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The Term ‘Life’ in Syriac Theology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
Extract
In 1899 Burkitt posed a question to which no answer has yet been given. It was as follows: ‘It is still more surprising and instructive to find that “salvation” is identified by the Syriac usage with “life”. Σωτ⋯ρ is Mahyânâ, “Life-giver”, and “to be saved” is “to live”. This is the more remarkable, as Syriac has several words meaning “to deliver”, “to protect” and “to be safe and sound”. May we not therefore believe that this identification of “salvation” and “life” is the genuine Aramaic usage, and that the Greek Gospels have in this instance introduced a distinction which was not made by Christ and his Aramaic-speaking disciples?' If Burkitt is right, it is evident that quite a new light is thrown on a number of instances in the NT where the word σᾡζω occurs. This can be seen at once as one thinks of the somewhat negative ‘Saviour’ becoming the more positive ‘Life-giver’. Theologically also, however, there is a difference in meaning, which Burkitt remarked on a few years later. ‘The use of ḥajē,ē life, to render σωηρἱα and σωτ⋯ριoν, instead of some word meaning “deliverance“, together with the corresponding equivalent verb ḥj' and σᾡζɛσθαι belongs rather to theology and philosophy than to linguistics.'
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References
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page 396 note 3 Baudissin, W. W., Adonis—, p. 396.Google Scholar
page 396 note 4 Baudissin, , Adonis—, pp. 397–402Google Scholar. See especially for the Babylonian Conception: Nötscher, F., Altorientalischer und Alttestamentlischer Auferstehungsglauben, Würzburg 1926, pp. 17–24Google Scholar, about Israel pp. 129–138. Wagner, W., Über ΣΩZEIN und seine Derivata im NT, in: Z.N.W. VI, 1905, pp. 205–235Google Scholar, remarked that ‘to save’ = ‘to come to life’ in the NT. His inquiries, however, split up into a part dealing with a ‘natural’ death (sickness, etc.) and a spiritual one (sin). This is not in agreement with the Semitic background of the Gospels.
page 396 note 5 Cf. John 11.25: 
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page 397 note 1 Canney, M. A., Life-Symbols in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, in: Oriens I, 1926, pp. 23–24.Google Scholar
page 397 note 2 Phillips, G., The Doctrine of Addai the Apostle, London 1876Google Scholar. A favourite expression is ‘to sow the word of life’. This is found in The Doctrine on p. 8, in the Acts of Thomas on p. 176 and in the Hom, of Narsai on pp. 33, 45, and 51.
page 397 note 3 Cf. again the Doctrine of Addai, p. 2 2: ‘… that for which our Lord eame into the world was altogether to teach and show that at the end of created things is a resurrection for all men’. See also Ephrem's Carmina Nisibena, 43–51 and Aphraates' Dem. VIII.