WHILE the manuscripts of the New Testament, as they have come down to us from the early centuries of our era, are uniformly written in Greek, the facts that Christ Jesus himself knew Aramaic and made a practice of using it in his teachings, are sufficient to arouse the student's interest in the latter language. Indeed there seems to be a growing sentiment in favor of the view that the Gospel writings, whether in whole or in part, were originally published in Aramaic, while some would go still further, assuming, though with much less probability, that the whole of the New Testament was composed in this dialect, being later translated into Greek. However this question may be finally settled, if, indeed, it can be settled at this late date, it is at least evident that the Christians of Syria, and of other neighboring provinces to the east and northeast, would prefer to study the New Testament in some form of Aramaic, rather than in the less familiar Greek. Evidently with a view to satisfying this need, a Syrian scholar named Tatian, composed what is called the "Diatessaron" (literally "By four"), which consists of passages from the books composed "by" the "four" Gospel writers—this material being so grouped as to provide a connected narrative of the Master's ministry. This version, dating from the second century A.D., was prepared in Syriac (or "Eastern Aramaic"), which has been described as "a sister dialect of the Aramaic of Galilee, the dialect spoken there by our Lord and the twelve" (Jennings: "Lexicon to the Syriac New Testament," p. 5), while the same writer adds that "the one differs only slightly from the other."
Somewhat later, other Syrian scholars brought out Syriac renderings of the separate gospels and of the other New Testament books; but the best known of the various versions used by the Syrian church in the early centuries is referred to as "the Peshitta." The Peshitta was for the Syrian church what the Latin Vulgate was for the church of Rome; indeed, the terms "Peshitta" and "Vulgate" are virtually synonymous, both implying that the version so described was "commonly used and accepted" in its own particular field —while "peshitta" could also be rendered "simple; easily understood."
The man who is credited with the preparation of the Peshitta is a certain Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa during the first half of the fifth century A.D. The version which he prepared or sponsored laid no claim to being a completely new translation—it was simply a revision of the earlier Syriac renderings—a revision made on the basis of the Greek manuscripts to which Rabbula and his friends had access; yet, despite this limitation, it is of very considerable importance because of its wide use among the Aramaic-speaking Christians of the East, through many centuries. One of its chief peculiarities is that it omits the book of Revelation and four of the lesser epistles—second Peter, second and third John, and Jude—though we learn from an examination of previous Syriac versions that these five books were used by members of the Syrian churches.
