Antioch Bible

A fresh new idiomatic English translation based on the
Aramaic text of the Syriac Peshitta
in ca. 35 volumes

“No branch of the Early Church has done more for the translation of the Bible into their vernacular than the Syriac-speaking. In our European libraries we have Syriac Bible manuscripts from Lebanon, Egypt, Sinai, Mesopotamia, Armenia, India, even from China.”

— Eberhard Nestle

“[Early Syriac Christianity] offers us a largely unhellenized form of Christianity that is deeply Biblical in character and quite different in many respects from the Christianity of the Greek- and Latin-speaking world of the Mediterranean littoral.”

— Sebastian Brock (University of Oxford)

Why the Peshitta Bible? The Peshitta Bible is one of the earliest versions of the Scripture dating back to the times of the Early Church, and is the only version that is written in a Semitic setting similar to that of the ancient Israelites and the early Christians. In fact Syriac, the language of the Peshitta, is a dialect of Aramaic akin to the Aramaic of the Jewish exile and the Palestinian Aramaic of Jesus Christ. This sociolinguistic connection with the Semitic world gives new insights into the words of the Bible (see the Matthew example below) currently undisclosed by Western languages. Moreover, the Peshitta Bible is full of distinctive readings that are absent in other versions.

The Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible, probably originated as a Jewish targum “translation” and was inherited by the Early Church. It is rich with links to the ancient Jewish exegetical tradition. The New Testament, in particular the Gospels, is a revision of an older Syriac version that dates back to the early centuries of the Early Church.

The Antioch Bible makes the Syriac Bible available to the modern reader in an easy-to-read idiomatic English translation, with ample footnotes that point out literal expressions in the original Syriac. While the edition caters to the non-specialist, it is a particularly expansive tool in the repertoire of a specialist. In this set the specialist can easily consult the original text, fully pointed and vocalized, alongside the translation on facing pages. The translation is the work of an inter-faith international team of scholars from North America and Europe. The original text was prepared by individuals who grew using the Peshitta Bible, in consultation with leading Biblical scholars in North America and Europe. The first volume was published in 2012 and this special limited inaugural edition will appear in ca. 35 in total, which will be completed by 2026/2027. Each volume is bound in special cloth and is printed on matte paper with ornate end-sheets.

Samples

Isaiah, Chapter 42, The Praise of Isaiah

10 Praise the Lord with new praise, his praise from the ends of the earth, those who go down to the sea in its fullness, the islands and those who dwell in them. 11 Let the wilderness and its cities rejoice, let Kedar become meadows, let the dwellers in the crags sing praises, let them cry out from the highest mountain. 12 May they give praise to the Lord, may they proclaim his praises in the islands. 13 The Lord will go forth as a mighty man, as a warrior he will arouse zeal; he will cry out, he will conduct himself manfully, he will kill his enemies.

Matthew, Chapter 6, The Lord’s Prayer

12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, because yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.’

Whereas the Greek text at this point has ‘debts’ (τὰ ὀφειλήματα) and ‘debtors’ (τοῖς ὀφειλέταις), but in the parallel Luke 11:4 we find ‘sins’ (τὰς ἁμαρτίας), the Syriac uses a term that means both ‘debts’ and ‘sins’. The Syriac provides a telling clue as to the original wording Jesus was likely to have used, in his own Palestinian Aramaic dialect, where the same root carries both meanings. —From the translator’s introduction.

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Contributors

The Antioch Bible is produced by an international, inter-faith team of specialists and Biblical scholars.

