Curetonian Gospels

The Curetonian Gospels, designated by the siglum syr^cur, are contained in a manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament in Old Syriac. Together with the Sinaiticus Palimpsest the Curetonian Gospels form the Old Syriac Version, and are known as the Evangelion Dampharshe ("Separated Gospels") in the Syriac Orthodox Church.^[1]

The Gospels are commonly named after William Cureton who maintained that they represented an Aramaic Gospel and had not been translated from Greek (1858)^[2] and differed considerably from the canonical Greek texts, with which they had been collated and "corrected". Henry Harman (1885) concluded, however, that their originals had been Greek from the outset.^[3] The order of the gospels is Matthew, Mark, John, Luke. The text is one of only two Syriac manuscripts of the separate gospels that possibly predate the standard Syriac version, the Peshitta; the other is the Sinaitic Palimpsest. A fourth Syriac text is the harmonized Diatessaron. The Curetonian Gospels and the Sinaitic Palimpsest appear to have been translated from independent Greek originals.^[4]

^ Syriac Orthodox Resources. George Kiraz, 2001
^ Cureton, Remains of a Very Ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac, Hitherto Unknown in Europe, London, 1858; Cureton included an English translation of the newly discovered text, and a long introduction.
^ Henry Martyn Harman (1822-1897), "Cureton's fragments of Syriac Gospels" Journal of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis 5.1/2 (June - December 1885), pp 28-48.
^ Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft -Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, Rudolf Anger, Hermann Brockhaus - 1951 Volume 101 - Page 125 "Their text was at least as old as the Curetonian ; they certainly were translated from Greek Gospels ; and they presented a number of strange readings, notably the reading ' Joseph begot Jesus," in Mt 1:16. There were critical problems here, ..."

[1] Syriac Orthodox Resources. George Kiraz, 2001

[2] Cureton, Remains of a Very Ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac, Hitherto Unknown in Europe, London, 1858; Cureton included an English translation of the newly discovered text, and a long introduction.

[3] Henry Martyn Harman (1822-1897), "Cureton's fragments of Syriac Gospels" Journal of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis 5.1/2 (June - December 1885), pp 28-48.

[4] Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft -Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, Rudolf Anger, Hermann Brockhaus - 1951 Volume 101 - Page 125 "Their text was at least as old as the Curetonian ; they certainly were translated from Greek Gospels ; and they presented a number of strange readings, notably the reading ' Joseph begot Jesus," in Mt 1:16. There were critical problems here, ..."

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