praise_yeshua said:
Kenney is still being deceptive in referencing the Peshitta in Lamsa's translation. Lamsa didn't "translate" the Peshitta. He merged various sources and basically produced a work of his own. Kenney is still trying to use the authority of the Peshitta to justify his claims. Lamsa never claimed to have exclusively used the Peshitta for his work.
You are factually incorrect. Lamsa did translate the Peshitta, and his publisher referred to one or two specific mss. Lamsa read the Peshitta manuscripts and translated, OT and NT. For the NT, you can compare his translations with Murdoch and Etheridge online (and Paul Younan of the Gospels) which similarly are Syriac NT translations. Some people make a minor distinction between Peshitta and Peshitto, the eastern and western Syriac texts, others do not. Younan and his Aramaic primacy friends do in fact acknowledge that Lamsa translated the Peshitta. They might be concerned that he was aware of the AV excellence in forming his English, and let that influence some phrasing, but that is neither here or there, as translators frequently stay in the style of existing Bibles, and have a lot of target language leeway. Modern versions following the decrepit Critical Text frequently do similar, including a verse or section that they are supposed to consider non-scripture. That does not mean that they are not translating the CT, it just means that they have a bit less of a blunderama text.
In a couple of cases Lamsa likely referenced printed editions of the Peshitta that included Reformation Bible corrections, and Acts 8:37 is one of them. Another was the heavenly witnesses. I do not know of any others. It is well known that printed editions of the Peshitta have included these corrections. The Greek orthodox did similar in correcting their Greek Byzantine text in the printed editions.
While I would not use the Lamsa edition as an evidence in this case, what Will wrote is in fact accurate. And he quickly made the correction to his writing when the error of simply saying the Peshitta was pointed out. Feel free to write him if you think he should modify the page more. You can tell him you find the reference technically accurate, but misleading. Will does not claim to be a Peshitta expert and would likely consider a cordial request.
Will's papers on evidences are not perfect, but they are generally excellent. And 1,000 times better than the junque put out by modern version, CT defenders.
And if you want full accuracy on evidences on major variants, I suggest you join the discussion forums with James Snapp and myself, Daniel Buck and some others, as we go over the ECW (early church writer) evidences with a fine tooth comb. And the manuscripts (e.g. Snapp went over the Acts 8:37 mss in detail.) You could learn a lot, e.g. why Acts 8:37 and the traditional Mark ending with the resurrection appearances and the Pericope Adulterae are in fact definitely scripture, even though those 25 verses are falsely accused by the Critical Text of being interpolations. And I will share with you many fascinating details on the heavenly witnesses. You can learn about the "Father, forgive them" prayer in Gethsemane. And "God manifest in the flesh.". Dozens, even hundreds, of other major Bible differences. All this might help you to know the pure word of God, if that is your actual concern.
Steven Avery