The three surviving versions of the Gospels in Syriac are of considerable importance for both Biblical and Semitic Studies. The Old Syriac, preserved in two manuscripts, is one of the earliest translations of the Greek Gospels; the Peshitta remains to this day the official Bible of the Syriac Churches, while the harklean is a masterpiece of mirror-translation. This new edition conveniently provides for the first time the text of all three versions together. The texts of the two Old Syriac manuscripts, the Peshitta and the harklean are drawn from the best sources and have been carefully aligned so that their inter-relationship can immediately be seen and studied. The volumes, which include the first edition of the harklean Gospels for some 200 years (prepared by Dr. Andreas Jnckel), will prove an invaluable resource for both Biblical and for Semitic scholarship.

"The publication of these four volumes...is one of the great happenings of 1996 [first ed.]. Not only the author but also the publisher deserve the gratitude of the scholarly world for this splendid magnum opus. It deserves a place in the libraries of all universities and theological departments and it cannot be missed in the personal libraries of students and scholars who are interested in the areas of Syriac studies and the Syriac versions in particular."--T. Baarda, Novum Testamentum, 1997.

George Anton Kiraz holds a master's degree in Syriac Studies (Oxford), a master's degree in computer speech and language processing (Cambridge), and a Ph.D. in computational linguistics(Cambridge). His publications include Computer-Generated Concordance to the Syriac New Testament volumes 1-6 (E.J. Brill, Leiden).