Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts

The Lamsa Bible is the most prominent complete modern English Bible translated from the Syriac Peshitta rather than from the standard Hebrew and Greek base texts. Produced by George M. Lamsa, a native speaker of Aramaic raised in the Assyrian Church of the East tradition, it covers the complete Bible, working from Syriac as its source language and taking the Peshitta — the long-standing scriptural text of Syriac-speaking Christianity — as its base text. Its translation philosophy is idiomatic and Syriac-based, and it is classed as a fresh translation, with the Syriac Peshitta serving as its predecessor or base translation. The version has attracted continuing interest among readers curious about Semitic idiom behind the Gospels, and its renderings are sometimes cited in devotional and popular writing. It should be noted, however, that Lamsa's claims about Aramaic primacy are not accepted by mainstream textual scholarship and should be contextualized accordingly.