Dayroyo Joseph Bali (Ph.D candidate, Philosophy, University of Athens) completed his academic studies in the field of philosophy and then joined St. Ephrem Seminary, Damascus, in 2007. A year later, he became a monk and in 2011 he was ordained as a priest. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy in the University of Athens working on the influence of Greek Philosophy on the works of Bar Hebraeus. He is fluent in Syriac, Arabic, French, English and Greek. His areas of competence include Medieval Philosophy, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Syriac History, Literature and Grammar. His future aspirations are to publish English translations of the works of the Syriac Church Fathers and scholars, especially Bar Hebraeus. Dayroyo Bali is preparing the initial draft of the Syriac text of many Old Testament books.
A.J. Berkovitz (Ph.D candidate, Religion, Princeton University) is currently working on the reception, interpretation and use of the book of Psalms in Jewish and Christian Late Antiquity. Together with Binyamin Goldstein, he is preparing the text of and translating 4 Ezra (2 Esdras).
Sebastian Brock, Emeritus Reader in Syriac Studies, Oxford University, and Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. Author of a number of contributions in the area of Syriac studie, including: The Luminous Eye: the Spiritual World Vision of St Ephrem, Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Paradise, Singer of the Word of God: Ephrem the Syrian and his Significance in Late Antiquity, Isaac of Nineveh (Isaac the Syrian): The 'Second Part', ch. IV-XLI. The Bible in the Syriac Tradition, A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature, The Stanzaic Poems of Jacob of Serugh, Treasurehouse of Mysteries: Explorations of the Sacred Text through Poetry in the Syriac Tradition; (with Susan Harvey) Holy Women of the Syrian Orient, (with George Kiraz) Ephrem the Syrian, Select Poems. Main editor and author of The Hidden Pearl: The Syrian Orthodox Church and its Ancient Aramaic Heritage, I-III.
Aaron M. Butts (Assistant Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures in the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures, The Catholic University of America) completed his Ph.D at the University of Chicago. His research is focused on the languages and literatures of Christianity in the Near East, especially Syriac as well as Arabic and Ethiopic. He also has interests in Comparative Semitic linguistics and language contact. He is author of Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Tower of Babel (2009) and a co-editor of the Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (2011). His articles have appeared in journals such as Aramaic Studies, Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Journal of Semitic Studies, Oriens Christianus, and Le Muséon. He is currently completing a book on contact-induced changes in Syriac due to Greek that is entitled Language Change in the Wake of Empire: Syriac in its Greco-Roman Context (Eisenbrauns). He is also editing a volume entitled Studies in Semitic Language Contact (Brill). Butts is translating Ben Sirach, Judith, and Tobit.
Jeff W. Childers (Carmichael-Walling Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Graduate School of Theology, Abilene Christian University). Jeff received the D.Phil. in Syriac Studies at the University of Oxford in 1996 for his research on Syriac translations of Greek Patristic literature. His primary areas of research and writing include the biblical text, New Testament textual criticism, and Syriac Patristics. Jeff recent publications include, Divining Gospel: Oracles of Interpretation in a Syriac Manuscript of John (Manuscripta Biblica 4; de Gruyter), the study of a unique late antique Syriac Gospel manuscript; and Mark the Deacon: Life of Porphyry of Gaza (Translated Texts for Historians 89; Liverpool University Press).
Edward M. Cook received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1986 under Prof. Stanislav Segert. He is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at the Catholic University of America. He has been a Research Scholar with the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, and is currently Associate Editor of the Lexicon. He is the author of “A Glossary of Targum Onkelos” (2008) and co-author of “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation” (rev. ed., 2005). Prof. Cook is translating Numbers.
