CURETON’S VERSION

In 1842 Tattam brought from the convent of St. Mary Deipara in the Nitrian Desert a mass of MSS. Out of these Dr. Cureton one of the officers of the British Museum picked eighty leaves and a half. Cureton published these in 1858 with an English translation, and a beautiful facsimile by Mrs. Cureton. In his preface Cureton declared that he had here a most ancient Syriac translation whose antiquity is proved by the fact that the fragments of Matthew’s Gospel were made from Matthew’s original. The MSS contain fragments of the Four Gospels. Cureton succeeded in persuading few of the great age of his MSS. Scholars are divided on the question of its age and value; but few agree with its discoverer regarding the same.

The Abbé Martin believes that Cureton’s Syriac is a recension of the Peshitto dating from the end of the seventh century or beginning of the eighth, and that it never had much vogue.