This Bible is an English translation of the Aramaic Old and New Testaments. Aramaic was the primary language spoken by Jesus, his disciples, and the earliest Christians. A member of the same semitic family of language as ancient Hebrew, it was the day-to-day language of Israel from 539 BC to 70AD.
The translator, Dr. George Lamsa, was
a native Assyrian (located in the extreme east of modern-day Turkey.)
He was shocked to find that most Christians in the West used a
Greek-based Bible. To Dr. Lamsa, and
many other Eastern Christians, the Aramaic Bible, is the only Bible. He
worked on translating the Aramaic Peshitta into English, resulting in
this Bible, commonly referred to as the "Lamsa Bible."
This Aramaic translation into English clarifies difficult passages and provides insights on many passages often misunderstood in Greek-based translations.
For example, Matthew 19:24 is commonly translated as, 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.' The Aramaic word for 'camel' is written identically to the word for 'rope.' Rope, of course, is much more in keeping with the analogy of a needle, and is translated this way in this Aramaic translation.
Similarly, Matthew 7:3 says, 'Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?' In this Aramaic translation, the word 'splinter' appears in place of 'speck.' The organic relationship between a splinter and a plank (or beam) is obvious while speck is more nebulous.
Paperback, 1243 pages.
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