NEW: The Digital Syriac Corpus

Digital Syriac Corpus is a curated digital repository of TEI encoded texts written in classical Syriac. The interface provides effective browse and search functionality.

 

Individual texts may be downloaded to facilitate publishing projects, such as the production of critical editions, and research, such as more advanced corpus linguistic analysis.

Online Resources for Learning and Practicing

LEARNING

DARIUS Online learning Platform, Steve Caruso
Well designed online modules for Classical Syriac/Aramaic
http://darius.rogueleaf.com/

Lessons for Surayt/Turoyo dialect, Freie Universität Berlin
http://surayt.com/

Biblical Aramaic
Online PDFs of "Introductory Lessons in Aramaic" by Eric D. Reymond, Yale/UMich
http://www.introlessonsinaramaic.com/

Beith Souryoyé Morounoyé
Series of PDF documents, Maronite
http://www.beith-morounoye.org/syriac/index1.html

Elementary Western Syriac letter and word descriptions.Little to no grammar instruction.
http://www.syriacstudies.com/category/learn-syriac/

DIGITIZED MANUSCRIPTS & MODERN PRAYER SOURCES

Digitized Manuscripts online
https://www.vhmml.org/readingRoom/

Online Syriac verse and English translation
https://thehiddenpearl.org/

Sh'heemo, Daily prayers of the week, PDFs
http://www.soc-wus.org/worship/prayer.htm

Maronite daily prayers
http://www.maronitefaith.com/maronite-library/

Includes prayers, verse, and explanation of liturgical terms
by anonymous
http://www.qadishat.com/

Online modern Prayer book, Malankara Syriac Orthodox use
https://sites.google.com/site/syrianorthodox/praying-the-shimo

Bart Ehrman and the authenticity of Scripture

Mike Heiser, Bibilical scholar, writes concerning Bart Ehrman:

My contention with Bart is that he’s a fundamentalist — someone who is unwilling to process an issue in any other way than the black-and-white, either-or fallacy that he himself has framed. I’m sympathetic to him only in the sense that some acute personal suffering appears to be behind his fundamentalism. While I wish there was something I could do to help in that regard, I also have to be honest and say that it seems quite clear that Bart’s personal pain has skewered his scholarship. He’s human.

My greater irritation is the way the masses (aided and abetted by a pathologically ignorant media) swallow whatever Bart says as though its some grand, now self-evident discovery, or think that no one can be looking at the same data and still believe in the reality of the Christ of the gospels. Wrong on both counts. There are many scholars who do what Bart does (textual criticism, New Testament studies) who draw conclusions contrary to Ehrman’s and, more importantly, are capable of judging his method and scholarship.

To illustrate this point regarding Bart Ehrman and popular culture Heiser discusses a recent topic in textual research; whether or not the phrase "Son of God" originally appeared in Mark's Gospel, the oldest New Testament book. Ehrman typically argues that the authentic texts of the early Christians did not describe Christ in divine terms, and any descriptions of Christ as being divine (phrases such as "Son of God" etc) were added by later generations by "orthodox" scribes who sought to alter scripture in order to make it support their newer, inauthentic, paternalistic theology.

Textual critic Tommy Wasserman takes quite a different stance. I had originally stated that Wasserman showed there is far more historical and manuscript evidence to support traditionally accepted view. This however would not be the most faithful explanation of his point. It would be more accurate to say the balance of probabilities is in favor of the long reading. Thank you to Dr. Wasserman for pointing this out to me. I recommend reading Dr. Wasserman's paper. It can be downloaded here: 

www.orebromissionsskola.se/personal/wasserman 
(scroll down to the article on Mark 1:1).

With this object lesson in mind, Mike Heiser continues:

... the issue is that there is more than one way to look at New Testament manuscript data. Ehrman isn’t discovering something new and unknown to scholars. He isn’t putting forth unassailable arguments that make the faithful run for the hills. He’s arguing his position based on how he sifts the data — i.e., his views are simply interpretations, nothing more — and other professionals in his own field might conclude other interpretations are more reasonable.

Entire article here:
http://michaelsheiser.com/TheNakedBible/2011/10/bart-ehrman-vs-the-son-of-god-in-mark-11-a-response/

Oxford helps you get experience transcribing ancient manuscripts

Between 1897 and 1907, seven hundred boxes of papyri were discovered on the site of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus and shipped to the University of Oxford. To date only a small percentage of the "Oxyrhynchus Papyri" has been edited by scholars. Lack of personnel and funds means that about two million segments of ancient papyri are still waiting to be studied, or even read, for the first time.

The task is too big for the Oxford research team so people across the world are invited to help translate the ancient documents. The ingenious part is that no knowledge of classical Greek is required. About 200,000 segments of the ancient Oxyrhynchus papyri have been uploaded to www.ancientlives.org and using character-recognition tools you can assist in the transcription process. Oxford has developed software that allows users to match Greek letters with the symbols on the papyri. The software then translate the words and stores them on a searchable database.

Read about project at Ancientlives.org or get started now by going directly to the transcription tutorial here: http://www.ancientlives.org/tutorial/transcribe