One of the first biblical scholars to publish books translated from ancient Aramaic manuscripts was Rev. George Phillips. In his book, Elements of Syriac Grammar (1), published in 1837, he says, "Syriac Language supplies one source of valuable information for the criticism of the Hebrew Bible. By an examination of a Hebrew word as it is used in this language, essential service has been rendered in elucidating many difficult and important passages of Holy Writ, and it has been the constant practice of commentators to have recourse to Syriac whenever the Text of the Old Testament fails to establish satisfactorily the signification of a word. In such case every person allows that a reference to Syriac is one of the legitimate means to be employed in determining the sense of a passage, and although this language is inferior to Arabic in the extent and variety of its literature; it is nevertheless superior as regards its much more intimate connection with the original language of the Bible."

Rev. Phillips continues in saying, "But the great claim as it appears to me, which the Syriac has on the attention of that class of persons, for whose use this book is intended, consists in the Syriac New Testament. The high antiquity of this Version and its use in the early established Syriac Church stamp an importance on it, which can be assigned to no other, and if to these circumstances be added another, that the Syriac Language is so nearly the same as that spoken in Palestine in the first age of Christianity, that by many persons it has been termed the vernacular language of our Lord, it must be allowed that the Syriac New Testament possesses a value inferior only to that which belongs to the Original."

Herein lies the motivation behind the tireless efforts of Bible scholars to translate broken fragments of ancient manuscripts written in the Aramaic language. Though the Evangelists wrote in Greek, Syriac was the native language of Jesus and His disciples, and whenever the actual words of Christ are quoted: 'ethphatha,' 'talitha cumi,' 'eli, eli, lama sabachthani,' they are not in Greek, but in Syriac (or rather in Aramaic, of which Syriac is a dialect) In the Aramaic biblical texts, we are given the very sound of the words which Jesus uttered.