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version gives us the actual words of the Lord's discourses in the language in
which they were originally spoken. We cannot discuss this question further
here.
The Peshitto Syriac. This standard version of the ancient Syriac
Church was made not later than the third century (some scholars suggest the
second). Peshitto means 'simple' or 'common'. 'It is a smooth, scholarly,
accurate version, free and idiomatic, without being loose, and it is
evidently taken from the Greek text of the Syrian family' (Kenyon).
The Philoxenian Syriac. In 508, Philoxenus, Bishop of Mabug in Eastern
Syria, revised the Peshitto throughout, and the latter was again revised by
Thomas of Harkel in a.d. 616.
The Palestinian Syriac. This is in a different dialect from that of
the Syriac of the other versions. It is generally reckoned to be the result
of a fresh translation from the Greek, although Dr. Hort considered that part
of it rested upon the Peshitto.
From the Syriac versions, we turn to the Coptic.
The Memphitic or Bohairic Version. This was current in Northern Egypt.
The oldest ms known at present is dated a.d. 1173-74.
The Thebic or Sahidic Version was current in Southern Egypt. It exists
only in fragments, but these are very numerous, and if put together would
form an almost complete New Testament and a large portion of the Old
Testament. Many fragments date back to the fifth and fourth centuries.
There are other Egyptian versions, which we do not mention here. And
we can only give the titles of the remaining Eastern versions. They are the
Armenian (5th century), the Gothic (4th century), the Ethiopic (about the
year 600), several Arabic versions, Georgian, Slavonic, and Persian. We must
now consider the Western versions.
The Old Latin was made long before any of the manuscripts which we now
possess, and takes us back to within a generation of the time when the
original Scriptures of the New Testament were penned. Three groups of Old
Latin can be traced and have been named: the African, the European and the
Italian. Thirty-eight manuscripts of this version exist today. As a certain
amount of confusion was caused by the existence of these three families of
the Old Latin, Pope Damascus commissioned Jerome to produce a revision of
this version.
The Vulgate. This is the name given to the new Latin version produced
by Jerome. The New Testament was completed first. The Old Testament which
was translated from the Hebrew, a further step forward, was not finished
until twenty years later. There are countless copies of the Vulgate in
existence, and for centuries it was the Bible of Western Christendom. To
attempt to trace the history of the Latin Vulgate would be to give the
history of the Church during the Middle Ages; this we cannot do. Though
access to the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures is our prized privilege, no one who
has any sense of proportion can look upon Jerome's great work without respect
and thankfulness.
Our task is not finished. With all the evidence available of all ages
and countries, in many languages and dialects, we have abundant means of