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W AS the PESHITT a of ISAIAH of CHRISTIAN ORIGIN? Anthony Gelston One of the Vexed Questions in the Study of the Peshitta Versio

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W AS the PESHITT a of ISAIAH of CHRISTIAN ORIGIN? Anthony Gelston One of the Vexed Questions in the Study of the Peshitta Versio W AS THE PESHITTA OF ISAIAH OF CHRISTIAN ORIGIN? Anthony Gelston One of the vexed questions in the study of the Peshitta version of the Old Testament is whether it is, partly or wholly, Christian in origin. This article makes no claim to offer either a definite answer to this question or a comprehensive review of earlier discussion of it, even for the book of Isaiah. Its purpose is, rather., to spell out the complexities attending this question, illustrating them with reference to a number of selected passages, and to make some contribution to the continuing debate. For the benefit of scholars who are unfamiliar with recent work in Peshitta studies it may be helpful to draw attention to the Leiden edition of The Old Testament in Syriac, of which a substantial number of volumes are now published, including that containing Isaiah. The magisterial survey of scholarly work on the Peshitta by P. B. Dirksen will serve to set the present study in a wider perspec­ tive, while reference may also be made to a recent article by M. Weitzman for a percipient presentation of the factors relevant to the question of the provenance of the Peshitta.' The first section of this article is indebted to these two studies in particular for their lucid and balanced consideration of the basic issues. Mention should also be made of two volumes containing the papers delivered at the two Peshitta Symposia held in Leiden in 1985 and 1993, in which detailed discussions of a number of particular passages and topics are to be found, and of An Annotated Bibliography of the Peshitta of the Old Testament by P. B. Dirksen, which provides comprehensive P. B. Dirksen, "The Old Testament Peshitta," in M. 1. Mulder (ed.), Mikra: Text, Translation, Reading and Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (CRINT 2.1; Assen: Van Gorcum; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988) 255-97 (= chap. 8), esp. 261-64; M. Weitzman, "From Judaism to Christianity: The Syriac Version of the Hebrew Bible," in J. Lieu, J. North, and T. Rajak (eds.), The Jews among Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire (London and New York: Routledge & Kegal Paul, 1992) 147-73 ( = chap. 7). Unspecified references to Dirksen and Weitzman in this article are to these chapters respectively. 564 ANTHONY GELSTON bibliographical information up to 1989. 2 THE NATURE OF THE ENQUIRY It is well known that already by the time of Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. 428) the origins of the Peshitta were unknown. It is clear, however, that the Peshitta was the Bible of the Syriac speaking Christian churches, and there is no evidence of its liturgical use in Judaism. On the other hand there is at least a general probability that some of the earliest Syriac speaking Christians were of Jewish origin. If there were a Jewish Syriac version of the Old Testament already in use, it would be natural that the Christian converts would bring it with them and supplement it with a Syriac version of the New Testament. This in tum might stamp the Peshitta, like the LXX, as a Christian text of the Old Testament, and account for its subsequent disuse in Judaism. These, however, are speculations. Although no authentic traditions of the origin of the Old Testament Peshitta survive, several facts may be said to have been established by modem study of the version. One of these is that the Peshitta was a translation made directly from a consonantal Hebrew Vorlage fairly close to the MT. It is also true that the Peshitta translators seem to have made sporadic use of the LXX, particularly (though not always or only) when the Hebrew Vorlage was difficult to interpret. As Weitzman points out, the fact that the translation was made directly from the Hebrew and not from the LXX, the Bible of the Church, calls for some explanation if the translation was made by Christians.3 On the other hand Jerome, as a matter of principle, worked from the Hebrew text, and such a general consideration cannot carry decisive weight. Another fact that has been established by modem scholarship is the awareness of Jewish exegetical traditions on the part of the Old Testament Peshitta translators. The nature and extent of this aware­ ness is a matter of debate. Despite a number of parallels with the 2 P. B. Dirksen and M. J. Mulder (eds.), The Peshitta: Its Early Text and History (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute 4; Leiden: Brill, 1988); P. B. Dirksen and A. Van der Kooij (eds.), The Peshitta as a Translation (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute 8; Leiden: Brill, 1995); P. B. Dirksen, An Annotated Bibliography of the Peshitta of the Old Testament (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute 5; Leiden: Brill, 1989). This series will subsequently be designated MPI. 3 Weitzman, "From Judaism to Christianity," 164. .
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