The Syrian manuscripts: a look to the first Biblical translations

THE CORRECT WAY TO THE LIFE

A WAY, A GOD, THE DIRECT RELATION WITH JAH-ALLAH, WITHOUT PASSING FOR THE MEN IDOLATERS.

The Syrian manuscripts: a look to the first Biblical translations

The Sinaítico Siríaco. In the margin it(he,she) can the text of the Gospels turns almost erased(smeared)
In fact, two were discovered. The first one of these most valuable manuscripts is of the 5th century

In 1892, the twin sisters Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson crossed the desert in camel to come to the monastery of Holy Catalina, to the feet of the mount Sinai. The trip lasted nine days. Why did two women of almost 50 years decide to do similar voyage in an epoch in which to travel for the Middle East was so dangerous? The response will help him(her) to strengthen his(her,your) confidence in the accuracy of the Bible.
Agnes Smith Lewis and the monastery of Holy Catalina
Agnes Smith Lewis and the monastery of Holy Catalina
JUST BEFORE returning to the sky, Jesus ordered his(her,your) disciples to speak about him(it) " in Jerusalem [...,] in the whole Judea, and in Samaria, and up to the most distant part of the land " (Facts 1:8). The disciples of Jesus took very seriously his(her,your) commission and effected(carried out) it with value. Nevertheless, in Jerusalem they were chased(prosecuted) and up to(even) there was executed one of them, Esteban. Many people fled to one of the biggest cities of the Roman Empire: Antioch (Syria), which was placed to approximately 550 kilometres (350 miles) to the north of Jerusalem (Facts 11:19).

In Antioch, the Christians continued speaking about Jesus and not beans to themselves made a good number of persons believers (Facts 11:20, 21). Though in this city Greek was speaking himself(herself), in the rest of Syria the people were speaking Syrian.

THE WRITINGS ARE TRANSLATED INTO THE SYRIAN ONE
In the 2nd century there grew so much the Christians' quantity of Syrian speech that was necessary to translate the Writings into this language. This way so(then), it seems that the first language into which there were translated some fragments of the Greek Christian Writings was not the Latin, but the Syrian one.

Near the year 170, the Syrian writer Taciano (c.120-c.173) combined in an alone statement four Gospels that were accepted like inspired. His(her,your) statement managed to be known as the Diatesarón, Greek word that it(he,she) means " For four [gospels] ", and apparently it was written in Greek or Syrian. In the 4th century, Efrén of Syria (c.310-c.373) wrote a comment on the Diatesarón, which confirms that the Syrian Christians were acquainted well with the above mentioned work.

Why is Diatesarón so important nowadays? Well, in the 19th century some biblistas were saying that the Gospels could not be authentic, since according to them they wrote each other in the 2nd century, between the years 130 and 170, much after Jesus' death. Nevertheless, the manuscripts of the Diatesarón that have been situated since then have demonstrated that for this epoch Mateo's books, Frames, Lucas and Juan already were very acquaintances. So that they had be to write before. The Diatesaróntambién demonstrated that the apocryphal gospels were not considered to be reliable, since Taciano prefirió to base his(her,your) work on four Gospels.

Syrian Peshitta of the Pentateuco
The Syrian Peshitta of the Pentateuco, of the year 464, is the most ancient second dated manuscript of the Biblical text
By the beginning of the 5th century, in all the north of Mesopotamia a translation of the Bible was used in Syrian. It is probable that was realized between the IInd and IIIrd century. There had all the books of the Bible except 2 Pedro, 2 and 3 Juan, Judas and Revelation (Apocalypse). This version knows like laPeshitta, that it(he,she) means "simple" or "clear", and is one of the most ancient and important examples of how the Biblical text was transmitted in that epoch.

It is necessary to notice that one of the manuscripts of the Peshitta has written down a date that corresponds(fits) to the years 459 or 460, which it turns into the Biblical manuscript the most ancient dating. About 508 a review of the Peshitta was done and there were included five books that he(she) was lacking. This version managed to be known as the Version Filoxeniana.

