Khabouris Codex

The Khabouris Manuscript

This Website features The Holy Aramaic Scriptures, as preserved in the ancient Eastern Aramaic Text of The New Testament, in such manuscripts as The Yonan Codex, The Khabouris Codex, the 1199 Houghton Codex, and The Mingana 148 Codex, for you to read and study; giving as literal as possible a rendering of this Holy Biblical Text, in a fresh, accurate, and literal, English translation. 

ܛܝܒܘܬܐ ܥܡܟܘܢ ܘܫܠܡܐ ܡܢ ܐܠܗܐ ܐܒܘܢ ܘܡܢ ܡܪܢ ܝܫܘܥ ܡܫܝܚܐ
Grace be with you, and Peace, fromAlaha Our Father, and from Maran Eshu Mshikha

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The Text
The Aramaic Text used to translate here at TheAramaicScriptures.com, is from Eastern Aramaic Manuscripts, such as The Khabouris Manuscript, pictured above, it being a hand-written Eastern Aramaic New Testament, scribed in the ancient city of Nineveh, which took place sometime between 900 to 1100 A.D. and is internally documented and officially certified by a Bishop of The Holy Apostolic Catholic Church of the East, as being a faithful copy of a much older Eastern Aramaic New Testament Manuscript, most likely of the mid 5th century, which most likely was itself a faithful copy of The Original Aramaic New Testament Scriptures, which was personally handed to The Church of the East by The Apostles themselves, in the ancient City of Edessa, in the 1st century.  

The Khabouris Codex Manuscript you can read and study here, via the study tool, is thus, most likely only a 3rd generational copy of The Word of Alaha (God) in the Aramaic language, which was given to The Church of the East from the very Apostles of Mshikha (The Messiah) in the language in which Eshu (Yeshua) and His Disciples spoke, wrote, and proclaimed The Hopeful Message of God's Redemption of Mankind. 

The earliest such Manuscript witness we have some knowledge of for The Aramaic New Testament, is from as early as the year 78 A.D., which is spoken about in J. S. Assemani's famous Bibliotheca, where it states, “At Edessa was a written Gospel, ancient but still legible. Not a single iota was erased, and it could more easily be read than many modern books, but by reason of its great age the first ten leaves had been lost. At the end was the following subscription: ‘This sacred book was finished on Wednesday the eighteenth day of the first month Conun (December), in the year 389 (of the Greeks, i.e. 78 A.D.), by the hand of the Apostle Achaeus,  a fellow-laborer of Mar Maris, and a disciple of the Apostle Mar Adaeus, whom we entreat to pray for us. Amen.’” The Manuscript is said to have been seen in Baghdad near the river Tigris, on an ancient Church of the East altar.

A number of Eastern Peshitta Manuscripts have been examined for this translation, as well as the BFBS/UBS Text of the 1905/1920 Aramaic New Testament, which is a Critical Text of about 70 to 80 Aramaic Manuscripts, both of the Eastern and Western versions, and also the 5th-6th century Aramaic Manuscripts housed in the British Museum, numbered 14,453, 14,470, 14,473, and 14,475.

The manuscripts used for the actual translation are the 5th-6th century Goodspeed MS 716, the 6th-7th century Yonan Codex, the 9th century Paris Syr 342 Codex, the 9th-10th century Khabouris Codex, the 1199 A.D. Houghton Codex, and the 1613 A.D. Mingana Codex, these were compared when a scribal mistake in one of the manuscripts was made, while making certain that all the Original Eastern readings are intact in this English translation as preserved by The Holy Apostolic Catholic Church of the East since the time of The Apostles preserved in these precious Manuscripts. 

It should be pointed out, that The Aramaic Language is an older sister language of The Hebrew, a Semitic Language of The Middle Eastern region of the world, which it's very close to in its construction, alphabet, and vocabulary. 

Please note...The Aramaic Text is read from Right-to-Left like the Hebrew language.

Interactive Text
The English translation presented here, can be verified in its readings, when you click on the {Study Tool} at the start of each book, where you can examine the actual text itself, to make sure all is as it should be in this translation. This {Study Tool}, hosted by www.dukhrana.com will also allow you to look at each and every word in a number of Aramaic/English Dictionaries and Lexicons, where you can analyze each word for yourself, in detail, and thus learn more of the Language as you study.
 
You can also compare The Eastern Peshitta readings of The Khabouris Codex Manuscript, with that of The 1905/1920 BFBS/UBS version, to see the variants (not many, but a few very important) in these respective texts. They are near identical in every place, but about 20 places where there are variants of greater and lesser degree, most which are only the dialectical spelling of place and proper names, and some words are split into two words. I count only maybe two or three places where a doctrine is effected, and this because of the Christological controversy that took place among the Greak/Latin and Aramaic speaking Christians in the early 5th century A.D.

Also, one of the great features of the {Study Tool}, is the "show verse" section, where, when you click on it, it will show you every verse, where a particular word you are looking at is found in the rest of The Aramaic New Testament Scriptures. This is like a regular Concordance, and is very helpful to see how the same Aramaic word is used in other books and chapters. You will also find more uses from The Study Tool as you delve deeper into its features.

The Translation/Transliteration
Unlike most other English translations of the Aramaic Scriptures, I have decided to make a very literal and faithful rendering into the English language, which is not only a Translation of the Aramaic words into English words which mean the same thing, but also to give the actual Aramaic words themselves, as they read in the Aramaic language in English letters, which is called transliterating. In this way, for Persons, Places, and Things, which are the most often mentioned, you can become acquainted with the actual Aramaic words which are used, and also see what they mean in the {bracketed} portion just following the original words or phrases. These transliterated words are phonetically rendered into English characters in as simple a way as I could give them. This translation/Transliteration is thus a tool to help you learn the Aramaic language as you read through it.

The English Translation/Transliteration you are reading here is rendered straight from The Eastern Aramaic New Testament Manuscripts. No Greek or Latin sources have been used, and no Western Peshitto readings have been used. This English translation/Transliteration is as literal and faithful to The Aramaic source Texts as could possibly be made, while still being readable/understandable in The English language. Some Aramaic idioms are retained, while others, which aren't very understandable in English, or which might alter the clear meaning of The Text, are rendered in a dynamic equivalent translation, which gives the sense. 

Also, many other Aramaic/English Translations, from the 19th-21st century have been checked/consulted to see how they render the very difficult passages. Prayer for wisdom, is always made to Alaha, to come as close to the Aramaic meaning as possible, with its context always taken into consideration. I ask that anyone who might see something that needs to be corrected, please do, so we can have the words be as perfect as possible in the English language.

This Translation/Transliteration effort was begun in 2010, and it's hoped that by 2016, Alaha willing, it will be completed as an online edition, with printed editions available when everything is done. 

The English translation portions found herein are under copyright law to protect the integrity of the translation. If these translations are used in quotations, online, or in some printed form, you are kindly asked to provide the copyright notice given here at the bottom of each page... at the end of the quoted portion that is used, along with a link, (online) or the address, (printed) to this website, namely, www.thearamaicscriptures.com to help more People read God's Holy Word from The Holy Aramaic Scriptures in English.

Thank you for visiting, and be blessed in The Name of Maran Eshu Mshikha {Our Lord Yeshua The Anointed One}, The Holy Son of Alaha {God}.