The Peshitta
is the
official
Bible of the
Church of
the East.
The name
Peshitta in
Aramaic
means
"Straight",
in other
words, the
original and
pure New
Testament.
The Peshitta
is the only
authentic
and pure
text which
contains the
books in the
New
Testament
that were
written in
Aramaic, the
Language of
Mshikha (the
Messiah) and
His
Disciples.
In reference
to the
originality
of the
Peshitta,
the words of
His Holiness
Mar Eshai
Shimun,
Catholicos
Patriarch of
the Church
of the East,
are
summarized
as follows:
"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
by Grace,
Catholicos
Patriarch of
the East
April 5,
1957
In reference
to Aramaic,
the Latin
Patriarch
Maximus at
Vatican II,
stated:
"Christ,
after all
spoke in the
language of
His
contemporaries.
He offered
the first
sacrifice of
the
Eucharist in
Aramaic, a
language
understood
by all the
people who
heard Him.
The Apostles
and
Disciples
did the same
and never in
a language
other than
that of the
gathered
faithful."
The Aramaic
in which the
Bible called
"Assakhta
Peshitta" is
written,
known as the
Peshitta
Text, is in
the dialect
of northwest
Mesopotamia
as it
evolved and
was highly
perfected in
Orhai, once
a
city-kingdom,
later called
Edessa by
the Greeks,
and now
called Urfa
in Turkey.
Harran, the
city of
Abraham's
brother
Nahor, lies
38
kilometers
southeast of
Orhai. The
large colony
of Orhai
Jews, and
the Jewish
colonies in
Assyria in
the kingdom
of Adiabene
whose royal
house had
converted to
Judaism,
possessed
most of the
Bible in
this
dialect, the
Peshitta
Tenakh.
This version
was taken
over by all
the Churches
in the East,
which used,
and still
use Aramaic,
as far as
India, and
formerly in
Turkestan
and China.
The Peshitta
Tenakh was
completed
during
Apostolic
times with
the writings
of the New
Testament.
