Aramaic New Testament - Nestorian Church Beliefs Concerning The Peshitta

Nestorian Church Beliefs Concerning The Peshitta

This is a traditional belief held in the Nestorian Church that the Peshitta text, which most scholars consider a translation from Greek, is in fact the original source of the Greek:

"With reference to... the originality of the Peshitta text, as the Patriarch and Head of the Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East, we wish to state, that the Church of the East received the scriptures from the hands of the blessed Apostles themselves in the Aramaic original, the language spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and that the Peshitta is the text of the Church of the East which has come down from the Biblical times without any change or revision." Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII, by Grace, Catholicos Patriarch of the East. April 5, 1957

The most noteworthy advocate of this view in the west was George Lamsa (1976) of the Aramaic Bible Center. However this view is rejected by the majority of scholars:

"The only complete English translation of the Peshitta is by G. Lamsa. This is unfortunately not always very accurate, and his claims that the Peshitta Gospels represent the Aramaic original underlying the Greek Gospels are entirely without foundation; such views, which are not infrequently found in more popular literature, are rejected by all serious scholars. Brock, Sebastian P (2006), The Bible in the Syriac tradition, p. 58

The current Patriarch of the Church of the East, Mar Dinkha IV (1976–present), has not publicly pronounced that the Peshitta is the original New Testament.