The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died

by Philip Jenkins

Peshitta Syriac text of the whole Bible, so called because it was the “simple version.” In the Old Testament, this represents a direct translation from ancient Hebrew texts, probably done in Edessa or Arbela. The Peshitta remained the standard version for the Eastern churches, just as the Latin Vulgate did for the Western church.29