The New Testament Message that was Once Delivered to the Early Saints:

As amended from the 1849 Etheridge Translation

from the Syriac by John Wesley Etheridge

January 26, 2016, rev, May 24 & 23 Nov. 2017

Introduction

In this translation from the Aramaic language, which is amended from the beautiful work of John Wesley Etheridge, Ph. D. of England, we are here trying to present a more accurate version and message to show how the early Christians really understood their beliefs. In other words, the present and all other versions of the New Testament have not been doing this.

They are just showing the erroneous understandings of the translators themselves as to what their church had taught them about God, Jesus, an­gels, and the Holy Spirit. This important difference was revealed to this servant as he sought God's help to understand the Creator and the Holy Scrip­tures (the Holy Bible).

Translators have been making prejudicial adjustments from what the text really said due to denominational or general church indoctrination? For example, some denominations, sects, or cults have quite different be­liefs or doctrines than the majority of Christian believers. They advise their church members to have nothing to do with other Christian churches or believers because they are all daughters of the Roman Catholic Church or they simply do not rate like they do and are therefore going to Hell or will be annihilated once they die. In other words they also have different beliefs about Heaven and Hell. Have you not read these passages?

Matthew (Mt) 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. (Also in Mark (Mk) 13:5) Jeremiah (Jer) 29:8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, . . . . and 2 Thessalonians (2Th) 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Lu 11:35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. Romans (Ro) 1:22 Professing themselves [translat­ors?] to be wise, they became fools, 1 Corinthians( 1Co) 1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise [in their own eyes or according to one's sect?], and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the dis­puter of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 1Co 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Mt 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Mt 15:2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders [how about in your own denomination]? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. 9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Mt 23:2-33 and Lk 11:38-52.

In other words, many of us have been deceived by errors in our trans­lations in our Bibles today and by any doctrines that may have come from those same errors in those same Scriptures. This is what was revealed to this servant around 1968 while in a Salvation Army seminary in Toronto, Ontario. He was there in preparation for a life and work serving God, man­kind, and the Salvation Army. He was there praying for God's help and wis­dom to know him and to understand the Trinity and the teachings of the Bible better. He found in his studies though that virtually all translators have translated their versions of the Scriptures and of the writings of the early Church fathers with bias, treating things about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit differently than they do other topics or persons.

In other words they do not follow the rules of grammar and syntax of the languages of which their manuscripts were written in. In fact they made up their own ecclesiastical or church rules about how to translate those ancient manuscripts when it comes to deity and church workers. For example, instead of deaconess (a woman church deacon, worker or minister) with re­gards to “Phebe, our sister” (Rom. 16:1), she is just called a servant in the Authorized Version (or King James Version) (A. V.). The Greek word of diakonov diakonos, dee-ak'-on-os is translated in the A. V. as servant, minister (Rom 15:8 re: Jesus Christ and 1 Co 3:5 re: the Apostle Paul and Apollos), and deacon (1 Th 3:2).

Since that time in Toronto, when this servant studied the New Testa­ment with the help of an Interlinear Literal Translation of the Greek New Testament with the Authorized Version by Thomas Newberry,¹ he returned home to further his studies on the Bible and on languages from which were trans­lated the Holy Bible. He went to the University of Winnipeg to study an­cient history of the people of Bible lands, Classical Greek, Koiné (common) Greek, and a number of other topics. Then over a number of other years, he went to three Bible colleges to study many regular religious topics and Hebrew, and Aramaic languages.

On studying the Old and New Testament manuscripts, many extra-biblical literature, and comments of the early Church fathers, he came to a better understanding of the real true beliefs of the Old Testament people of God and of the early Christians. To make these revelations clear to the regular indoctrinated scholars and public today, a new revised translation of the Scriptures needed to be made. Therefore this new version of the New Testa­ment is being made.

Because of a great urgency of the need, we are making use of a respec­ted translation into English from the very language that Jesus and all his first disciples spoke and used, that of Aramaic. As Hebrew was the sophist­icated classical language of the priests, rabbis, Hebrew scholars, and law­yers Matthew wrote his gospel in that very language of Hebrew² and Saint Paul apparently wrote his letter or Epistle to the Hebrew people in this language as well.³ This was, most likely, to make sure that the upper class of the Israelite or Judean people would have less reason to not read these important messages to the Hebrew people of their day. They would very likely not read them if they were in Greek or translated later from the Greek. It just would not be Hebrew enough for the Judeans of that day.

