What Is The Aramaic Old Testament?

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The Aramaic Old Testament or Peshitta Tanakh is an early translation of the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible into Syriac. Syriac is an Eastern dialect of Aramaic. It is the same dialect that the Aramaic New Testament or Peshitta is written in.

The history and early origins of the Aramaic Old Testament are poorly documented, and there is much that is unclear and open to dispute or interpretation. The Aramaic Old Testament is different to the Targums, even though the Targums are also an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Tanakh. The Targums were done independently, by different people, with different books being translated at different times. By contrast, the Aramaic Old Testament appears to be a single coherent translation done at approximately the same time, in much the same way that the Hebrew Tanakh was translated into Greek to become the Septuagint or LXX. However, it is possible that the Targums and the Aramaic Old Testament have had some influence on each other. If they did, the historical evidence is unclear.

The Aramaic Old Testament is also called the Peshitta Tanakh. It is called Tanakh because it is a translation of the Hebrew Tanakh. (Tanakh stands for Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim, the three major divisions of the Hebrew Bible). Peshitta is the Aramaic word meaning straight or simple (like the Hebrew word pashut), meaning that the Aramaic Old Testament or Peshitta Tanakh is a straightforward, fairly literal translation of the Hebrew Tanakh. In other words, and in contrast to some of the Targums, it is not a paraphrase, nor an embellishment, nor a pesher (explanation), nor midrash (homiletic interpretation) of the Hebrew Tanakh.

Because both the Aramaic Old Testament (Peshitta Tanakh) and Aramaic New Testament (Peshitta) are both in the Syriac (Eastern) dialect of Aramaic, and because both are used by Churches of the East today, they are sometimes bound together in a single volume known as the Peshitta Bible or Biblia Peshitta. The Lamsa Bible is a translation of the Peshitta Bible (Old and New Testaments).

In this introductory series, we have separate lessons on the History of the Aramaic Old Testament, the Importance of the Aramaic Old Testament, and Who Uses the Aramaic Old Testament?

Home  |  Aramaic Old Testament  |  Introduction  |  What Is The Aramaic Old Testament?