syriac Summary and Overview

(2 Kings 18:26; Ezra 4:7; Dan. 2:4), more correctly rendered "Aramaic," including both the Syriac and the Chaldee languages. In the New Testament there are several Syriac words, such as "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (Mark 15:34; Matt. 27:46 gives the Heb. form, "Eli, Eli"), "Raca" (Matt. 5:22), "Ephphatha" (Mark 7:34), "Maran-atha" (1 Cor. 16:22). A Syriac version of the Old Testament, containing all the canonical books, along with some apocryphal books (called the Peshitto, i.e., simple translation, and not a paraphrase), was made early in the second century, and is therefore the first Christian translation of the Old Testament. It was made directly from the original, and not from the LXX. Version. The New Testament was also translated from Greek into Syriac about the same time. It is noticeable that this version does not contain the Second and Third Epistles of John, 2 Peter, Jude, and the Apocalypse. These were, however, translated subsequently and placed in the version. (See VERSION T0003768.)

SYR'IAC , the ancient language of Syria, a dialect of the Aramaean. The word occurs in Dan 2:4. where it should be "Aramaic," as it is in the Hebrew. The Chaldaeans spoke in Aramaic in order to conform to the custom of the court, but this was not their proper or scientific language. Daniel at this point begins to employ Chaldee in his book, and continues its use to the end of the seventh chapter. "The tongue of the Chaldaeans," Dan 1:4, was the old Chaldee, the language of Akkad, used by the original inhabitants of Babylonia, and in the time of Nebuchadnezzar a dead language. The language now called Syriac first comes to notice in the second century a.d., but ceased to be avernacular before the twelfth century. It contains the most extensive literature of any Aramaean dialect, chiefly theological, and, of greatest importance, a translation of the Bible - commonly called Peshito ("simple"), because it was literal and not paraphrastic - which was made in the second century. It is the earliest of the direct versions.