Murdock's Translation of the Aramaic New Testament
To start your journey into Aramaic, you first need an Aramaic Bible... Perhaps the best place to start is James Murdock's classic Translation of the Aramaic Peshitta New Testament, from 1852. This is a good, solid, honest, reliable translation which has stood the test of time, and should be included in every good Aramaic library.
Murdock's classic Translation is such an important starting point for studies into the Aramaic New Testament that we have decided, for a limited time, to make it available as a free download in PDF format below.
James Murdock lived before the 1900s. Unlike today, it was a time when literally all academic and ecclesiastical authorities believed in the inspiration of the Holy Bible, and the 'Syriac' Aramaic New Testament was held in especially high esteem. Murdock was an honest, Bible-believing Christian, and his translation follows that conviction. Like all his peers at the time, the Peshitta was held in extremely high esteem.
Buy the Murdock Aramaic New Testament now
This edition also contains Murdock's classic Appendix to his Translation, in which he explains the importance of the Peshitta, and why it was held in such high esteem in his day. This Appendix is a great place to start your studies of the Peshitta New Testament, and will provide you with a superb introduction to the subject.
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This edition has been carefully re-typeset, and therefore is very high quality. It is not a cheap reproduction of a scanned book.
The Murdock Translation of the Aramaic New Testament is a Perfect-bound Paperback, 6 x 9 inches, printed on black-and-white paper, and is 400 pages.
| Randy | Does this book list all the differences between the Eastern and the Western manuscripts in the footnotes? |
| Ewan MacLeod | Hi David, The differences between the Eastern and Western manuscripts are very isolated and minor, and are better handled by footnotes. And there isn't a public domain English translation of the Eastern Peshitta canon only. |
| Tom | I noticed that there are the same mistranslations that are in the Greek: Simon the Leper should be Simon the potter, camel through the aperture of a needle instead of rope through the aperture of a needle, etc. Andrew Roth's Aramaic New Testament (from the eastern peshitta, Khabouris Codex, and Syriac New Testament (1905) ) has these things corrected with footnotes explaining the issue with the greek translations.
Were these sources not available at the time Murdock made his translation?
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| Benoît | David, the Murdock version features the 5 books missing from the Eastern Peshitta (some late epistles and Revelation), translated from Greek to Aramaic in the Western version and then into English. They say pretty much the same as the KJV.
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| Ewan MacLeod | Feel free to leave comments or questions on Murdock's Translation of the Aramaic Peshitta New Testament! |
| David | I thought Murdock's translation was from the Western version called the PeshittO, not the PeshittA. I guess I'm just curious why you'd sell a translation from the Western rather than the seemingly more accurate Eastern original? |
| Ewan MacLeod | Randy, There are some useful footnotes in the book, but it doesn't really document the (minor) differences between Eastern and Western manuscripts. |
| Ewan MacLeod | Tom, I agree with you that Murdock's translation doesn't adequately point out some of the word plays and other features of the Aramaic NT, which are brought out better in footnotes in other translations into English. Still, Murdock is a good starting point for most people - and it's free. |