Testament: The Traditional Syriac Peshitta Text and the Antioch Bible English Translation at the end of August. The fruits of a monumental effort to translate the most widely used scripture of the Syriac Orthodox Church (and other Churches of the Syriac Tradition) will finally be accessible to the faithful. The translation has the imprimatur of His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatios Aphrem II.

The Antioch Bible series has been publishing translations of the Syriac Peshitto in about 35 volumes since 2012. The final volumes of the Old Testament are still in production. The Syriac-English New Testament publishes the books of the New Testament in a single volume. The Syriac text and English translation are printed side by side. The book is leather bound and has artwork and illustrations based on the Syriac Tradition. The premium edition has gilded edges in addition. (The Standard edition costs $45 + ~$5 shipping when 10 or more copies are ordered. The Gilded edition costs $59.95 + ~$5 shipping.)

The Syriac Tradition produced several translations of the scripture in Hebrew and Greek. (Late books of the Old Testament were written in Aramaic and hence are included in the original form.) These are:

1.  Evangelion Damhalte - 'Gospels of the Mixed' ('Diatessaron' in Greek) - a harmony of the four gospels prepared by Tatian in about AD 170. This was very popular in the early Syriac Church until deprecated in the fifth century.
2. Evangelion Dampharshe - 'Gospels of the Separated' (currently called Old Syriac version) produced between 2nd and 5th centuries.
3.  Peshitto version completed around 4th/5th centuries. It contains the entire Old Testament, including the deuterocanonical books, as well as 22 books of the New Testament, but lacking the shorter Catholic Epistles (2-3 John, 2 Peter, Jude, as well as John 7:53-8:11) and Revelation. The term 'Peshitto' was used by Bishop Mor Severus Moses bar Kepho in 903 and means "simple."
4. Syro-Hexaplar - a Syriac translation of the Septuagint (the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament) by Bishop Paul of Tella around AD 617.
5. Philoxenian - a translation, very faithful to the Greek text, commissioned by Mor Philoxenos of Mabbug and translated by Chorepiscopos Polycarpos. The translation was prompted by Christological controversies. It never gained much popularity.
6. Harklean - a  literal translation of the Greek by Thomas of Harqel. Gospel readings in the Passion Week today are often from the Harklean.

Of these, the Peshitto became the most popular version of the scripture in the Syriac Church. Today, scripture readings in all liturgies with few exceptions are from the Peshitto version.

Dr. George Kiraz, a deacon of the Syriac Orthodox Church, President of Gorgias Press, and a member of the Syriac Studies faculty at Princeton University, is the General Editor. The Syriac text was produced by him with the assistance of Dayroyo Fr. Joseph Bali, principal secretary to His Holiness Patriarch Mor Aphrem II. The English translations were produced by eminent Syriac scholars--Jeff W. Childers, J. Edward Walters, Daniel King, Robert A. Kitchen, Jerome Alan Lund & James Prather. The grand master of Syriac Studies, Sebastian Brock, Oxford University, served as the reviewer for the translations.

To learn more about the Peshitto, watch the interview with Dr. George Kiraz. You will learn many facts about the early history of the Bible and features of the Syriac Bible. As examples, you will learn why Syriac Christians say "Forgive us our debts and sins" as opposed to "trespasses" in the Western translation of the Lord's Prayer, that the Syriac Peshitto Bible has 155 Psalms instead of the 150 found in Western Bibles, and more.

Also, watch the inaugural liturgical reading of the Peshitto Syriac-English New Testament by His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II on August 2, 2020 at the Mor Aphrem Center Chapel, Paramus, NJ. (The reading in English starts at min 4:13 and His Holiness' remarks on the edition at min 6:00.)

Possum family at our Church

It has been a very long time since all of you little children have been able to come to our church. Hope you are all enjoying your vacation, although you can't go very far from home. Are you all attending the Holy Qurbono online on Sundays and reading the Bible and praying daily as well? No break from that!

While you have all been away, a possum gave birth to a litter of at least 3 babies. Can you guess where the mama possum found a home?

Well, it was our janitor, Marco, who first spotted it. Vibi Uncle had tasked him to clean our storage shed last Sunday. He opened the door and was beginning to move out the stuff stored there when he noticed something move. He was scared and shut the door. Vibi Uncle took a peek and thought it was a dog. It didn't bark though and so he was not sure. Then Achen took a look and he was sure it was a possum. And, of course, Achen was right!

Have you kids ever seen a possum? I had seen one before in my backyard a long while back. But, this was the first time I had seen one this close. It can look ferocious but it does not hurt you unless you attack it. They are properly called 'Opossum', but we often shorten the name to 'possum'. Possums are 'nocturnal' animals - which means they are typically active only at night. They can't see or hear very well, during day or night. So they rely on their sense of smell to hunt for prey. They eat snails, slugs, insects and sometimes even small rodents. So, it is not too bad to have a possum around. 

But, we had to clear the family out of our storage. I tried prodding the mama possum out with a long stick. It bared its teeth and made a grunting noise, but didn't budge. Vibi Uncle called animal control. But they would not come to remove a possum, since it is a harmless animal. They asked us to shoo it away with a broom. But then that is what we had tried - gently of course, since we didn't know whether it would attack us. So we gave up. 

Last Thursday, Juppey Uncle went to the church and with a stick hauled out the litter. Don't they look cute? The mama possum tried to stay put, but Juppey Uncle prodded it out. It slowly walked away to hide under the trash bin. After Juppey Uncle left, the mama possum must have come back to get her litter. This Sunday they had all cleared out of the storage and were gone, or at least that is what we would like to think!

Our church is now quiet again, waiting for our little ones to come back and fill its hall with joy, laughter, and of course, the screaming and crying ... nah, none of you do that, do you?

I hope I got you interested in learning more about opossums. You can read more at https://opossumsocietyus.org/general-opossum-information/. Enjoy your summer holiday!

Rishin