George M. Lamsa's Holy Bible From the Ancient Eastern Text (The Lamsa Bible)

The Holy Bible From the Ancient Eastern Text was translated by George M. Lamsa, a native speaker of Syriac from Mar-Bishu in modern day Iraq. His translation is the one that really made the Peshitta a more well-known text in the Western world. He used the style of the KJV/NKJV in his translation. His translation is pretty accurate, but there are several places (mainly in the Gospels and in Acts) where he lets his beliefs interfere with his translation, which includes what I believe to be the main problem with his translation: his not translating the Aramaic word "devana" correctly as demons, he instead translates it as "insane" or "lunatic". Lamsa also makes no distinction between the Aramaic "Mar" (Lord) and "MarYah" (Lord YHWH) except in the Old Testament (MarYah is translated as LORD, as most mainstream translations translate YHWH). The Peshitta New Testament makes a unique distinction between "Lord" and "LORD" that is not made in the Greek. The divine name MarYah is applied to Jesus Christ several times (ex. Luke 2:11 and Philippians 2:11) His translation is by no means a bad translation, it is actually one of my favorite translations.

Dr. Lamsa holding a copy of his translation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3lAJhSm-SU -A Youtube video review I did on the Lamsa Bible.

http://www.bible-geeks.com/