The Peshitta Old Testament, unlike the Peshitta New Testament, is a translation. In this case, it is
a translation of the original Hebrew Bible. What is especially interesting and valuable about the
Peshitta Old Testament is that it is represented in the oldest Semitic manuscript of the complete
Old Testament extant, in the Codex Ambrosianus, commonly dated to the 6th or 7th century AD.
The Peshitta Old Testament is commonly believed by scholars to be a 2nd century AD translation.
I believe that it is older than that, based on its readings and also on many of the headings of the
Psalms in Western Codex Ambrosianus of the 6th century, several of which actually date the
original text in the 1st century A. D. I have not included these headings in my translation, only the
scripture text itself. I hope to include these in a future edition, as they are fascinating evidence for
dating and locating the original work, as well as the Christian faith of the translators.
The Peshitta Old Testament and New Testament are quoted extensively by the Persian Bishop
Aphraates of Nineveh who wrote Bible commentaries in his native Aramaic in AD 337 until his
death in AD 367. I have read and compared his quotes to the Peshitta Old Testament and The
Peshitta NT & Old Syriac Gospels. Other detailed studies of these quotations show that he was
using the canon and text of the Peshitta Bible for both Testaments as opposed to any conjectural
"Old Syriac" Bible, the vestiges of which are supposed to reside today only in two partial
manuscripts of the Gospels which differ considerably from each other, and are dated to the 5th
century. One ms. is the Curetonian; another is the Sinaitic Syriac.
One great reference online with a detailed study of Aphraates (also called Aphrahat) is
Peshitta. org. Paul Younan, a native Aramaean and Aramaic speaker from Lebanon and member
of the Church of The East did a comparison of the Syriac readings of Aphraates with The Peshitta
and The Old Syriac text of the Gospels, as well as Peshitta readings in Paul's Epistles. The author's web site is Aramaicnt. wordpress. com
