Peter J. Williams

Studies in the Syntax of the Peshitta of 1 Kings (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute Leiden) Peter J. Williams

The Peshitta is probably the earliest translation of the whole Old Testament into a Semitic idiom. It displays an impressive balance between fidelity to the structure and sense of the Hebrew original and sensitivity to the preferences of the receptor language. This book considers ten key topics in Syriac syntax and considers their patterns as they occur in the Peshitta of 1 Kings. Old rules of grammar are refined, new rules formulated, and wider issues of translation method considered. This study is relevant to Syriac specialists, textual critics and biblical scholars alike. It argues that many features in the Peshitta that have previously been attributed to a translator's whim, or to a Vorlage varying from the Masoretic Text, are in fact determined by factors internal to Syriac.