Textual critics and biblical scholars recognize the need to understand the unique character of a biblical version before comparing its readings to the Masoretic Text. This study focuses on the character of the Syriac version of 1 Samuel and its relationship to the MT, the LXX, Targum Jonathan and the Hebrew texts from Qumran. Readings that are unique to this version are organized so as to expose its translation techniques, exegesis, and other characteristics. Readings that agree with the LXX and Targum Jonathan against the MT are evaluated with a view to detecting traces of influence from these versions. This study will assist biblical scholars, text critics, and students of the Peshitta who wish to learn more about a particular reading or about the Peshitta’s overall character.

This book investigates the character of the Peshitta in Psalms 90-150 in order to facilitate the proper use of this version in textual criticism. It identifies the Peshitta’s translation techniques and it discusses the version’s interpretation of difficult passages in the Hebrew text. The question of the Hebrew Vorlage behind the Peshitta Psalter is raised. Also investigated here is the relationship between the Peshitta Psalms and the LXX and Targum, and an assessment of the supposed influence of these versions on the Peshitta Psalter is offered. Inquiry is made into the theology of the translation, the identity of the translators, and the relationships among the manuscripts of the Peshitta Psalter. This text is designed as a tool for scholars who, when confronted by critical questions in the Psalter, seek to understand the readings preserved in the Peshitta.

In The Theological Profile of the Peshitta of Isaiah, Attila Bodor explores theological elements in the Peshitta version of Isaiah through a close study of its interpretative renderings.

This book is the result of an innovative linguistic study of the Syriac translation of Ben Sira. It contains both a traditional philological analysis, incorporating matters of text-historical interest and translation technique, and also the results of a computational linguistic analysis of phrases, clauses and texts. It arrives at new linguistic insights, including a proposal for a corpus-based description of phrase structure based on a so-called maximum matrix. The book also addresses the fundamentally different way in which a text is approached in a computer-assisted analysis compared with the way in which this is done in traditional philological approaches. It demonstrates how the computer-assisted analysis can fruitfully shed light on or supplement traditional philological research.

Syriac Christianity developed in the first centuries CE in the Middle East, where it continued to flourish throughout Late Antiquity and the Medieval period, while also spreading widely, as far as India and China. Today, Syriac Christians are found in the Middle East, in India, as well in diasporas scattered across the globe. Over this extended time period and across this vast geographic expanse, Syriac Christians have built impressive churches and monasteries, crafted fine pieces of art, and written and transmitted a sizable body of literature. Though often overlooked, neglected, and even persecuted, Syriac Christianity has been – and continues to be – an important part of the humanistic heritage of the last two millennia. The present volume brings together fourteen studies that offer fresh perspectives on Syriac Christianity, especially its literary texts and authors. The timeframes of the individual studies span from the second-century Syriac translation of the Hebrew Bible up to the thirteenth century with the end of the Syriac Renaissance. Several studies analyze key authors from Late Antiquity, such as Aphrahat, Ephrem, Narsai, and Jacob of Serugh. Others investigate translations into Syriac, both from Hebrew and from Greek, while still others examine hagiography, especially its formation and transmission. Reflecting a growing trend in the field, the volume also devotes significant attention to the Medieval period, during which Syriac Christians lived under Islamic rule. The studies in the volume are united in their quest to explore the richness, diversity, and vibrance of Syriac Christianity.

Jacob of Edessa's version of the Books of Samuel was an attempt to "marry" the traditional Syriac and Greek biblical texts and their interpretations. It gives a glimpse into attitudes to Scripture among Syrian Christians in the Early Islamic period.

The Peshitta is probably the earliest translation of the whole Old Testament into a Semitic idiom. It displays an impressive balance between fidelity to the structure and sense of the Hebrew original and sensitivity to the preferences of the receptor language. This book considers ten key topics in Syriac syntax and exhaustively considers their patterns as they occur in the Peshitta of 1 Kings. Old rules of grammar are refined, new rules formulated, and wider issues of translation method considered. This study is relevant to Syriac specialists, textual critics and biblical scholars alike. It argues that many features in the Peshitta that have previously been attributed to a translator's whim, or to a Vorlage varying from the Masoretic Text, are in fact determined by factors internal to Syriac.