Peshitta

One of the earliest complete English translations of the Syriac Peshitta New Testament, this work renders the whole of the New Testament from Syriac, taking the Peshitta both as its base text and as the predecessor translation on which it rests. The Peshitta is the standard biblical version of the Syriac churches, and has been transmitted and used liturgically in that tradition for centuries. Etheridge's approach is formal and Syriac-based, and the work is classed as a fresh translation rather than a revision of an existing English text. Its distinctive significance lies in rendering a non-Greek ancient version of the New Testament directly into English, so making accessible to English readers a line of textual witness independent of the Greek manuscripts that underlie most familiar English Bibles. It has since been consulted by those interested in the Syriac tradition and in early versional evidence.