Apocrypha Syriaca

A transcription of a Syriac manuscript including Christian and Islamic texts, translated by Agnes Lewis, first published in 1902.

Agnes Lewis (1843–1926) was a biblical scholar credited with the discovery of a number of significant ancient manuscripts. This text is the transcription and translation of a Syriac manuscript acquired by her in 1895. First published in 1902, the text includes both biblical materials and an early Qur'anic text.The twin sisters Agnes Lewis (1843–1926) and Margaret Gibson (1843–1920) were pioneering biblical scholars who became experts in a number of ancient languages. Travelling widely in the Middle East, they made several significant discoveries, including one of the earliest manuscripts of the Four Gospels in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language probably spoken by Jesus himself. First published in 1902 as part of the Studia Sinaitica, this text is transcribed and translated by Lewis from a Syriac manuscript she acquired in Suez in 1895. As well as featuring pages of the Septaguint and the Peshitta Gospels, the palimpsest includes some Arabic pages including a very early version of the Qur'an (estimated by Lewis as seventh-century). Illustrated with reproductions of the leaves of the various texts, this is a valuable resource for scholars of Syriac, but also of interest for historians of Christianity and Early Islam.