Was the New Testament Really Written in Greek? - The Preterist ...

The word in question is the one which the KJV translates as “excess”. There is a great variance among
the various Greek mss in this place (the following list is by no means comprehensive). One would have
to wonder how these variants came about…
akrasia – intemperate, lack of self control, excess
Mss.: ℵ B D Θ f1 f13
akaqarsia – unclean
Mss.: O Σ
adikia – unjust
Mss.: 28 579 700
akrasia adikia – “unjust intemperance”. This cheeky Zorba was showing off! Showing two meanings
from the one Aramaic word.
Mss.: W
pleonexia – covetousness
Mss.: M
ponhria – wickedness
Mss.: Rare manuscripts, attested to in the much revered “Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible”.
iniquitate – iniquity
Mss.: Rare manuscripts, attested to in the much revered “Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible”.
Perhaps it is from a rare Latin manuscript, translated from a Greek manuscript that said “iniquity”.
Curiously, the Latin Vulgata says “immunditia” (uncleanness).
The corresponding word in the Peshitta, minus the w (“and”) proclitic, is fw9.
The regular lexical searches (manual searching through the available Aramaic lexica) easily gives
meanings identical, or very similar, to 5 of the Greek variants. The ones I couldn’t find were
“intemperance” and “covetousness”. After consulting with Aramaic experts however (such as Andrew
Roth), it was made known to me that ALL these 7 meanings stem from the umbrella of the Aramaic
root’s lexical range. Some of the words are synonyms, meaning that this 7-way split word has some
individual “regular” split words and some individual “synonym” split words.
And of course we have the issue that so many meanings of the Aramaic word are present at one time,
while this is not so in the Greek. E.g. By using just one word in the Aramaic, the Peshitta paints a very
detailed picture of the scribes and Pharisees – that they are unjust, wicked, intemperate, etc. The Greek
only has the same impact when combining the variants from all these Greek manuscripts together.
While this example may be enough to make Peshitta enthusiasts like me salivate at the mouth, Greek
scholars would most likely scoff. You see, most Biblical scholarship already concedes (at least in part)
that Matthew was written in Aramaic (as was Hebrews). However, it still provides a nice confirmation
of the Aramaic original of Matthew but also accomplishes far greater. It demonstrates that, YES, we
WILL see split word examples, by comparing Aramaic originals to Greek translations. And it also
serves as a nice comparator to the books that are more likely to have been written in Greek (e.g. the
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