Language Studies

As we have seen in the past few weeks, the Peshitta translation of Psalm 110 shares characteristics with the Septuagint translation at points where the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew text. This is perhaps plainest in verse 1, where the Septuagint and the Peshitta both have "The Lord said to my lord." In this part of…

As indicated at the end of last week’s column, Hebrew poetry is terse, a characteristic it shares with much English poetry. I’m not sufficiently familiar with poetry in other languages to comment on them, but I suspect the same is the case in many other languages as well. Consider, for instance the Japanese haiku,…

Verse 4 in Hebrew reads, "YHWH has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek." The Septuagint translation is strictly literal. The Peshitta gives an interesting variation in a couple of ways. First, it reads, "The Lord has sworn and shall not lie." While both the Hebrew…

Continuing our investigation of verse 3, the Peshitta punctuates the verse differently than either the Hebrew or the Septuagint. It connects "from the womb" with the "your people" that opens the verse. Then, "from of old" connects with "I have begotten you." Taking the easier part first, the Peshitta (and the Septuagint)…

Psalm 110 (continued) Verse 1 continues, "Until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet." Both the Peshitta and the Septuagint give a good literal translation of the Hebrew. Thus it is impossible to tell whether the Peshitta is dependent more on the Septuagint or on the Hebrew text. In verse 2a the Peshitta reads,…

Now turning from theoretical considerations, let us consider a few examples from the Peshitta itself. The first is from Psalm 110. In Hebrew, the Psalm has a brief title: "Of David, a psalm." The same title is found in the Septuagint, even though in several cases the Septuagint has provided titles where the Hebrew has none,…

Knowledge of the vagaries of vocabulary is only one of the tools a translator must have as he approaches the translation of a text. The translator must also have an intimate knowledge of the grammars of two different languages—the language he is translating from and the language he is translating into. All languages,…

"Englishing" the Peshitta The English word "prevent" presents us with an interesting case study as we begin to consider the idea of turning a text from another language into English. Etymologically, the English word "prevent" means "to go before," as it is constructed from two Latin parts; pre meaning "before,"…

The Peshitta and Textual Criticism, Part IV 1 Kings 7:7 reads in the MT, "And the hall of the throne, where he judged, he made the hall of judgment. And it was covered with cedar from the floor to the floor." As it is, this doesn’t make a lot of sense, even though most modern translations follow it. Fortunately, both…

The Peshitta and Textual Criticism, Part III Genesis 12:3 reads in the MT, "I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse." But the Peshitta, the Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Targum, and even a few Hebrew manuscripts read, "those who curse you, I will curse." The latter can be seen as the copyist/translator…

The Peshitta and Textual Criticism, Part II Genesis 4:8 is a curious text from a text-critical perspective. The Masoretic Text (MT) reads, "And Cain said to Abel his brother, and it happened when they were in the field, that Cain arose against Abel his brother and killed him." Some English versions, such as the ESV, try…

The Peshitta and Textual Criticism, Part 1 The Peshitta is generally considered to be of secondary importance in matters of textual criticism. This is due in large part to the fact that the Peshitta as it currently exists appears not to be a simple, straightforward translation of the Hebrew original into a related Semitic…

The Peshitta and Textual Criticism: An Introduction, Part 1 Cambridge University Press recently published the New Cambridge Paragraph Bible with an accompanying volume by David Norton titled The Textual History of the King James Bible. The former book is a new edition of the King James Bible, while the latter…

Important Manuscripts and Editions of the Peshitta Early on in the course of these postings, the question of the Khaboris (or Khabouris) Codex came up. The Khaboris Codex is a tenth-century codex (that is, it is in a form like that of a modern book, rather than in a scroll) that contains the New Testament written in the…