In order to speed up the bringing about this revised translation of the Aramaic manuscripts, this editor has taken the liberty to make use of the translation of the Syriac New Testament by the esteemed translator John Wesley Etheridge, Ph. D., an English nonconformist clergyman, who lived from 24th of February, 1804 to 24th of May, 1866. He called his work: the New Testament Translated from the Peshitta in two volumes. We have also considered George Howard's Hebrew Gospel of Matthew in this new translation as well as Janet M. Magiera's Aramaic Peshitta New Testament Translation Glenn David Bauscher's The 1^st Century Aramaic English Interlinear Bible- The New Testament with the Psalms, Proverbs & Ecclesiastes, James Murdock's The New Testament: Translated from the Syriac Peshito Version, George M. Lamsa's Holy Bible from the Ancient Eastern Text, and James Scott Trimm's The Hebraic-roots Version Scriptures.

All these versions were then compared to the translations as found in the Greek New Testament manuscripts to determine the placements of the def­inite articles, to get the viewpoint of the believers of the early Chris­tian era as to their understanding of deity in their day and age. As they wrote their translations while many of the early apostles and their com­rades were very likely still around, their opinions or their points of view mean much more than any opinions of religious indoctrinated scholars today.

We in the Church today are sons and daughters of people of churches and religious denominations that came out of the non-christian Roman Cath­olic Church and of members of the Jewish faiths who rejected Jesus of Naz­areth as their Saviour and Messiah. The Jews today and Messianic Jews have been influenced by their unsaved anti-christian comrades of their Talmudic religion which do not even uphold their ancient Scriptures as holy and sac­red above their Talmud and its philosophies.

The following amendments have been made to his translation, that of adopting Jesus for his spelling of Jeshu for e wvy (in Hebrew lettering). Regarding the Hebrew and Aramaic spelling of this Jeshu or Jesus, Hebrew text books say that this letter e, ʿᾰyĭn is to be represented in translitera­tion with ʿ but it is said to be silent⁴ or with a deep or pe­culiar guttural sound⁵.

In the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) though, this same letter is represented by the Greek letter G or now in the smaller case of g⁶, which is the letter Gamma with the pronunciation of g as in got or ng when it is before another g, k,or χ.⁷

But then consider that the Joshua of the Bible, that took over the leadership of Moses, has the same Hebrew letter as the last letter of his name, which is evwhy. His name is spelled in Greek as Iesous, Iesous.

So this suggests that there was a bit of a sound of an s on the ending of the word. Then through the process of this Greek spelling and of the Ro­man Latin spelling and pronunciation, the name Jesus came about.

In our translation we shall be noting the placements of definite art­icles in the Greek manuscripts and in the Hebrew manuscripts of parts of the New Testament. We note these with an underlining and where there are no supporting evidence of definite articles in Greek or Hebrew manuscripts those definite articles will be in superscript like this: ^the. The words Lord Jeh will be used in place of the Lord in Etheridge translation when the context appears to refer to God the Father.

Here is a note on why this editor has chosen the spelling of Jesus rather than Etheridge's Jeshu. This writer was given a special revelation concerning the proper pronunciation of God the Father's personal name. As Jesus has his father's name as part of his name: (je´zus (Iesous, for ye­hoshua`))<sup>8</sup> which is also spelled jehosh'-u-a (yehoshua`, [which means] "Yahweh is deliverance," or "is opulence")¹ or Jeh-wah is deliverance. Jesus (saviour) [is the] . . . Greek form of the name Joshua or Jeshua, a contraction of Jehoshua, that is, "help of Jehovah" or "saviour."⁹

The spelling of other translations of Yah, Jah, and of ours with Jeh all represent the same Hebrew spelling for God the Father's name when no vowel signs are shown. hy Yahh, yaw¹⁰ The ancient Hebrew manuscripts did not have vowel sign markings. These were only added years after Jesus was born as a baby.

This name of Yah, Jah, or Jeh¹¹ is found forty-five times in the Hebrew text from which the Authorized Version was translated and with the spelling of Jah. It is found as Jah in Psalm 68:4 and in the phrase “praise ye the LORD” twenty-four times (AV) and four times as Alleluia in Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, 6. It is found forty-two times in Young's Literal Translation of the Bible. The usual Hebrew form of the name Joshua . . . occurs in the King James Version of Numbers (Nu) 13:16 but the American Standard Revised Ver­sion has Hoshea and in some editions of the King James Version in 1Ch 7:27, where others have the form Jehoshuah (h being wrongly added at the end)¹².

