Peshitta
La Peshitta (leggi: pescittà) è la traduzione standard della Bibbia in lingua siriaca.
Il nome 'Peshitta'
Il nome 'Peshitta' deriva dall'espressione in lingua siriaca mappaqtâ pšîṭtâ, che significa letteralmente 'traduzione semplice', ma può essere intesa anche come 'comune', 'genuina', 'corretta'.
La parola Peshitta può essere - ma di fatto non accade - translitterata in molti altri modi: Peshittâ, Pshitta, Pšittâ, Pshitto, Fshitto.
Storia
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La traduzione dell'Antico Testamento in lingua siriaca fu realizzata in Siria nel I secolo d.C. ad opera di Giudei o Giudeo-cristiani, probabilmente a partire dai Targumin (traduzioni della Bibbia ebraica in aramaico, lingua affine al siriaco).
La prima traduzione del Nuovo Testamento in siriaco è il cosiddetto Diatesseron, cioè '(un vangelo) attraverso quattro (vangeli)', realizzata dal cristiano Taziano nel 165-170. Si tratta di un testo unico e lineare che cerca di armonizzare le quattro narrazioni dei singoli Vangeli. Per alcuni secoli tale testo fu il vangelo ufficiale della chiesa di Siria. Il teologo Efrem Siro ne scrisse un commentario in prosa. Nel 423 il vescovo Teodoreto ne impose l'abbandono in favore dell'adozione dei quattro vangeli come avveniva per tutte le altre chiese cristiane. Teodoreto ordinò la distruzione delle copie esistenti del Diatesseron, che ci è pertanto noto solo in maniera indiretta attraverso il commentario di Efrem.
L'antica versione siriaca contenente sia AT che NT con i quattro vangeli 'normali' (non nella versione Diatesseron) è detta Vecchia Siriaca (Vetus Syra). Sono rimaste poche testimonianze di tale versione. Tra queste, due manoscritti della Vecchia Siriaca riguardanti i vangeli (Syra Sinaiticus e Syra Curetonianus) mostrano lezioni e varianti tipiche del testo greco del NT secondo le caratteristiche della famiglia occidentale. Inoltre, il siriaco contenuto in questi due manoscritti mostra affinità con l'aramaico parlato in Palestina e non in Siria. Questo ha portato all'ipotesi secondo la quale, mentre in Siria circolava il Diatesseron (II-IV secolo), in Palestina fossero diffusi manoscritti in aramaico del Vangelo.
Sulla natura di tali ipotetiche versioni aramaiche, a noi non pervenute, le possibilità sono due: erano traduzioni in aramaico dal greco originale, scritto dagli evangelisti; erano il testo originale scritto in aramaico dagli evangelisti, tradotto poi nella lingua franca greca (tale ipotesi è la cosiddetta priorità aramaica).
The Peshitta is a reworking of Old Syriac material to form a unified version of the scriptures for the Syriac-speaking churches. The name of Rabbula, bishop of Edessa (d. 435) is popularly connected with the production of the Peshitta. However, it is unclear how involved he was, if at all. By the early fifth century, the Peshitta was the standard Bible of the Syriac-speaking churches. Even with centuries of schism and division, the Peshitta remains a single, uniting tradition.
Content and style of the Peshitta
The Peshitta version of the Old Testament is an independent translation based largely on a Hebrew text similar to the Proto-Masoretic Text. It shows a number of linguistic and exegetical similarities to the Aramaic Targums but is now no longer thought to derive from them. In some passages the translators have clearly used the Greek Septuagint. The influence of the Septuagint is particularly strong in Isaiah and the Psalms, probably due to their use in the liturgy. Most of the Apocrypha is translated from the Septuagint, except that Tobit did not exist in early versions of the Peshitta, and the translation of Sirach was based on a Hebrew text.
Ṭûḇayhôn l'aylên daḏkên b-lebbhôn: d-henôn neḥzôn l'alāhâ.
'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.'
The Peshitta version of the New Testament shows a continuation of the tradition of the Diatessaron and Old Syriac versions, displaying some lively 'Western' renderings (particularly clear in the Acts of the Apostles). It combines with this some of the more complex 'Byzantine' readings of the fifth century. One peculiar feature of the Peshitta is the absence of 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation. Modern Syriac Bibles add sixth or seventh century translations of these five books to a revised Peshitta text.
Sviluppi moderni
The Peshitta, lightly revised and with missing books added, is the standard Syriac Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition: the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Syrian Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Orthodox Syrian Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, the Mar Thoma Church, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. The Syrian Christians in India have mostly replaced Syriac with Malayalam. The Arabic language is becoming more common, if not for liturgical readings, for sermons and personal study of the Bible among Syriac Christians in the Middle East.
Almost all Syriac scholars agree that the Peshitta gospels are translations of the Greek originals. A minority viewpoint is that the Peshitta represent the original New Testament and the Greek is a translation of it. For more information, see Peshitta primacy.
In 1901, P. E. Pusey and G. H. Gwilliam published a critical text of the Peshitta with a Latin translation. Then, in 1905, the British and Foreign Bible Society produced a clear, non-critical version of the Peshitta gospels. In 1920, this version was expanded to a complete New Testament. From 1961, the Peshitta Institute of Leiden has published the most comprehensive critical edition of the Peshitta as a series of fascicles.
A 1933 translation of the Peshitta into English, edited by George M. Lamsa, is known as the Lamsa Bible.
In 1996, the first edition of George Anton Kiraz's Comparative Edition of the Syriac Gospels: Aligning the Old Syriac Sinaiticus, Curetonianus, Peshitta and Harklean Versions (abbr. CESG; the Harklean text was prepared by Andreas Juckel) was published by Brill. The subsequent second (2002) and third (2004) editions were printed by Gorgias Press LLC.
Appendici
Voci correlate
Bibliografia
- Lamsa, George M. (1933). The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts. ISBN 0-06-064923-2.
- Pinkerton, J. and R. Kilgour (1920). The New Testament in Syriac. London: British and Foreign Bible Society, Oxford University Press.
- Pusey, Philip E. and G. H. Gwilliam (1901). Tetraevangelium Sanctum iuxta simplicem Syrorum versionem. Oxford University Press.
- Kiraz, George Anton (1996). Comparative Edition of the Syriac Gospels: Aligning the Old Syriac Sinaiticus, Curetonianus, Peshitta and Harklean Versions. Brill: Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2002 [2nd ed.], 2004 [3rd ed.].
- Weitzman, M. P. (1999). The Syriac Version of the Old Testament: An Introduction. ISBN 0-521-63288-9.
- Flesher, P. V. M. (ed.) (1998). Targum Studies Volume Two: Targum and Peshitta. Atlanta.
- Dirksen, P. B. (1993). La Peshitta dell'Antico Testamento. Brescia.
Collegamenti esterni
- The Peshitta Institute Leiden.
- The Development of the Canon of the New Testament.
- A number of websites support the claim of an academic minority that the Peshitta is the original New Testament:
- New Interlinear Translation of the Peshitta
- Aramaic Peshitta Primacy Proof, by Raphael Lataster, argues that the Peshitta is the original New Testament.
- Jewish Encyclopedia: Bible Translations