This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshiṭta along with the Syriac text carried out by...
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The Significance of the Peshiṭta Text of Mark Although the Peshiṭta text of Mark does not contain the original text of the Gospel, it supplies scholars with immensely helpful points of comparison as they seek to discern an Aramaic substratum to Mark’s Gospel. It also provides important information about the early Greek texts from which the Syriac version was translated and by which it was revised to produce the Peshiṭta. Past scholarship tended to see the Peshiṭta text as simply a translation of a Byzantine Greek type of text (i.e. the Textus Receptus of the KJV). Yet in an important study of its textual affinities, Hope Broome Downs found that in Mark the Peshiṭta text shares a number of distinctive readings with the Sinaitic Old Syriac manuscript, revealing the Peshiṭta’s pedigree as a revised heir to the Old Syriac. Furthermore, where the shared
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Introduction to the Translation
readings agree with existing Greek manuscripts, the Syriac text answers to the Byzantine Greek type of text somewhat less than half the time. Nearly one-third of the time, it manifests readings that agree with witnesses that have been commonly designated “Western” instead. More refined methods of analysis, applied to better current editions, might yield slightly different results than Mrs Downs’ early study, but do not change the overall picture. Also, more recent research shows that some of the distinctive Peshiṭta readings in Mark are due to the influences of translation technique and perhaps interpretive traditions. Yet some of them undoubtedly attest to lost forms of the Greek text. Consequently, the Peshiṭta text is not easy to characterize. This intriguingly complex textual character underscores the importance of the Peshiṭta text of Mark as a witness to the primitive Greek text of the Gospel and the history of the New Testament textual tradition. In addition to its significance for New Testament textual criticism, the Peshiṭta text of Mark opens a fascinating window onto an important moment of cross-cultural contact between Greek- and Syriac-speaking Christians. Long recognized as a “bridge culture,” Syriac Christianity links the western religious and intellectual heritage and the cultures of the Middle East and Asia. The reception of the Greek Gospel text into a Syriac milieu stands as a seminal piece of the dynamic and ongoing interchange between different ancient Christian communities. The pre-Peshiṭta Syriac translators inevitably refashioned the Greek texts before them, negotiating differences in language, religion, theology, and culture to address the needs of their own environments. After them, revisors continued the dialogue, editing the Syriac text in conversation not only with the Greek Gospel text and the Greek communities that used it, but also in response to the changing shape and contemporary priorities of their own, Syriac contexts. The resulting Peshiṭta text of the New Testament became the fundamental classic of Syriac-speaking Christianity, boasting an unparalleled influence on the Syriac Christian tradition. Consequently, the Peshiṭta text of Mark is not merely a remarkable subject of academic study—though it is that. From the beginning of its existence, its primary purpose has been to serve the basic needs of ecclesial communities who worship God in the Syriac language. As part of the standard Bible of the Syriac churches, the Peshiṭta version of Mark has nourished individual and corporate spirituality for many centuries. Early exegetes such as Aphrahaṭ and Ephrem employ the Diatessaron and other pre-Peshiṭta recensions (e.g. the Old Syriac), yet it is the Peshiṭta that subsequent Syriac interpreters normally use, from the early fifth century until today. Though not as popular as Matthew or Luke, “the difficult ܳ ̣̱ܶ̈ܪ meanings that are in the Gospel of the Blessed Mark the Evangelist” (ܥܝܢܶܐ