Sunday, December 8, 2013

Janet M. Magiera's Aramaic Peshitta New Testament: Vertical Interlinear (3 Volumes)

This three-volume Interlinear New Testament is a great study source for the serious student of Scripture. It includes the Aramaic and English side by side in the order of the Aramaic grammar. It is a vertical interlinear, which means that it is meant to be read top-to-bottom, instead of right-to-left. The far left has the Concordance number for the word, the middle has the Aramaic (in Estrangelo script), the far right has the English translation. Above it is the verse, full translated into English order. Here is an example ("___" represents the Aramaic):

Matthew 27:22
Pilate said to them, "And what should I do to Jesus, who is called the Messiah?" All of them said to him, "He should be crucified!"

0116 ____ said
1261 ____ to them
3417 ____ Pilate
3257 ____ And to Jesus
3257 ____ who is called
1446 ____ the Messiah
1393 ____ what
1724 ____ should I do
1261 ____ to him
0116 ____ said
1168 ____ All of them
0688 ____ He should be crucified

This format makes it easier to study the text and analyze it word for word. This is meant to be used with Janet Magiera's Dictionary Number Lexicon, Parallel Translations, and Word Study Concordance. I use this with her Aramaic Peshitta New Testament Translation: Messianic Version. It's really useful to use alongside Bauscher's Aramaic-English Interlinear New Testament and the various other translations of the Peshitta. Janet Magiera's translation work is very accurate with very little bias. Her work is some of the most reliable for study of the Aramaic Peshitta New Testament, therefore I highly recommend using it.

The Interlinear also uses Estrangelo script, which is, in my opinion, more beautiful than the Hebrew script Roth used in his Aramaic-English New Testament and that Bauscher used in his Interlinear. The downside to using Estrangelo is that it is harder to read, it's almost like learning to read cursive for the first time. The letters sometimes run together, making them hard to read. She includes a pronunciation key at the beginning of each volume, but she doesn't use vowel pointings. The lack of vowels in the Syriac portion reflects that it is a consonantal language (no vowels), but it is still relatively easy to pronounce if you can learn the alphabet.I hate that this Interlinear is in three volumes, which makes it difficult to carry around with you. This volume does have a lot of information in it though, so it would be hard to pack into one volume. Volume I includes Matthew-Luke, Volume II includes John-Galatians, and Volume III has Ephesians-Revelations.

http://lightofword.org/ - Light of the Word Ministry's website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48mgmuMcMKg - A video review I did about the Interlinear.
http://www.bible-geeks.com/
 

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