 
AENT 4TH EDITION
AENT LARGE PRINT 4TH EDITION
“I am Alap,
also Taw,” says the Master YHWH, Elohim; who is, and was, and is to
come, the omnipotent."
Revelation
1:8
ADDITIONAL LINKS
EMAIL
The Aramaic English New Testament is being distributed by:
Netzari Press LLC
1701 Ellis St. Ste. 101
Bellingham, WA
98225-4650
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Khabouris Codex
 If
you've read the newspaper articles about the Khabouris
Codex, then you already have a good idea that this ancient and beautiful
manuscript stirred up a LOT of debate when it was first released to the American
people back in 1954. Imagine for a moment, and, please consider this
carefully. What would it mean to the religious worlds, if, an ancient and
beautifully preserved New Testament manuscript came on the scene suddenly and
seemingly out of nowhere? Imagine that you, a leading scholar, professor,
theologian and dedicated Christian has been told all your life that Aramaic is a
dead language. That the New Testament wasn't originally written in Aramaic
and you've taught thousands upon thousands of people that the Greek New
Testament is the only way to go. But, you pick up the New York Times and there
it is. The Khabouris Codex is right in your face:
For more
information about this digital reproduction please visit:
http://www.betterlight.com/khabouris.html
If you clicked
on one of the yellow text boxes, you've viewed a
state-of-the-art digital reproduction that provides a high
level of
excellence for researchers, scholars and
translators to work with. At the very least we can witness how the scribe
beautifully organized and justified each
line, how he made notations around the text to reflect the ancient Masoretic style of reproducing Holy writ. How he took time to
accentuate precious words with red ink, but that's only "dusting the surface" as
they say.
The
Director of the California-based Khabouris Institute who produced these digital
images noted:
“Since the pages were flattened, we had maximum sharpness,” Eric
Rivera stated . “I think these images are sharper than anything that’s
been done before. And these are really big shots... there is so much
detail. You can go to the 80X microscopic level and see the actual writing, the
fungus in the parchment cracks, and there is no question that you’re looking at
an actual character from a thousand years ago.”
According to Eric, new insights have already emerged from this
ancient text from pioneering work done by the late Dan MacDougald, his
colleagues, and men like Bishop Gerrit Crawford. “Critical differences
have been found that will alter the version of Christianity being taught today,”
he said. “With the Khabouris codex, you get closer to the source -
providing insights into the original ideas that haven’t been as diluted and
confused through time and generations of interpretations and languages. We
want to explore these original concepts and make sure we hear them as they were
intended.”
Imagine how a dyed-in-the-wool Christian theologian who
only knows about textual criticism and systematic theology from a Greek New
Testament might respond to such a statement.
Mr. Rivera says that "critical differences have been found?"
How could this "alter the version of Christianity being taught today?"
What about these "original ideas that
haven’t been as diluted and confused through time and generations of
interpretations and languages?" One would
assume that back in 1954 when Christians heard these kinds of things that they asked
their pastors about it, and many Christian leaders were praying and saying... O Jesus...
thank you! No? That's not what happened, everyone
knows that truth is little match for religious tradition. In reality,
precious few souls choose to suffer the infamy of the truth over more popular
traditional forms of Christianity.
When the Khabouris Codex was
inspected by the top Aramaic researchers and scholars from the Church of the
East, they noted that this manuscript held "layers" of ancient text. Within these
"layers" the other story of the date stamp of this ancient manuscript is told.
The aging process took its toll on the Khabouris Codex, what you see above is
one of the better pages. Over the centuries it was not uncommon for
scribes to "touch up" faded words and letters. On
June 7, 1965 the Archdeacon and Pastor Sadook De Mar Shimun, B.A.B.D., verified
and described the Khabouris codex this way: “The significance of the
Codex should be based on the following factors, each of which is of supreme
importance. Its colophon which ascribes it to the first decade of the 3rd
century, makes it the oldest Syriac-Aramaic known to exist...It's complete
text...” and that "...it was His
language as well as that of His disciples and the people to whom He proclaimed
His teachings...".
That 3rd century date however, was more
conservative than how scholars interpret the
colophon today. The most natural
conclusion is the reference in the colophon
that states: “dated one hundred years from
the Great Persecution.” That would
refer to about year 164 CE, the Great
Persecution was the first one in history
that occurred during the reign of Nero,
after he set Rome ablaze and blamed the fire
on Christians and Nazarenes.
What you just saw is the oldest
New Testament manuscript on the planet. Albeit this
is an impressively ancient manuscript, but
it's not the paint job on the car that makes or
breaks the evidence, what matters is
what's under the hood. The accuracy of
the text, resolving Greek mistranslations,
speaks for itself. This is the closest
text that we have to the original words
Y'shua and the Apostles spoke. From
the destruction of the temple in 70 CE,
until 135 AD, while Jerusalem was under the
heal of the Roman empire the Gospel was
being preserved in the Aramaic language, not
in Rome but directly north in what is modern
day Turkey. The original followers of
Y'shua, including his own mother fled north
and out of harms way.
In the Greek based New Testament
world, there are some 2200 different New testament translations;
obfuscating the original text, they are confusing and contrary to each another. The Aramaic New
Testament Church of the East has one New
Testament record that spans over 1800 years. The Eastern Aramaic Peshitta
family contains 360 manuscripts that reveal breathtaking accuracy
to each other.
For those who prefer to date the Kabouris
Codex by its latest "touch up" the reality
is that a thousand years back or forward
isn't going to make any difference when it
comes to the content which speaks for
itself. There is a world of difference
between Eastern and Western Aramaic New
Testament texts. Eastern texts reveal
a depth of Semitic detail far deeper than
any other ancient New Testament text on
earth, even if it didn't predate the oldest
Greek texts by about 200 years.
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