Short Notices

Abstract

This is a most welcome addition to the tools available to the Syriac scholar. It is the first complete concordance to the Peshitta New Testament, and includes even particles and proper names (in the two volumes of appendices following the four main volumes). These days, such a feat could probably only have been achieved by the use of an electronic database, and being at once a computer specialist and a Syriacist, George Kiraz is particularly wellqualified for the task. The base text for the concordance is the British and Foreign Bible Society edition, now reprinted by the United Bible Society. Though it is not a critical text, its credentials are good and it is both widely used and easily available. The presence in the edition of the Minor Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse of John means that these are also included in the concordance, although they were not in fact part of the Peshitta translation of the New Testament. This is something that Kiraz stresses, and it should be borne in mind when using data from these books, as the translation technique and the character of the Syriac differ from those of the Peshitta. The presentation of the concordance is very clear and even attractive, with a box marking out the word in question within the surrounding phrase. The order of entries follows the root, so anyone able to use the lexicons of Payne Smith or Brockelmann should have little difficulty looking something up. For the actual structure of the entries it is advisable to glance briefly at the section in the introduction which explains the format and symbols. The Syriac occurrences are broken down and listed according to form: a noun according to state (absolute, construct, emphatic), then with different pronominal suffixes, then with prefixes, and then the sequence is repeated for the plural. Verbs are listed by tense under each conjugation in turn, and broken down according to number, person and gender, and then again into forms with prefixes and/or suffixes. This method of arranging entries is very logical, and also centred on the Syriac word rather than the English meaning, since the reader looking up the references to ' mother' or ' sleep' will not find a list of undifferentiated occurrences listed merely according to their appearance in the order of the New Testament canon, but according to the precise morphology of each example. This approach suits the serious student of Syriac language rather better than the casual browser, but it is certainly the best way of tackling the commonest roots, such as ' say', 'son' or 'God'. All headwords are given English translations. There is also an English-Syriac index (which will no doubt be plundered by students preparing proses), a list of Greek loanwords, and an alphabetical key to the Syriac. The user should not be thrown by the parallel use of Syriac grammatical terms in the main volumes, since the concordance is aimed at the Syriac community as well as Western Syriacists. This is another aspect of the work that distinguishes it from Terry Falla 's Key to the Peshitta Gospels, which began to appear in 1991. Though the latter is very handy, particularly as a guide to the underlying Greek, the morphological form of entries is not given, nor, in general, the rest of the verse in which it appears. Falla also covers only the Gospels. In an ideal world, Syriac scholars would have a copy of both Falla and Kiraz on the shelf, and university libraries certainly should. For those wanting to make more complicated searches of the Peshitta NT, there is even a computerized version of Kiraz's work available for IBMcompatible machines on DOS. As Sebastian Brock remarks in the foreword, this concordance ' will open up the way to new developments in Syriac scholarship, not feasible hitherto.'