S. Brock: A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature (Summary)A. SYRIAC VERSIONS OF THE BIBLEA. Old TestamentI. Peshitta. standard version of the Syriac Churches. The name, meaning 'Simple', is not found until the 9thC. Date and place are unknown. Most of it was completed by the 3d C. AD because the Old Syriac Gospelsadapt some OT quotations to the Peshitta OT text. Most books date from 1st-2d C. AD. The OT was nottranslated as a whole, but book by book; maybe some books were translated by Jews and others byChristians.All books of the Peshitta OT were translated from Hebrew, though in some books there are the links with theTargum traditions, in others the translations made occasional use of LXX Septuaginta). With the exception ofEcclesiasticus (translated from Hebrew), the deutero-canonical books were translated from LXX.Manuscripts of the Peshitta include the 2 oldest dated biblical mss in any language: Isaiah and Pentateuch(British library) of ca. AD 460. First complete OT (6th or 7th c.).2. Syro-Hexapla: 7th C. Syriac translation of Origen's revision of the LXX text ('Hexapla'). The translationwas commissioned by the Syrian Orthodox patriarch Athanasius and was undertaken by Paul, bishop of Tella(N Mesopotamia) in 615-17. He mirrored every detail of the Greek original in the Syriac translation soperfectly that we can reconstruct the Greek text from this translation with a high degree of confidence.Syriac writers refer to the Syro-Hexapla as "the Seventy" or "the Greek". Use was also made of it by scholarsof the Church of the East, notably Isho'dad of Merv (9th C.).3. Other translations. A fragmentary translation of Isaiah is preserved in British Library from the LXX.Pentateuch, 1-2 Sm, 1 Kgs, Is, Ez and Dn by the Syrian Orthodox scholar, Jacob of Edessa (+708). Heconstructed his version out of the Peshitta, Syro-Hexapla and LXX.4. Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) dialect of the Aramaic-speaking Christian community in Palestinewhich remained loyal to the Council of C...