Language System, Translation Technique, and Textual Tradition in the Peshitta of Kings

Dutch specialists in Bible translation Dyk and van Keulen present the results of the Computer Assisted Linguistic Analysis of the Peshitta project, in which a computer was used to help compare the Syriac Peshitta and the Hebrew Masoretic texts of the Books of Kings. The goal was to gain insight into the linguistic patterns in the two corpora in order to determine the degree to which the differences between them should be ascribed to differences in the language systems, to particular tendencies of the translator of the Peshitta, to the transmission history, or to the use of Hebrew sources other than the proto-Masoretic text. They begin by explaining the two approaches: exegesis and textual development, and linguistic observations. Then then apply them in selected cases where they sometimes complement each other and sometimes conflict. Among these cases are variation in the rendering of synonyms, the treatment of Hebrew monographs, complicated word differences, cases requiring explanation at the phrase level, and cases requiring an explanation above clause level. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Janet W. Dyk, Ph.D. (1994), VU University, is senior lecturer in Bible translation and syntactic analyst working with the VU database of ancient languages. Her publications apply linguistics to the analysis of ancient Semitic texts, including The Computer and Complex Phrase Structure: A Unified Approach to Embedding, Gapping and Recursion (Gorgias, 2010). Percy S.F. van Keulen, Ph.D. (1995), Leiden University, participated in several research projects as a post-doctoral fellow. He has published on the Deuteronomistic History and the Septuagint, Peshitta and Targum of Kings, including Two Versions of the Solomon Narrative (Brill, 2005).