The Aramaic New Testament exists in two forms, the classical Aramaic, or Syriac, New Testament, part of the Peshitta Bible,^[1] and the "Assyrian Modern" New Testament and Psalms published by the Bible Society in Lebanon (1997) and newly translated from Greek. The official Assyrian Church of the East (known by some as the Nestorian Church) does not recognise the new "Assyrian Modern" edition, and traditionally considers the New Testament of the Peshitta to be the original New Testament, and Aramaic to be its original language. This view was popularised in the West by the Assyrian Church of the East scholar George Lamsa, but is not supported by the majority of scholars, either of the Peshitta or the Greek New Testament.

The traditional New Testament of the Peshitta has 22 books, lacking 2 John, 3 John, 2 Peter, Jude and Revelation, which are books of theAntilegomena. The text of Gospels also lacks the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53–8:11) and Luke 22:17–18.^[2] These missing books were supplemented by the Syriacist John Gwynn in 1893 and 1897 from alternative manuscripts, and included them in the United Bible Societies edition of 1905. The 1997 modern Aramaic New Testament has all 27 books.

Contents

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• 1 Aramaic original New Testament hypothesis
• 2 Church of the East doctrine concerning the Peshitta
• 3 Other "Peshitta original" advocates
  • 3.1 "Aramaic primacy"
• 4 Brief history
• 5 Methods of argument
• 6 Aramaic phenomena
  • 6.1 Perceived logical improbabilities in Greek
  • 6.2 Polysemy
  • 6.3 Puns
  • 6.4 Absence or presence of Aramaic quotations and translations
• 7 Internal disagreements
  • 7.1 Advocates of the primacy of the Peshitta
  • 7.2 Peshitta-critical approach
  • 7.3 Aramaic source criticism
• 8 Majority view
  • 8.1 Response to Papias
  • 8.2 Response to specific verses
  • 8.3 Multiple versions
• 9 Footnotes
• 10 Bibliography
• 11 External links

Aramaic original New Testament hypothesis[edit]

The hypothesis of an Aramaic original for the New Testament holds that the original text of the New Testament was not written in Greek, as held by the majority of scholars, but in the Aramaic language, which was the primary language of Jesus and his Twelve Apostles.

The position of the Assyrian Church of the East, per Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII in 1957, is that the Syriac Peshitta (which is written in a cursive form of Aramaic), used in that church, is the original of the New Testament. Variants of this view are held by some individuals who may argue for a lost Aramaic text preceding the Peshitta as the basis for the New Testament.

This view is to be distinguished from higher criticism and text-critical transmission theories such as the Hebrew Gospel hypothesis of Lessing and others. The Hebrew Gospel or Proto-Gospel hypothesis includes either Aramaic or Hebrew source texts for Matthew and possiblyMark.^{[citation needed]}

Church of the East doctrine concerning the Peshitta[edit]

This is a traditional belief held in the Church of the East that the Peshitta text, which most scholars consider a translation from Greek, is in fact the original source of the Greek:

"With reference to... the originality of the Peshitta text, as the Patriarch and Head of the Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East, we wish to state, that the Church of the East received the scriptures from the hands of the blessed Apostles themselves in the Aramaic original, the language spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and that the Peshitta is the text of the Church of the East which has come down from the Biblical times without any change or revision." Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII, by Grace, Catholicos Patriarch of the East. April 5, 1957

The most noteworthy advocate of this view in the west was George Lamsa (1976) of the Aramaic Bible Center. However this view is rejected by the majority of scholars:

"The only complete English translation of the Peshitta is by G. Lamsa. This is unfortunately not always very accurate, and his claims that the Peshitta Gospels represent the Aramaic original underlying the Greek Gospels are entirely without foundation; such views, which are not infrequently found in more popular literature, are rejected by all serious scholars. Brock, Sebastian P (2006), The Bible in the Syriac tradition, p. 58

The current Patriarch of the Church of the East, Mar Dinkha IV (1976–present), has not publicly pronounced that the Peshitta is the original New Testament.

Other "Peshitta original" advocates[edit]

A tiny minority of scholars are backers of the "Peshitta original" theory today, including website owners Andrew Gabriel Roth (compiler of the "AENT") and the Assyrian Paul Younan, among others.^[3]

"Aramaic primacy"[edit]