About the pagination of this eBook Due to the unique page numbering scheme of this book, the electronic pagination of the eBook does not match the pagination of the printed version. To navigate the text, please use the electronic Table of Contents that appears alongside the eBook or the Search function. For citation purposes, use the page numbers that appear in the text. THE ANTIOCH BIBLE The Syriac Peshiṭta Bible with English Translation Proverbs, Qoheleth, and Song of Songs Ṣurath Kthobh Editors George A. Kiraz Andreas Juckel The Syriac Peshiṭta Bible with English Translation Proverbs, Qoheleth, and Song of Songs English Translation by Donald M. Walter Gillian Greenberg English Translation by Text Prepared by Robert J. Owens George A. Kiraz Text Prepared by Joseph Bali George Anton Kiraz 9 34 2021 Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2021 by Gorgias Press All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2021 ܒ 1 ISBN 978-1-4632-3911-4 Printed in the United States of America For Mary Ann Robert J. Owens TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents .................................................................................... v Foreword to the Edition ....................................................................... vii By George A. Kiraz Making of the Text ................................................................................... vii Orthographic Diversions from Mosul ................................................. viii Text Organization ....................................................................................... x Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... x Abbreviations........................................................................................... xi Introduction to the Translation .......................................................... xiii By Robert J. Owens The Peshiṭta Old Testament .................................................................. xiii The Book of Proverbs ............................................................................ xiv The Book of Qoheleth ............................................................................. xv The Book of Songs ................................................................................. xvii Translation Policy .................................................................................. xviii Proverbs ..................................................................................................... xix Qoheleth ..................................................................................................... xx Songs ......................................................................................................... xxii Noteworthy Readings ............................................................................ xxiv Proverbs .................................................................................................... xxv Qoheleth ................................................................................................... lxxi Songs ...................................................................................................... lxxxii Appendix 1: Versification ................................................................... xcv Appendix 2: Variant Readings .......................................................... xcix Proverbs ................................................................................................... xcix Qoheleth ..................................................................................................... cii Songs ........................................................................................................... cv Appendix 3: Names ............................................................................. cvii Proverbs .................................................................................................... cvii Qoheleth .................................................................................................. cviii Songs .......................................................................................................... cix Bibliography ......................................................................................... cxiii Text and Translation ............................................................................... 1 v FOREWORD TO THE EDITION BY GEORGE A. KIRAZ The primary objective of this edition is twofold: to provide a reliable text for scholars and students who are looking for a fully vocalized Syriac text, and to make available to religious communities, for whom this text is sacred, an English translation that can be used in various religious and cultural settings. As such, one had to navigate carefully between rigid scholarly principles and practical editorial choices. Making of the Text The current edition provides a West Syriac version of the 1887–91 Peshiṭta Mosul text.1 While the Mosul text was prepared based on second millennium manuscripts, its text is substantially attested by manuscripts belonging to the first millennium. As ancient MSS are hardly vocalized, our text relies on the vocalization of the Mosul edition. In addition to full vocalization, our text is supplemented with complete Rukkākhā and Quššāyā pointing and other orthographic markings, keeping in mind the general orthographic principles adopted by Pusey and Gwilliam in their 1901 Tetraeuangelium.2 Hence, while the consonantal tier is substantially ancient, the vocalism and orthographic tiers are quite late. As the Mosul edition did not fully mark Rukkākhā and Quššāyā, these points were added and a regular expression3 was applied to the text to 1 Clemis Joseph David (ed.), The Syriac Bible According to the Mosul Edition, 3 volumes, with an introduction by Sebastian P. Brock (Piscataway, NJ, 2010), a reprint of the Mosul 1887–91 edition titled ܐܬܛܝܫܦ ܐܝܪܩܬܡܕ ܐܬܩܦܡ ܟܝܐ ܒܬܟ ܬܪܘܨ. 2 P. E. Pusey and G. H. Gwilliam, Tetraeuangelium Sanctum, the Fourfold Holy Gospel in the Peshitta Syriac Version with Critical Apparatus, with an introduction by Andreas Juckel (Piscataway, NJ, 2003), a reprint of the 1901 edition. 3 In computing, a regular expression provides a mechanism with which strings of text can be matched with a search criterion. In most notations, a bracket expression matches a single character inside that bracket (e.g., [ab] matches a single a or b). The exclamation mark denotes negation. Hence, the expression [bgdkpt][!RQ] (where R and Q represent the Rukkākhā and Quššāyā points, respectively) will match a single bgādkpāt letter that is not vii viii Foreword to the Edition ensure that all bgādkpāt letters are marked. When the consonantal orthography, and in many cases the vocalic orthography, of East and West Syriac diverged, use was made of Lee’s 1823 edition4 as well as linguistic resources including Audo,5 Brockelmann,6 Margoliouth,7 and Smith.8 As for Rukkākhā and Quššāyā pointing, analogies were made internally within other Mosul readings, and externally with the Pusey and Gwilliam New Testament text, making use of my Concordance9 as a tool and the guidelines presented in my introduction to spirantization.10 In some cases, Mašlmānūthā MSS11 (hereinafter, Maš.) were consulted to determine P‛al vs. Pa‛‛el fricatization marking. The Mbaṭṭlānā and Marhṭānā were added systematically following current orthographic conventions, but the Mhaggyānā, Nāgudā, and Mṭappyānā, all ubiquitous in the Mosul text, were removed as they are alien to West Syriac orthography.12 Orthographic Diversions from Mosul In terms of the consonantal tier, the present text differs orthographically from the Mosul text in two ways. Firstly, it intentionally replaces early Syriac orthographic conventions, most of which are also preserved in the East Syriac Mosul text, with West Syriac ones.13 Secondly, as one of the objectives of the present edition is to provide a functional text for religious communities, it was necessary to be systematic and to provide the reader followed by a Rukkākhā or Quššāyā point. When this search fails, all bgādkpāt letters have been pointed (regardless of accuracy of course). 4 S. Lee, Vetus et Novum Testamentum Syriace (London, 1823). 5 T. Audo, ܐ ܝܝܪܘܣ ܐܢܫܠܕ ܐܬܡܝܣ (Mosul, 1897). 6 C. Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum (2nd ed. 1928). 7 J. P. Smith (Mrs. Margoliouth), A Compendious Syriac Dictionary Founded upon the Thesaurus Syriacus (Oxford, 1903). 8 P. Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus (Oxford, 1879–1901). 9 G. A. Kiraz, A Computer Generated Concordance to the Syriac New Testament, 6 volumes (Leiden, 1993). 10 G. A. Kiraz, Introduction to Syriac Spirantization, Rukkâḵâ and Quššâyâ (Losser, 1995). 11 We used Vat. Syr. 152 and BL Add. 12,178. 12 On these symbols, see C. J. David, Grammaire de la Langue Araméenne, 2 volumes, (Mosul, 2nd ed., 1896) §62, §67; G. Kiraz, Tūrrāṣ Mamllā, A Grammar of the Syriac Language, Volume I Orthography (Gorgias Press, 2012) §§205–208. 13 On orthography, see L. Van Rompay, ‘Some Preliminary Remarks on the Origins of Classical Syriac as a Standard Language. The Syriac Version of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History’, in G. Goldenberg and S. Raz (eds.), Semitic and Cushitic Studies (Wiesbaden, 2004), 70–89; S. P. Brock, ‘Some Diachronic Features of Classical Syriac’, in M. F. J. Baasten and W. Th. Van Peursen (eds.), Hamlet on the Hill. Semitic and Greek Studies Presented to Professor T. Muraoka on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday (Louvain, 2003), 95– 111.