Mention the Syriac bible and most people think of George Lamsa's English edition, emblazoned with the distinctive “yod he” letters on the front. This review covers the Syriac New Testament printed by the United Bible Society, and not the ubiquitous Lamsa English translation. This handy UBS edition was printed in 1985. It is compact and its hard cover looks nice. The script is Serto printed on thin paper with typical Estrangelo headings.

The preface identifies its source material as a combination of two previously existing editions: 1) A 1905 British and Foreign Bible Society Gospels based on a revised and critical text of the Peshitta, and 2) 1901 Acts through Revelation prepared similarly and by the same scholars.

The text behind this little green USB New Testament has a long and interesting history (well, the text behind any Bible has a long and interesting history). In the 19th century the British Museum acquired a substantial number of early manuscripts from the Egyptian monastery Dier Al–Surian (Monastery of the Syrians). This watershed event allowed Western scholars to develop a critical Gospel edition based solely on early manuscripts. Until this time Western Bible societies took a skeptical view of scriptures held by the native churches (they were “too Catholic”) and as part of their missionary endeavors they published new Syriac Bibles based on Greek critical editions. I would venture to say that doctrinal assumptions played no small part in bringing Syriac scripture in line with Protestant standards.

The resulting works based on the Dier Al –Surian sources were published in 1901 and 1904 (Brock, 130)*. This was the foundation for this and many other reprints.

It bears pointing out that I have seen the Lamsa English Bible used as a small token of welcome for Syrian immigrants to the U.S. who do not have a home church. This is not surprising since it the most well known and can be easily obtained. It is the only edition some people are aware of. I would recommend that any church replace them immediately with this compact New Testament by the United Bible Society.

It appears to me that Lamsa, as does the current organization that now publishes his translation, operated from an iconoclastic assumption that any word choice that results in an alternative interpretation is the correct word choice. As a result the Lamsa edition is idiosyncratic and does not represent the text accepted by even the Syriac church. In addition, Lamsa marketed himself as being the last vestige of Aramaic culture, a missing link as it were to the mind of Jesus. This in itself should raise a flag of caution. What you learn from Lamsa is that Christianity may have lost spiritually significant nuances and idioms because of language issues. What you don’t learn from Lamsa is that there are more scholarly, and more widely accepted Syriac Bibles available.

And unlike the Lamsa edition, the UBS reprint is actually in Syriac.

Sebastian Brock mentions that the UBS editions retain the book order found in the canon of the Syriac church. This reprint however has ordered the books according to the western custom. From my perspective the resulting New Testament might reveal noticeable variations from the Byzantine canon of the Eastern Orthodox Church, but for the indigenous Syrians, they have a NT that will no doubt bear more consistency with their local hymnography.

According to Brock there have been other recent New Testament editions, one in particular by the British and Foreign Bible Society in conjunction with scholars from the Syriac Orthodox Church (Brock, 132)*. The most recent was published by the Mor Gabriel monastery in Tur Abdin in 1994. This is the first Syriac Bible ever to provide extensive cross references and study aids. Wouldn’t that be nice to have on your shelf!

Most UBS Bibles are focused on presenting the text with no frills, and as a result these kinds of reprints have no footnotes or critical comments. While I accept this, it seems that a Syriac New Testament would present an abundance of opportunity for comment on idioms, poetry, and even cultural issues. The Bibles with these tools (such as the Mor Gabriel version mentioned above) tend to be more difficult for Americans to obtain. The only other issue I have with this UBS edition is that the Psalms are printed in a different Serto font, one that is more difficult to read. But the deficiency here is entirely mine.

The UBS Syriac New Testament can be purchased through the American Bible Society website:

http://www.bibles.com/products/ABS_NEW/104359.aspx

* For a detailed account of the Syriac scriptures and the various printed editions, see "The Bible In The Syriac Tradition" by Sebastian Brock, Gorgias Press 2006.

The New Testament (and Old Testament/Hebrew Bible) Psalms in Syriac. Also not a critical edition: this book contains no alternate reads or notes on the Old Syriac manuscripts.

-Kushana ( )

OK, my chances of actually getting down to it and learning Syriac were always pretty remote, but I have always thought it a most beautiful language to look at, ever since I first encountered a few isolated Syriac words hiding in the etymologies in the Oxford English Dictionary. MB 15-vi-2007