shlomo,
The most widely used printed copies of the Syriac (Aramaic) in Western Syriac are the following:
A) Syriac New Testament-FL-Peshitta Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-0564032129
amazon.com/Syriac-New-Testament-FL-Peshitta/dp/0564032123/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1448610286&sr=1-6&keywords=peshitta&refinements=p_n_feature_twelve_browse-bin%3A6581510011
B) Syriac New Testament with Psalms
ISBN-13: 978-0001473072
amazon.com/Syriac-New-Testament-with-Psalms/dp/0001473077/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1448610373&sr=1-1&keywords=syriac+bible+with+psalms
A) is the full Bible with all the books that you would find in a Catholic Bible. But most of the OT books are not vocalised.
B) is the the NT with the book of Psalm vocalised.
The Syriac Maronite Peshitto manuscripts differs very little from the above printed books. The differences are attributable to either scribe copying mistakes, or contractions.
Using English as an example, one Peshitto manuscript may have “cannot” and another manuscript may have “can’t”. Also, the Syriac Maronite Peshitto manuscripts don’t have the 5 additional books mentioned below, whereas the above mentioned printed books do have them.
Unlike the ancient Greek Manuscripts, the Peshitto/a manuscripts agree with each other, to the point where you would find it extremely hard to spot any differences.
The Peshitto/a NT only consists of 22 books. The five additional books were added much later, and they were a translation from a Greek text done by the Syriac Orthodox Church. The fundamental theology of all the Syriac Churches whether in communion with Rome or not, didn’t take into consideration the above mentioned five additional books.
The Syriac tradition holds that we received the 22 books of the Peshitto text from the hands of the Apostles in the Aramaic language. Whether these were originally written in Greek or Aramaic is a much debated subject, but for the Syriac Churches all that matters is that the Apostles gave us the books in the Aramaic language (meaning that if they had been written in Greek, the Apostles themselves translated them into Aramaic before they gave them to us). The 5 additional books were viewed as being more directed to the Greek speaking Christians than the Aramaic speaking Christians.
The number 22 is significant, as the Aramaic language only has 22 letters, where the 22nd letter represents the mark of the Cross.
The 22 books are:
The preachings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The Acts of the Apostles.
The Epistles of James the Apostle, Peter the Apostle, and John the Apostle.
The Epistles of Paul the Apostle:
-to the Romans, 1st to the Corinthians, 2nd to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians,
1st to the Thessalonians, 2nd to the Thessalonians, 1st to Timothy, 2nd to Timothy, to Titus, and to Philemon.
The Epistle to Hebrews. <= Also attributed to Paul.
The 5 additional books, plus a section in the Gospel of John:
The Epistles of 2nd Peter, 2nd John, 3rd John, and Jude brother of James.
The Revelation of John.
John 7:53-8:11 <= Not part of the Peshitto/a.
PS. If you have ever taken an undergraduate or graduate course on the Scriptures, in a Western Catholic university, then what they teach about the formation of the canon of the the Bible will differ from what I’ve written above.
I hope this helps,
keefa bar morun
