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Critical Apparatus for the Syriac version of the Bible


Peter Brylov Christensen

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Hi there!

 

I'm currently using all the various Syriac modules available in Accordance (Peshitta OT, Syriac Ben Sira, Pseudepigrapha, Parallel Pseudepigrapha, Peshitta NT, the Syriac Sinaiticus gospels and the Syriac Curetonius gospels ) for an article, and I'm really happy with them as I've been able to do linguistic research that manually would've taken me several weeks, maybe even months to do. With a Master's thesis to work on as well, time is of the essence. So I'd like to thank you all for making these modules available in Accordance.

 

On that note, I was wondering if you are having any plans about incorporating textual apparati for the Syriac Old and New Testament (and the pseudepigrapha for that matter). As for the Syriac New Testament, I'll admit that things do look a bit bleak, as there aren't any out there, apparently, other than the apparatus found in the 1905 Syriac Bible by the United Bible Society. While it shouldn't be dismissed as outdated just because it is a bit old (like how Knudtzons edition of the Amarna Letters from 1915 still is the standard edition due to its high quality, notwithstanding Rainey's new volume from 2014) I do not know the contents of the apparatus in this particular Bible well enough to evaluate it.

 

Surprisingly, the Syriac version of the Old Testament is doing a whole lot better - the Leiden institute has been publishing critical volumes of Peshitta since 1972, and it would be great if this particular apparatus could be incorporated into Accordance. That also goes for a NT-apparatus - if there is a sufficient one available, that is.

 

With kind regards

 

Peter Christensen

Edited by Pchris
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Critical apparatus to both the NT and OT would indeed be most welcome.

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We waited for several years as Leiden kept promising to release a partially tagged Peshitta to us, but eventually we gave up and produced our own fully tagged version. I am sure we would be interested in getting their text and apparatus as well, if they ever make it available to us.

 

E-texting an old New Testament apparatus is another massive project, and I think yours is the first request for it.

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We waited for several years as Leiden kept promising to release a partially tagged Peshitta to us, but eventually we gave up and produced our own fully tagged version. I am sure we would be interested in getting their text and apparatus as well, if they ever make it available to us.

 

E-texting an old New Testament apparatus is another massive project, and I think yours is the first request for it.

 

Hi Helen!

 

I did a search on the forums prior to the making of this thread, and it really does look like that I'm the first one to even mention a Syriac New Testament apparatus here. (On that note, I'm glad that Davki would like to see it, too!) This is rather parallel to the fact that I had to search for a long time to find something that resembles a critical edition of the Syriac New Testament which also is a pain to find a hard copy of, it seems - but I had no trouble whatsoever finding one for the Old Testament, the Leiden edition. (For that reason, I'm very happy to see that the Syriac Curetonian and Sinaiticus gospels are available in Accordance for comparison with NT Peshitta. This feature is really great and deserves much praise.)

 

This current state of affairs is really odd considering that the New Testament in most aspects has top priority in Biblical scholarship. From what I've seen, the Peshitta is one of the few exceptions to this "rule", as there are plenty of critical studies being done on the Old Testament texts to this day but very little on the New Testament. But it could be a lot worse: At the bottom of the barrel we have the entire Ethiopic Bible, as scholarship is usually concentrated to the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees. 

 

Anyway, based on the info I could find in the older threads during my search, I was able to see how Accordance has been very patient with the Leiden Institute for a long time now - just like you said, so I can appreciate why you eventually decided to proceed with the project on your own. One of these days I might contact them and hear their point view to see if anything has changed. Their apparatus is very thorough, so it would be an excellent addition to the Accordance toolset.

 

With kind regards

 

Peter Christensen

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