The Peshitta

The Peshitta

A source-witness: the Syriac Bible

The Peshitta is the standard Bible of the Syriac-speaking churches, its name meaning the simple or common version. Its Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew, probably by the second century of the common era, and shows both close kinship with the Hebrew text and, in places, the influence of Jewish interpretation and of the Septuagint. Its New Testament became the received text of the Syriac churches.

Because Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic, close to the language Jesus spoke, the Peshitta holds a special interest, and some have valued it highly as a window onto the Semitic background of the Gospels.

Value as a witness

The Peshitta is an early and independent witness to the Old Testament text, useful for comparison with the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Targums; and its New Testament is a chief witness to the early Syriac form of the Christian Scriptures.