Suggestive Readings from the Syriac New Testament [pp. 650-660]

SUGGESTIVE READINGS FROM THE
whether it might not be worth their while to embrace this
opportunity to make themselves acquainted with the original.
The first passage worthy of special notice for itself not
only, but as the key to many others, and as suggestive of an
important truth in connection with the Bible doctrine of salva vation, is Matt. i. 23, "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for
He shall save His people from their sins." Here the Peshito
has, "He shall cause to live, quicken, or give life to His people
from their sins." And the word here found is the one almost
universally employed in the New Testament with reference to
the saving work of our Redeemer. Thus in MIatt. xviii. 11,
"The Son of MaIn is come to seek and to save that which was
lost;" the Syriac reads, to give life to that which was lost.
And more strikingly in Luke, ix. 56, "I came not to destroy
men's lives, but to save them" to give t/hem life; and in John, xii.
47, " I came not to judge the world, but to give life to the world."
It is sufficient merely to refer to such passages as Mk. iii. 4,
Acts ii. 40, xvi. 30 (what must I do to be saved, Syriac, that I
macy live?) RPom. xi. 14, 1 Cor. i. 21, vii. 19, ix. 22, 1 Tim. i. 15,
iv. 16, Heb. vii. 25 (save unto the uttermost, Syriac, quick7cen
owevere), Jam. i. 21, ii. 14, iv. 12, v. 20. And in general it
may be said that this word is used everywhere in reference to
the salvation of men. The exceptions are very few indeed, if
any. The thought which is thus suggested, and which is common to all these passages, is a very evident and very important one, and yet one that in our English version is comparatively lost sight of, namely, that Christ saves by giving life to
the dceadc, by causitiny them to live, by quickening them. A truth
that is indeed enunciated with sufficient distinctness in certain
passages, as in Eph. ii. 1-5, but which, in the Syriac, is the predominant thought, which presents itself wherever saving and
salvation are spoken of.
This is the more evident and striking from the fact that almost invariably other words than khaiee are used where the
thought is simply that of deliverance-rescue. Of such words
there are two. Thus the disciples, when in danger, Matt. viii.
25, cry out, "Lord save us." Here plainly deliverance from
peril is intended, and the Syriac has a different word, Pasan,
instead of that used in Matt. i. 23. So when Peter, sinking beneath the seas, cries "Lord save me," Matt. xiv. 30, it is in the
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