Philip Michael Forness (Ph.D candidate, Princeton Theological Seminary) focuses broadly on theological debates and their consequences during divisive periods in the first seven centuries of Christianity. His research encompasses several interrelated subjects and methodologies, including book culture and manuscript studies, the transmission of ideas across linguistic boundaries, and the relationship between doctrine and religious practices. His dissertation draws on each of these to consider the role that Jacob of Sarug’s homilies played in forming communities around Christological commitments during the post-Chalcedonian controversies. He also holds a particular interest in the reception of the bible and recently published an article on the reading communities for the earliest complete Old Testament manuscript in Syriac. He is translating 1-4 Maccabees.
Anthony Gelston (Emeritus Reader in Theology, University of Durham) received his D.D. at Oxford. He edited the Twelve Minor Prophets for the Peshitta Institute's critical edition of the Syriac Old Testament, and since his retirement has edited the same text for the Biblia Hebraica Quinta, the latter with considerable help from Carmel McCarthy in the final stages of preparation for publication. He also wrote a monograph on 'The Peshitta of the Twelve Prophets' (Oxford, 1987), and has published a number of articles on the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Dr Gelston is English Translation Editor for Deuteronomy.
Binyamin Goldstein (Ph.D candidate, Bible and Semitics, Yeshiva University). His dissertation is on the relationship between the Targum and Peshiṭta Proverbs, including the first full critical text of the former. His current primary focus is on Syriac texts that penetrated, in a more or less redacted form, into Jewish circles. Together with Abraham Jacob Berkovitz, he is preparing the text of and translating 4 Ezra (2 Esdras).
Robert Gordon (Emeritus Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Cambridge) studied Hebrew and Aramaic at the University of Cambridge, writing his PhD thesis on Targum Jonathan to the Minor Prophets. He taught Hebrew and Old Testament at Glasgow University, and then at Cambridge. His main research interests include the major versions of the Old Testament, and he edited 1 and 2 Chronicles for the Leiden Peshitta project (publ. 2000). He is also the author of Studies in the Targum to the Twelve Prophets: From Nahum to Malachi (Leiden, 1994). Robert is also translating 1 and 2 Chronicles for the Antioch Bible.
Gillian Greenberg started her career in medicine. After retirement from medicine, she studied languages, particularly those in the Semitic group. She joined the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies in University College London, where she did her PhD on translation technique in the Peshitta under Michael Weitzman. She teaches Syriac there. Together with Donald Walter, she is producing a number of translations from the Old Testament including Isaiah, Lamentations, the Twelve Prophets, Jeremiah, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
Charles G. Häberl is a Professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, and President of the International Linguistic Association. He is a scholar of Aramaic and of the Aramaic-speaking religious communities of the Middle East, including and especially the Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, as well as the Christians of Mardin province in southern Turkey and the Qalamoun mountains in Syria. After completing his AB at Brown University in 1998 and his AM and PhD at Harvard University in 2006, he joined the faculty at Rutgers and has served as the Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and as Chair of the department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures. In 2016, he received the Anna-Maria Kellen Fellowship from the American Academy in Berlin and in 2022 the Willis F. Doney Fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He has authored or co-edited five books, including The Book of Kings and the Explanations of this World and (with James F. McGrath) The Mandaean Book of John, and numerous articles.
Aimee Hannoush is a PhD student in History at Princeton University. She is interested in all periods and genres of Syriac history and literature, but with a special focus on the late antique period and liturgy. She has worked on various projects for Beth Mardutho and smaller revision tasks for the Antioch Bible.
John Healey is Professor of Semitic Studies in the University of Manchester, a Fellow of the British Academy and co-editor of Journal of Semitic Studies. His research interests include history of the alphabet, Ugaritic literature, the Hebrew Bible and especially Aramaic epigraphy (Nabataean, Palmyrene and Syriac). Major publications include: Aramaic Inscriptions and Documents of the Roman Period (2009); Leshono Suryoyo: First Studies in Syriac (2005); The Religion of the Nabataeans: A Conspectus (2001); The Old Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene (1999); The Nabataean Tomb Inscriptions of Mada’in Salih (1993). He also translated the Book of Proverbs for The Aramaic Bible project (1991). Prof. Healey is translating Ezra and Nehemiah.