In the understanding of this writer, it should be pronounced Jēʹsus with the accent on Je because of what happened a few years ago. This servant requested that God would give to his friend Remi, a retired gentleman but just a new Christi­an, the pronunciation of God the Father's personal name. Suddenly, a moment after this servant closed down his phone after talking to Remi, this word and pronunciation of JĒH-wah suddenly came out of his own lips. He suddenly realized that this was for what he was asking God. He immediately wrote it down as Jehwah. He later realized it would be better written with a hyphen after the Jeh, to make it Jeh-wah. In the Old Testament, God's name was written in the Hebrew many times as just hy , as mentioned above. It was evidently, pronounced Jēh as discovered in that word of knowledge that God gave this servant but incorrectly spelled Jah in the Authorized Version of the Bible.

In order to make it clear where this editor has made changes to the text of brother Etheridge's translation, that is, besides the respelling of the name of Jesus, we have underlined and made our changes in bold or regu­lar print and put Etheridge's choice as superscript just before our choices of words. Footnotes will be used at times when alternative choices of words were found necessary according to readings of other manuscripts than what Etheridge used or from notes from early Church fathers.

The Gospel According

    1 ^THE A RECORD of ^the a generation of Jesus ^the Meshicha, ^the son of David, son of Abraham.2 Abraham begat the¹³ Ishok, Ishok begat the Jakub, Jakub begat the Jehuda and his brethren,3 Jehuda begat the Pharets and the Zoroch from the Thomar. Pharets begat the Hetsron, Hetsron begat the Arom,4 Arom begat the Aminodob, Aminodob begat the Nachshun, Nachshun begat the Salmun,5 Salmun begat the Booz from the Rochab, Booz begat the Ubid from the Ruth, Ubid begat the Ishai,6 Ishai begat the David the king;

David begat the Shelemun from [her who had been] the wife of the Uria;
7 Shelemun begat the Rehebaam, Rehebaam begat the Abia, Abia begat the Asa, 8 Asa begat the Johushaphat, Johushaphat begat the Jurom, Jurom begat the Uzia,
9 Uzia begat the Juthom, Juthom begat the Ahaz, Ahaz begat the Hezakia,10 Heza­kia begat the Menasha, Menasha begat the Amun, Amun begat the Jushia,11 Jushia begat the Jukania and his brethren at the exile of Bobel.

12 And after the exile of Bobel Jukania begat the Shalathiel, Shalathiel begat the Zurbobel, 13 Zurbobel begat the Abiud, Abiud begat the Aliakim, Aliakim begat the Ozur,14 Ozur begat the Zoduk, Zoduk begat the Akin, Akin begat the Aliud,15 Aliud begat the Aliozar, Aliozar begat the Mathan, Mathan begat the Jakub,16 Jakub begat the Jauseph, the husband of Mariam, of whom was born Jesus who is called ^the a Meshicha¹⁴.

17 Thus all the generations from Abraham to David (were) fourteen genera­tions; and from David to the exile of Bobel, fourteen generations; and from the exile of Bobel to the Meshicha, fourteen generations.

18 NOW the nativity of Jesus^{15 the} a Meshicha was thus: While Mariam his mother was betrothed to Jauseph, before they could be consociated, she was found to be with child from ^the a Spirit of Holiness. 19 But Jauseph her husband was just, and, not willing to defame her, meditated privately to release her.

20 But while (on) these (things) he reflected, an angel of Lord Beautiful¹⁶ ap­peared to him in a dream, and said to him, Jauseph, son of David, fear not to take Mariam thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is from ^the a Spirit of Holiness.21 She shall give birth to a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.

22 Now all this was done, that what was spoken from ^the17 Lord Beautiful by the prophet might be fulfilled: 23 Behold, ^a the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth ^the a son, and they shall call his name Amanuel; which is interpreted, With us (is) our Aloha¹⁸/Superior One.

24 Then Jauseph,¹⁹ when he had arisen from his sleep, did as the angel of Beautiful commanded him, and took unto him his wife; 25 and knew her not until she had given birth to her son, the firstborn; and she called his name Jesus.

Matthew 2

1 NOW when this²⁰ Jesus was born in Beth-lechem of the Jehuda, in ^the days of Herodes the king, there came Magians [Magusdhee]²¹ from ^the East to Urishlem: 2 and they said, Where is ^the a king of the Jews [Jihudoyee] who is born? for we have seen his ^star luminary²² in the east, and have come to worship him.

3 But Herodes the king heard, and was troubled, and all Urishlem with him. 4 And he as­sembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people, and anxiously inquired of them where the Meshicha²³ should be born.

