Campus Location
Abilene Campus (Residential)
Date of Award
5-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Jeff Childers
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Curt Niccum
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Richard Wright
Abstract
The Syriac Peshitta version of the New Testament holds great potential for NT textual criticism, but its value to this field is partially dependent upon the ability to deduce the particularities of the Greek text from which it was translated. To assess this ability, a thorough understanding of translation technique in each NT book is required. Toward such an end, this thesis provides a detailed study of the translation technique of Peshitta Colossians (PCol) and an evaluation thereof as a witness to its Greek Vorlage. I argue that the translation technique of PCol does not consistently allow confident conclusions to be reached about the specifics of its underlying Greek text, but rather that the Syriac of PCol sometimes may have been made from a range of possible Greek readings. This is not always recognized when editors of Greek NT editions cite PCol in the critical apparatus as a witness to certain readings. I demonstrate this by a systematic study of the citations of PCol in the 28th revised edition of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (NA28), in which I conclude that no fewer than eleven citations in the NA28 are illegitimate on translational grounds, with several more requiring further clarification. Chapter I contains a review of the pertinent literature and an overview of the project. In Chapter II, I lay out the three methodologies implemented in this study. Chapter III is a detailed presentation of the translation technique in PCol. In Chapter IV, I apply the conclusions about translation technique to an evaluation of PCol as a witness to its Greek source text and I analyze each citation of PCol in the NA28 critical apparatus. Finally, Chapter V contains conclusions about suggested changes to citations of PCol in critical apparatuses as well as how this study should affect the implementation of versional evidence in NT textual criticism. The arguments I advance in this Thesis stand to improve upon the approach to employing versions as witnesses to their Greek texts and to clarify the place of the Peshitta in the critical apparatus of future editions of the Greek text of Colossians.
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Recommended Citation
Parrish, Ryne Alan, "Translation Technique and Versional Evidence: The Syriac Peshitta Version of Colossians as a Witness to Its Greek Text" (2020). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 217.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/217