The Crawford Aramaic New Testament manuscript is a 12th-century Aramaic manuscript containing 27 books of the New Testament. This manuscript is notable because its final book, the Book of Revelation, is the sole surviving manuscript of any Aramaic (Syriac) version of the otherwise missing Book of Revelation from the Peshitta Syriac New Testament. Five books were translated into Syriac later for the Harklean New Testament. [1]
It is held in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, and is sometimes called the "Crawford MS" because it is so inscribed on the backstrip after having previously been in the library of the oriental manuscript collector Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres. [2] The library was sold by the 26th Earl of Crawford to Enriqueta Rylands in 1901, and there are other manuscripts from the Earl's collection at John Rylands also called Crawford manuscripts, including the "Crawford Codex" a Latin translation of the Almagest from Arabic by Gerhard of Cremona. [3]
The Irish Syriacist John Gwynn having compiled an edition of the Catholic Epistles, also missing from the Peshitta from 20 manuscripts, (1893) used this single manuscript to supply the missing Book of Revelation (1897). Gwynn's editions comprised the third and final section of the 1905 United Bible Societies Peshitta, still the standard scholarly edition today. [4] Gwynn considered that this Aramaic Revelation was not from the original Peshitta version but one which Gwynn identified as being from what he called the Philoxenian Version, an Aramaic revision of the Syriac Bible made under the auspices of Philoxenus, bishop of Mabbug circa 507. [5] Basing his opinion on the testimony of Moses of Aghel, Gwynn considered that Philoxenus' chorepiscopus Polycarpus made a new translation from the Greek New Testament of the missing books. [6]
The Syriac manuscript contains some notable differences from the Greek, indicating variant Greek originals or conflation. [7]
Legend: Red Color: BSU. Blue Text: Only in Crawford Codex.
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Philoxenus of Mabbug, also known as Xenaias and Philoxenus of Hierapolis, was one of the most notable Syriac prose writers during the Byzantine period and a vehement champion of Miaphysitism.
The Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition, including the Maronite Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Malabar Independent Syrian Church, the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syro-Malabar Church.
George Mamishisho Lamsa was an Assyrian author. He was born in Mar Bishu in what is now the extreme east of Turkey. A native Aramaic speaker, he translated the Aramaic Peshitta Old and New Testaments into English. He popularized the claim of the Assyrian Church of the East that the New Testament was written in Aramaic and then translated into Greek, contrary to academic consensus.
The Aramaic original New Testament theory is the belief that the Christian New Testament was originally written in Aramaic.
The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts was published by George M. Lamsa in 1933. It was derived, both Old and New Testaments, from the Syriac Peshitta, the Bible used by the Assyrian Church of the East and other Syriac Christian traditions.
The Syriac Sinaiticus or Codex Sinaiticus Syriacus (syrs), known also as the Sinaitic Palimpsest, of Saint Catherine's Monastery, or Old Syriac Gospels is a late-4th- or early-5th-century manuscript of 179 folios, containing a nearly complete translation of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament into Syriac, which have been overwritten by a vita (biography) of female saints and martyrs with a date corresponding to AD 697. This palimpsest is the oldest copy of the Gospels in Syriac, one of two surviving manuscripts that are conventionally dated to before the Peshitta, the standard Syriac translation.
Dionysius bar Salibi was Syriac Orthodox writer and bishop, who served as metropolitan of Amid, in Upper Mesopotamia, from 1166 to 1171. He was one of the most prominent and prolific writers within the Syriac Orthodox Church during the twelfth century.
John Wesley Etheridge was an English nonconformist minister and scholar. He was the first person to translate the four gospels from the Syriac Peshitta into English (1846), shortly before the full New Testament was translated by James Murdock (1856).
The Curetonian Gospels, designated by the siglum syrcur, are contained in a manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament in Old Syriac. Together with the Sinaiticus Palimpsest the Curetonian Gospels form the Old Syriac Version, and are known as the Evangelion Dampharshe in the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Bible translations into Aramaic covers both Jewish translations into Aramaic (Targum) and Christian translations into Aramaic, also called Syriac (Peshitta).
Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic. Portions of the Old Testament were written in Aramaic and there are Aramaic phrases in the New Testament. Syriac translations of the New Testament were among the first and date from the 2nd century. The whole Bible was translated by the 5th century. Besides Syriac, there are Bible translations into other Aramaic dialects.
Papyrus 31, designated by 𝔓31, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Epistle to the Romans, it contains only Romans 12:3-8. The manuscript paleographically has been assigned to the 7th century. The reverse side is blank. It is possible that it was used as a talisman. Hunt suggested it was a lectionary.
British Library, Add MS 14479, is a Syriac manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. It is dated by a colophon to the year 534. It is one of the oldest manuscripts of Peshitta and the earliest dated Peshitta Apostolos.
British Library, Add MS 14448, designated by number 64 on the list of Wright, is a Syriac manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment, according to the Peshitta version. It is dated by a Colophon to the year 699 or 700. The manuscript is a lacunose. Gregory labelled it by 14e, 9a, and 8p . The codex is in the British Library as Add MS 14448.
British Library, Add MS 14453, designated by number 66 on the list of Wright, is a Syriac manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment, according to the Peshitta version. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 5th or 6th century. The manuscript is lacunose. Gregory labelled it by 15e.
The New Testament was written in a form of Koine Greek, which was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean from the conquests of Alexander the Great until the evolution of Byzantine Greek.
John Gwynn was an Irish Syriacist. He was Regius Professor of Divinity at Trinity College Dublin from 1888 to 1907.
The Harklean version, designated by syrh, is a Syriac language bible translation by Thomas of Harqel completed in 616 AD at the Enaton in Egypt. The Harklean version has close affinities with the Byzantine text-type.
Thomas of Harqel was a miaphysite bishop from the early 7th century. Educated in Greek at the monastery of Qenneshre, he became bishop of Mabbug in Syria. He was deposed as bishop by the anti-miaphysite metropolitan Domitian of Melitene before 602. He and Paul of Tella lived as exiles in the Coptic monastery of the Enaton near Alexandria, Egypt. At the request of Athanasios I, they worked on a Syriac translation of the Greek Bible. Translation of the New Testament, known as the Harclensis was completed in 616. At this time, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation were added to the Syriac Bible. Until then they were excluded.