5 But they said, In Beth-lechem of the Je­huda; for so it is written in the prophet: 6 Also thou, Beth-lechem of Jehuda, wast not the least among the kings of Jehuda; for from thee shall come forth ^the a king who shall be as a shepherd to my people the Isroel.

7 Then Herodes privately called the Magians, and learned from them at what the time the ^star luminary appeared to them: 8 and he sent them to Beth-le­chem, and said to them, Go and inquire diligently concerning the child; and when you have found him, come, show me, and I also will go and will worship him.

9 But they, when they had heard the king, went forth; and, lo, the ^star luminary, which they had seen in the east, pro­ceeded before them, until it came and stood over against where the child was.

10 Now when they saw the ^star luminary, they rejoiced with very great joy. 11 And they entered the house, and beheld the child with Mariam his mother; and they fell down, and worshipped him. And they opened their treasures, and offered unto him oblations; gold, and myrrh, and frankin­cense. 12 And it was shown to them in a dream, that they should not return unto Herodes; so, by another way, they went unto their place.

13 AND when they were gone, ^the an angel of ^the Lord Beautiful appeared in a dream unto Jauseph, and said to him, Arise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Metsreen, and there be until I tell thee; for it will be that Herodes will seek the child, that he may destroy him.

14 Then Jauseph arose, took up the child and his mother, and fled by night into Metsreen, 15 and was there until the death of Herodes. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken from ^the24 Lord Beautiful by the prophet, saying, Out of Metsreen have I called my son.

16 Then Herodes, when he saw that he had been deluded by the Magians, was greatly wroth, and sent (and) killed all the children of Beth-lechem, and all its limits, from two years and under, according to the time which he had inquired from the Magians.

17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Eramio the prophet, who said, 18 A cry was heard in Rometha; weeping and great lamentation; Rochel weeping for her children, and not willing to be comforted, because they are not.

19 BUT when Herodes, the king, was dead, ^the an angel of ^the Lord Beautiful appeared in a dream to Jauseph in Metsreen, 20 and said to him, Arise, take the child and his mother, and go into ^the a land of Isroel; for they are dead who sought the life of the child.

21 And Jauseph arose, (and) took the child and his mother, and came into ^the a land of Isroel. 22 But when he heard that Arkelaos was the king in Jehud, instead of Herodes his father, he was afraid to go thither: and it was shown to him in a dream, that he should go into the region of the Galila. 23 And he came and dwelt in a city which is called Natsrath. So would be fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet, that a Nazarene he should be called.

1 NOW in those days came Juchanon [Or, Yu'hanan.] the Baptizer preaching in the desert of Jehud, 2 and saying, Repent! the kingdom of heaven hath drawn nigh. 3 For this is he of whom it was spoken by Eshaia the prophet: The voice which crieth in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths plain.

4 But this Juchanon, his clothing was of the hair of camels, with a loins-belt of leather upon his loins; and his food was locusts and wilderness-honey.

5 Then went forth to him Urishlem, ^b and all Jehud, and the whole country about Jurdan; 6 and were baptized of him in Jurdan, the river, while they were confessing their sins.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharishee and Zodukoyee coming to be baptized, he said to them, Generation of vipers, who hath showed you to escape from the wrath that cometh? 8 Work, therefore, fruits which are suitable to repentance. 9 Neither ruminate and say within yourselves, that Abraham is father to us; for I say to you that ^Aloha the Superior One is able from these stones to raise up sons unto Abraham. 10 But, behold, the axe lieth at the root of the trees; every tree, therefore, which maketh not good fruit is cut down and falleth into the fire.

11 I, indeed, baptize you with water unto repentance; but He who cometh after me is mightier than I; he, whose sandals I am not worthy to bear,-he baptizeth you with ^the a Spirit of Holiness and with fire. 12 He (it is) whose fan is in his hand, and, purifying his floors, the wheat he gathereth into his garner, but the chaff he burneth with ^the a fire that is not quenched.

13 Then came Jeshu from Galila unto Jurdan to Juchanan to be baptized of him. 14 But Juchanon prohibited him, and said, I need from thee to be baptized, and hast thou come unto me? 15 But Jeshu answered and said unto him, Permit [this] now; for thus it becometh us to accomplish all righteousness. And then he permitted him.

16 But when Jeshu was baptized, he immediately ascended from the waters; and the heaven was opened unto him; and he saw the/a²⁵ Spirit of the/a^{25 Aloha} Superior One, who descended, like ^the a dove, and came upon him. 17 And, lo, ^the a voice from heaven, which said, This (is) my Son, the Beloved, in whom I have delighted.