Andreas Juckel is Research Associate at the Oriental Department of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (Muenster, Germany). He studied Protestant Theology, Semitics and Oriental Christianity at Bonn University (Germany). He edited (based on his Ph.D. dissertation) the first part of the “Book of Instruction” (Ktobo d-Durrosho), a didactic poetry of the 10th-century Bishop Eliyah of Anbar (CSCO 559/560). His special area of research is the textual criticism of the Syriac NT versions, their revisional development, and their relation to the Greek. He is currently editing the Peshitta Gospels (a remake of the Pusey-Gwilliam-volume published in 1901), and the Harklean Gospels in team-work with several volunteers. His critical edition of the Corpus Paulinum in the Peshitta version will be published by Gorgias Press at the beginning of 2013. He is co-editor of the Antioch Bible.
Daniel King (Senior Translation Consultant, SIL International; Associate Research Fellow in Syriac Studies and Semitic Languages at Cardiff University) studied classical languages at Cambridge before moving into the fields of Syriac studies and theology. He specializes in late ancient theology and philosophy. He has published many articles on the Syriac philosophical tradition and on Syriac Bible translations. Works include The Syriac World (Routledge, 2019) and The Earliest Syriac version of Aristotle’s Categories (Leiden, 2010), as well as contributing translations of the Pauline Epistles, Hebrews, and James in the Antioch Bible.
George A. Kiraz is the founder and director of Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute, the Editor-in-Chief of Gorgias Press, and a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He earned an M.St. degree in Syriac Studies from the University of Oxford (1991) and an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge (1992, 1996). He has published extensively in the fields of computational linguistics, Syriac studies, and the digital humanities. Some of his latest books include The Syriac Orthodox in North America (1895–1995): A Short History (2019) and Syriac-English New Testament (2020), Water the Willow Tree (2022),New Syriac Primer (4th edition 2024), Algorithmic Musings in Syriac (2024). George is an ordained Deacon of the rank of Ewangeloyo (Gospler) in the Syriac Orthodox Church where he also serves on several Patriarchal, Synodal, and local committees. Dr. Kiraz prepares the Syriac text for the Antioch Bible and together with Andreas Juckel edits the series.
Robert Kitchen is the Minister of Knox-Metropolitan United Church, Regina, Saskatchewan. His interest lies in early Syriac ascetical and monastic literature, having translated The Book of Steps (with Martien Parmentier) (Cistercian, 2004) and The Discourses of Philoxenos of Mabbug, also for Cistercian (2014). With Kristian S. Heal he has co-edited Breaking the Mind: New Essays in the Syriac Book of Steps (Catholic University of America Press, 2013). He is translating Acts.
Tarsee Li received his Ph.D. from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Semitic Linguistics in the School of Theology at Oakwood University. His research interests focus on Hebrew, Aramaic, and other Northwest Semitic languages, and he has written various book chapters, journal articles, and monographs, including The Verbal System of the Aramaic of Daniel: An Explanation in the Context of Grammaticalization (2009) and Greek Indicative Verbs in the Christian Palestinian Aramaic Gospels: Translation Technique and the Aramaic Verbal System (2013).
Jonathan A. Loopstra (Professor, History Department at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario) teaches Patristics and the history of the Middle East and Mediterranean in Late Antiquity. Through his teaching and research, Jonathan endeavors to shed light on the history, theology, and languages of various Christian communities in the Near East. Dr. Loopstra received a Ph.D. from the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, a Masters of Studies (Mst) in Syriac from Oxford University, and a Masters of Arts from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago. Dr. Loopstra translated the Book of Job.
Jerome A. Lund (Retired and living in Norway) studied Christian theology including New Testament textual criticism and Syriac in the USA (M. Div., Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary) and Semitic philology in Israel (M.A., Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem). He has published articles on various Aramaic dialects including Syriac and on Hebrew and the Masorah in peer reviewed journals and written a number of encyclopedic type articles. He has also authored and co-authored several books including Aramaic Documents from Egypt, A Key-Word-in-Context Concordance (Eisenbrauns, 2002) and The Old Syriac Gospel of the Distinct Evangelists – A Key-Word-in-Context Concordance (Gorgias Press, 2004). Dr. Lund translated Revelation.
Patrick J. Madden received his B.A. in philosophy from St. Joseph Seminary College, Covington, LA, 1970; M.Div., St. Meinrad Seminary, Indiana, 1974; M.A., Liturgy, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, 1979; M.A., Latin, University of Michigan, 1988; Ph.D., Biblical Studies, Catholic University of America, 1995. There specialized in New Testament and took most of his electives in Semitic languages, Hebrew and various Aramaic dialects including Syriac. In 2019 he continued Syriac studies at Beth Mardutho, and thus became involved in the AB project. His life has been a mixture of academic and pastoral work. He is currently a retired Catholic priest of the Diocese of Shreveport, LA.
Carmel McCarthy is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA), having taught Hebrew and Syriac in the Department of Near Eastern Languages at University College Dublin since 1968. It was at this same university that she received her initial degrees of BA and MA in Near Eastern Languages in 1966 and 1968 respectively, in both cases attaining first class honours. Prof. McCarthy is translating Deuteronomy.
