Lamsa himself wrote a score of books, among them Key to the Original Gospels New Testament Origin Idioms in the Bible Explained The Hidden Years of Jesus Gospel Light Old Testament Light Commentary and New Testament Commentary. His New Testament has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Holman Company, a large publisher of Bibles and Christian books that is now Broadman and Holman. Lamsa’s translation is published by the A. For instance, Lamsa’s own translation of the Bible and many of his books are regularly found in evangelical bookstores. There are hundreds of passages where the meaning is different from that of the Greek version.” Of course, everything depends on the assumption of the primacy of the Peshitta, an assumption we will show is false.īefore beginning our analysis, we should point out that no one can lightly dismiss the influence of the Aramaic argument. Lamsa believed the original Aramaic text was the Syriac Peshitta, and thus he argued, “The Peshitta New Testament text varies considerably from the Greek and Latin versions which were made later for the use of new converts to Christianity.
Translations from the Aramaic to Greek and then into English have left the Bible with “numerous errors,” which must be corrected by someone knowledgeable in the Aramaic language. Therefore, the original inspired writings of the Apostles were written in Aramaic, not in koine Greek. Jesus and the Apostles not only spoke in Aramaic (a Semitic language similar to Hebrew, originally of the Syrian Aramaeans), they also wrote in Aramaic. Reduced to its simplest form, the Aramaic argument may be summarized as follows.
The Aramaic argument claims that Jesus and the Apostles spoke and wrote in Aramaic, not in koine Greek. Meaning there's no salvation for sin and that God does not punish us (God does not punish, God does not reward) if we remain in a sinful state. Errico does not recognize Jesus' death on the cross as a redemption of our sin. If you're wondering if Errico is teaching another gospel, that's precisely what he's doing with his Aramaic translation of the bible. While no one will argue that Jesus and his disciples spoke some Aramaic, and there is nothing wrong with the Aramaic language, the controversy lies in Errico's interpretation in the Aramaic bible which he translated himself, and in some degree, his understanding of the gospel as you'll see in the video. He is the man in the video, the author and translator of the "Aramaic Bible in Plain English" translation in the video link below. He teaches from the Holy Bible, a translation from Aramaic to English by his mentor Dr. Rocco Errico is a near eastern theologian and Aramaic expert. However you guys can debate amongst yourselves, I could use a bump to keep this thread on the first page so more viewers are made aware.ĭr. I wanna bring up a topic on a particular bible translation not intended to be a debate but as a warning to all unfamiliar with this version of the bible, the Aramaic Bible in Plain English.