Reviewing two books by George Lamsa

Book Reviews: Holy Bible from the Peshitta/Ancient Eastern Text, and Idioms in the Bible Explained and A Key to the Original Gospel, by George M. Lamsa

It would be absurd to write a review of the Bible itself, but I can say that, having used many and various translations of the Bible over the course of the years, I am very happy to have found this one. It doesn't have quite the poetry of the Authorised King James Version of my childhood; it doesn't have the pictures of the Good News Bible of my teenage years; it doesn't have the acknowledged academic prowess of the New Revised Standard Version of my years in ministry. What it does have is a sense of authenticity, of scholarship, of knowledge. It is clear and simple; where there are variations of translation from what I have become accustomed to, Lamsa's version is enlightening and intuitively feels trustworthy. It is not, and nor does it feel like, a 'modern' version, quite the opposite: it feels ancient - but in a good way, in a way that can be trusted. Peshitta' means 'straight simple' - and that's what Lamsa provides. I wish I had found it sooner, but now is good!

George Lamsa was raised in Assyria, in a region where the customs, manners and idioms of ancient Aramaic have been preserved, and he is a translator and commentator on the Bible of world renown. Valuing as I do his translation of the Bible from the Peshitta, I very much looked forward to reading and reviewing his book on the idiomatic sayings used in the Bible. As Lamsa himself writes in the Introduction, without understanding colloquialisms, the meaning of a saying, phrase, or passage could be, and no doubt has been, easily misunderstood. I have never been a Biblical literalist, but a glance at this books shows very clearly that even, or especially, literalism can be very far from the truth of what was said and is written.

The first example Lamsa cites is that of the man saying to Jesus 'Let me bury my father'. As Lamsa rightly comments, this has been taken to mean that his father had died and the son needed to make funery arrangements; in fact it means 'Let me take care of my father until he dies' - a very different time-scale. Again, right at the start of the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 3, 'Let there be light' apparently means light in the sense of enlightenment, understanding, and not the opposite of darkness. Lamsa has worked his way through all the canonical books of the Bible, listing phrases and words which have meanings other than the literal. Some, the metaphors, are easy to understand, others less obvious, so Lamsa is here shining his own light of understanding for the rest of us to benefit from.

The second part of the volume is 'A Key to the Original Gospel', in which Lamsa more fully discusses the language of Jesus and the majority of his contemporaries, which was Aramaic. Relevant to this is the relationship between the Jews, the Greek, and the Latin speaking Romans, in cultural/social/religious terms, as well as linguistically. Lamsa makes the point that the original Gospels were written for the Jews, so their style, manner, and composition are Aramaic, not easily translated accurately.

Lamsa contrasts this to the Pauline epistles, which, while Aramaic in thought and manner, were, Lamsa suggests, dictated in Greek. Lamsa also strongly makes the point that all Jesus' teachings and parables are in the tradition of Palestine/Assyria, with nothing to indicate that he ever went outside his own country - rather a contrast to various 'factional' accounts of his life, which suggest he was educated in Egypt.

Lamsa also covers the topics of Aramaic phraseology, which, from the examples given, is full of exaggeration, and the use of the Aramaic language in Palestine, having originally been an Assyrian dialect, which arrived with Assyrian immigrants to Samaria and the Galilee.

My one reservation is the section about the authorship of the four canonical Gospels: Lamsa takes the view that they were all Jewish and all had known Jesus. He believes Matthew to have been a publican, not least since publicans had to know how to read and write, whereas the other disciples were more likely, in his view, to be illiterate. Lamsa also argues that only people who had heard Jesus speak at first hand would have been able to 'quote his sayings so accurately' - which rather gives the lie to the concept of oral/aural tradition, and conveniently ignores the differences between the gospels in some instances. Lamsa regards Matthew's gospel as the first, comments on other eastern versions (Peshitta and Mkalalta), on early translations into Greek and Latin, which leave some Aramaic words 'untranslated'.

One of the most interesting sections of the book are the final ones, casting new interpretative light on the accounts of Jesus' birth, his trial in the wilderness, the wedding at Cana in Galilee, and some other well-known sayings, including, surprisingly, the words from the cross: not, as we have previously read, 'lama sabachthani' but 'lmana sabachthani' - which changes the meaning to 'For this I was kept' - that is, this was my destiny, no suggestion of being forsaken: a bit of a bombshell to end on.

This is a great little book, well worth keeping on the side of the desk, and my copy is already becoming well thumbed! It is informative, authoritative, and interesting - a combination rarely found together. As Lamsa himself writes: May the Lord God bless those who search for His truth which endures for ever.