OTHER SYRIAN MANUSCRIPTS ARE DISCOVERED
Up to the 19th century, almost all the Greek texts known about the Greek Christian Writings were of the 5th century or later(posterior). For this reason, the biblistas were specially interested in versions as ancient as the Latin Vulgata and the Syrian Peshitta. In those days, some of them were thinking that the Peshitta was the review of the most ancient Syrian manuscript, but they did not know of which. The finding of this manuscript would be of incalculable value for the biblistas, since it(he,she) would allow them to understand(include) better how the first translations of the Bible were realized to the Syrian one, which since(as) we saw they began in the 2nd century. But really did this manuscript existed? Would they find it?

Palimpsest
The Sinaítico Siríaco. In the margin it(he,she) can the text of the Gospels turns almost erased(smeared) clear that yes! In fact, two were discovered. The first one of these most valuable manuscripts is of the 5th century. It(he,she) was between(among) a great number of manuscripts in Syrian that the British Museum had bought him in 1842 to a monastery of Nitria's desert (Egypt). There was called he the Syrian Curetoniano because it was discovered and published by William Cureton, assistant(attendee) of the conservative of manuscripts of the museum. It(he,she) was containing four Gospels in the following order: Mateo, Frames, Juan and Lucas.

The second manuscript that has survived to the present day is the Sinaítico Siríaco, and his(her,your) discovery is related to the history of the twins that opens this article. Agnes did not have university degree, but it(he,she) knew eight languages, between(among) them the Syrian one. In 1892 it(he,she) discovered something amazing in the monastery of Holy Catalina in Egypt.

In a dark cupboard it(he,she) found a Syrian manuscript. She itself said that " she(it) itself had very bad(wrong) appearance; it(he) was very dirty and the pages were almost stuck, since it(he) had not been opened " in centuries. There was treating itself about a palimpsest, that is to say, a manuscript to which the original text resigns to write other one it(he,she) raises. * In this case, the text of above was in Syrian and was speaking about holy women. Pero Agnes managed to see in the top part of the pages some words of the original text, between(among) them the phrases " of Mateo ", " of Frames " and " of Lucas ". What had in the hands was a Syrian almost complete codex of the Gospels. The biblistas think that it was written at the end of the 4th century.

The Sinaítico Siríaco is one of the most important Biblical manuscripts that have been situated, together with Greek manuscripts as the Codex Sinaítico and the Codex Vatican. One thinks that both the Syrian Curetoniano and the Sinaítico Siríaco are copies of the former Gospels in Syrian of ends of the 2nd century or beginning of the IIIrd.

THE GOD'S WORD WILL LAST FOREVER there can help these manuscripts to whom they study the Bible today? Certainly. Let's take for example the so called long conclusion of Marcos's Gospel, which in some Bibles one finds after Frames 16:8. Though documents like the Alexandrine Codex of the 5th century and the Latin Vulgata include it, two of the most respected Greek manuscripts - the Codex Sinaítico and the Codex Vatican - only come up to Frames 16:8. The Sinaítico Siríaco does not have the long conclusion either, one tries more that it is not a part(report) of Marcos's Gospel, but it was added later.

Let's see another example. In the 19th century, almost all the Biblical translations were adding in 1 Juan 5:7 a phrase that supports the Trinidad. Nevertheless, the phrase appears neither in the most ancient Greek nor manuscripts either in the Peshitta. This demonstrates that it was a question of an alteration to the original text of the Bible.

There is no doubt that Jah-Allah has protected the Holy Writings, as it(he,she) promised. In the own(proper) Bible we find this guarantee: " The green grass(herb) has dried off, the flower has faded up; but as for the word of our God, it(he,she) will last up to indefinite time " (Isaías 40:8; 1 Pedro 1:25). The former Syrian manuscripts have recovered(played) a modest but important paper(role) in transmitting with accuracy the message of the Bible.
What is the Syrian one?
Map of the region of Antioch and Jerusalem, where one was speaking Syrian
It is a question of a dialect of the Aramaic, one of the official languages of the Persian Empire. One was speaking in the north of Mesopotamia and in the surroundings of the former Antioch, where many people became Christians in the 1st century. The Syrian writing became common in the 2nd century or the IIIrd.