Mark R. Meyer (B.S.E.E., North Carolina State University; M.S.E.E., The John Hopkins University; M.Div., Capital Bible Seminary; M.A., Ph.D., The Catholic University of America) is Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis at Capital Bible Seminary in Lanham, Maryland, where he has been teaching since 1993. He is conversant in the Semitic languages and has taught nearly all of them throughout his tenure at the seminary. Meyer has recently written a book, A Comparative Dialectical Study of Genitive Constructions in Aramaic Translations of Exodus (Gorgias Press, 2012). Prof. Meyer is translating Exodus.
James D. Moore (Ph.D candidate in Bible and Near Eastern Studies, Brandeis University) His primary research interests are in ancient Near Eastern scribal culture and the development of religious texts. He teaches writing seminar courses at Brandeis University on ancient scribal culture and on ancient myth and legend in modern cinema. He has published on the sacrificial system found in the Hebrew and Syriac versions of Leviticus, and he has contributed to Oxford Biblical Studies Online and The Routledge Dictionary of Ancient Mediterranean Religions among other publications. James is translating Leviticus.
Craig E. Morrison (Associate Professor in Syriac and Aramaic, Pontifical Biblical Institute) received his S.S.D. from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 2001. He is the author of The Character of the Syriac Version of The First Book of Samuel (Brill 2001) and co-edited with Richard Taylor Reflections on Lexicography: Explorations in Ancient Syriac, Hebrew, and Greek Sources. (Gorgias Press, 2014). Dr. Morrison is translating Genesis.
Robert Owens (Ph.D., Johns Hopkins) is Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at The General Theological Seminary in New York. He has published a number of studies relating to the ancient Syriac Bible, including The Genesis and Exodus Citations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage (Brill, 1983), and has contributed Syriac materials to the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon. He is currently preparing Numbers for the Bible of Edessa project of the Peshitta Institute. He is a member of the International Syriac Language Project. He is translating Proverbs, Qoheleth, and Song of Songs.
James Prather is an instructor of computer science at Abilene Christian University (Abilene, Texas). He also holds a Master of Divinity and is working to complete a Master of Arts in Hebrew Bible. His primary areas of research include Human-Computer Interaction, Ethiopic 3 Reigns, and the War Scroll (1QM). Together with Jeff Childers, he is translating the Gospel of John.
Morgan Reed is a M.A./PhD student at the Catholic University of America. He received a B.A. in Pastoral Studies from Moody Bible Institute and continued graduate coursework at Dallas Theological Seminary in Hebrew Bible, Greek, Syriac and textual criticism. His research focuses on the reception of the Hebrew Bible into the Syriac tradition. Morgan collates the text of Mosul against the Leiden edition.
Seth M. Stadel (D. Phil. 2022, University of Oxford) is a Research Associate on the ERC-funded project, “Domestic Slavery and Sexual Exploitation in the Households of Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, from Constantine to c. AD 900 / AH 287.” His research focuses on Eastern Christian biblical interpretation, the intertwined histories of Syriac Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islam, slavery in the medieval world, and pre-modern legal literature.
Hannah Stork is a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University. Her dissertation focuses on the emergence of the Syriac grammatical tradition in late antiquity and the early Islamic period. She has taught summer Syriac at Beth Mardutho for a number of years and serves on the Antioch Bible English Translation Review Committee. She will also be translating the book of Wisdom.
Jack Tannous (Associate Professor of History and Hellenic Studies, Princeton University) studies the late antique and medieval Middle East and is interested in all periods of Syriac and Christian Arabic literature and history.
Richard A. Taylor (Senior Research Professor of Old Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary) holds a PhD in Semitic languages and literatures from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. His research interests include the Hebrew Bible and its ancient versions, especially the Peshitta. His doctoral dissertation was a text-critical analysis of the Syriac version of the book of Daniel, a revised form of which appeared in the Brill series entitled Monographs of the Peshitta Institute, Leiden. Dr. Taylor has translated Psalms and is on the Translation Oversight Committee.
Eric Tully (Assistant Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is translating Ruth. Dr. Tully is interested in linguistic approaches to Biblical Hebrew, textual criticism, and the latter prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and his book The Character of the Peshitta Version of Hosea is forthcoming from Brill.
Donald M. Walter (Professor Emeritus, Philosophy and Religion, Davis and Elkins College) completed his doctoral dissertation under Charles T. Fritsch, James Barr, and Philip C. Hammond, and became the editor of Psalms and later Jeremiah for the Peshitta Institute’s critical edition of the Old Testament. He has served as an editor of the first volume of the Concordance to the Torah also issued by the Institute, and his major works include Studies in the Peshitta of Kings (Gorgias Press, 2009). With Gillian Greenberg, Dr. Walter is producing a number of translations from the Old Testament including Isaiah, Lamentations, the Twelve Prophets, Jeremiah, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
James Walters (Rochester Christian University). His primary interests are: Syriac literature of the 4th century (Aphrahat and Ephrem), the reception and transmission of biblical and apocryphal texts in Syriac, and the history of Christianity in the middle east in late antiquity. Walters has translated a number of volumes in the Antioch Bible series.

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Antioch Bible