Patriarch Hazim meets England’s Canterbury Archbishop, holds Iftar Banquet
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 – 10:10 PMDAMASCUS, (SANA)-Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim of Antioch and All the East for Roman Orthodox in Syria on Wednesday underlined that Syria is the cradle of Christianity, saying ‘the Bible was written by the Syrian Aramaic language.‘
“Syria lives a pioneering national unity among citizens of Islamic and Christian religions,” Patriarch Hazim added in a meeting with England’s Canterbury Archbishop Rowan Williams and an accompanying delegation, calling for the achievement of just and comprehensive peace in the region.
Archbishop Williams expressed admiration of tolerance spirit, amity and progress Syria enjoys.
Patriarch Hazim later held an Iftar banquet in honor of the visiting delegation. Ministers of Islamic Endowments, Industry, and Syria’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun attended the banquet.
Mazen
(emphasis mine)
Being an Aramaic Primacist myself, I do have a certain synergy with Patriarch Ignatius’ claims. In one of letters of Paul (Romans), there are certain phenomena that tend to catch my attention that could only be in place due to a quirk of Syriac scripts, and there appear to be a number of Aramaicisms that lean towards early Syriac sources within the Gospel of Luke (the author of whom was traditionally a Syrian physician), although Luke was certainly brought together, compiled and redacted in Greek. Other parts of the Bible, though, I really cannot see as composed in Syriac or having strongly apparent Syriac sources. Indeed, books like the Gospel of Mark certainly have Aramaic sources, but not from the Syriac dialect (they probably stem from older written snippets or oral traditions).
Anyways, enough on this for now. Later on today I’ll be posting a comparison of The Lord’s Prayer in the dialect of Ma`loula, Classical Syriac, and (if I’m feeling up to doing some research) several reconstructions of the dialect of Jesus of Nazereth.
Peace,
-Steve
Hey Steve,
It looks like this article was translated from another language because of the bad English used in the Bishop’s statement. It would be interesting to see what he said in a fuller treatment and in a better translation.
Steve Ulrich
Steve,
Looking at it in that light I certainly agree with you. It’s times like this that I wish I knew Arabic. š
Peace,
-Steve
Okay, if the internet is not the way to go, how do I insure that I get the correct translation in old aramaiac? I live in Northern California & we don’t have translators sitting around sipping on coffee all day waiting for someone to translate. Is there such translations for Latin Phrases?