„Ancient Syriac translations of The Lord's Prayer
[Mt 6, 5-15 (9b-13)]”

Bielscensia-Zyviecensia Studia Theologica 3 (2002) 495-502.

Out of four translations of the Lord's Prayer into Syriac, the most faithful to the Greek text seems to be the H (Harclean) translation. The translator tried above all to maintain the word order, what frequently degraded the literary style. Having the choice of various ways of expressing the state of belonging or possessing, he chooses the longer form (presumably because, in the original Greek this is expressed by a separate word, and not, as in the shorter form in Syrian, by using a suffix). In idiomatic expressions he uses forma contracta. He also attempts to be faithful to the Greek text through onomatopoeia (in. verse 7). Departures from the original Greek (change of the grammatical person in verse. 5; addition: publicly in verse 6; addition: heavenly in verse 8) should be explained by the fact that the translator used manuscripts containing different texts. S contains only fragmentarily preserved text (lack of verse 5; lack of text from verse 10). Departures from the Greek original concern mainly personal and possessive pronouns. Peshitta is characterized by frequent use of the forma contracta and changes of word order in a sentence. Remaining changes should be attributed to using Greek manuscripts containing different lessons. The most significant semantic changes are noted in translation C (Curetonian; change of hypocrites for pagans in verse 7; extension of the semantic range of the noun sin in verse 14). The translator applies repetition (in verse 15), change of word order in the sentence (in vv. 9.11.14). The syntactic construction used by him permits translating verse 12 in a way that changes the theological interpretation of the petition contained therein (forgive us our sins, so that we may forgive those who sin against us). All the Syrian translations, through selection of vocabulary bring closer Semitic ideals of such concepts as: father, name, kingdom, heaven, evil. Sometimes their roots are identical in Syriac and Aramaic spoken by the contemporaries of Jesus. Additionally Syriac versions bring in new interpretative possibilities to the text of the Lord's Prayer, if only by using the idiom to assume a face (in verse 5) to describe hypocrites, adoption of the expression openly (overtly, publicly; in verse 6) from the Greek manuscripts or using a dative sentence in the fifth petition for prayer in the Curetonian Codex (in verse 12).

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