Imagine a small nomadic tribe in the Middle East grazing its sheep from pasture to pasture. The elders were responsible for the tribe. The small boys were taught to care for the sheep out in the hills, protecting them from straying, from injury and all dangers such as wild animals.

​

Just such a shepherd boy was Lamsa, a native Assyrian, born and reared in that part of the ancient biblical land, the Garden of Eden, from which Abraham migrated to Palestine. That boy became the world renowned Near Eastern biblical scholar, Dr George M. Lamsa. He was a living link with history, born in the land of the Patriarchs and Prophets where the culture and customs had remained virtually unchanged until 1918.

​

His people lived a simple pastoral life with manners and language almost identical to the time of Jesus. Dr Lamsa’s native tongue was full of idioms and parables similar to those of biblical times, untouched by the modern Western world. Until Word War 1 his people, living in the area known today as Kurdistan, retained the same simple nomadic life described in the Bible. Only at the turn of the century did this isolated remnant of the once great Assyrian Empire learn of the European countries and the discovery of America.

​

At the same time, this ancient culture of early Christians was equally unknown in the West and the Aramaic (Syriac) language was thought to be dead. But in this so-called “Cradle of Civilization,” cut off from the rest of the world, the ancient biblical customs and Semitic language had been preserved.

​

Dr Lamsa, the first born son in his family, while yet an infant, was dedicated to God by his devout mother. His education began when he was five years old at mission schools under the priests and deacons of the Church of the East. Subsequently, he was to be graduated with the highest honours ever bestowed from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Colleges. His ambition as a scholar led to his Doctor of Theology degree from the Anglican College and Seminary in Iran and Turkey.

​

At the beginning of World War 1, Dr Lamsa was forced to flee the Imperial University at Constantinople where he was studying. He went to South America where he encountered many hardships. In 1916 he arrived in the United States and became a naturalized citizen in 1923.

​

At first he worked as a printer by day and went to school at night. He later studied at the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Alexandria. Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School and Dropsie College in Philadelphia.

​

As a lecturer in churches and seminaries, in halls and auditoriums, before statemen, theologians, groups of artists, actors and others, Dr Lamsa received recognition as a poet-philosopher and as an authority on all phases of Near Eastern civilization. It was through his struggles with the idioms in the English language during those years that Dr Lamsa gradually launched what was to be his life’s work – a translation of the Scriptures from Aramaic into English.

​

Dr Lamsa was an authority on ancient Eastern scriptures, having spent a lifetime on research and study of the Aramaic manuscripts of the Bible. (It is a known fact that the language of Jesus and the apostles was Aramaic.)

He believed that the Bible originally was the simplest book written by man.

 

Writing was then in its infancy and learned men were few. The apparent obscurities were compounded through the translators lack of knowledge of the ancient Semitic languages, colloquial expressions, and the issues which then existed. His early realization that the English version of the Bible was a translation of a translation of a translation led Dr Lamsa to his lifetime project of a direct translation from the Aramaic. THE HOLY BIBLE FROM ANCIENT EASTERN MANUSCRIPTS, containing the Old and New Testaments from the Peshitta Text (the authorised Bible of the Church of the East) was the result of thirty years of labor, research and study.

Many of Dr Lamsa’s articles were published by TIME, THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION and other national periodicals. He also served as technical director for the motion picture, THE BIG FISHERMAN. He was appointed by the U.S. Treasury Department as a special translator for the Veterans’ Bureau in 1920 and in 1923 he founded the Christian, Jewish, Mohammedan Society to bring about a better understanding between these three religious groups. During 1925-26 he was field secretary of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Assyrian Mission in America.

​

Indeed the list of prestigious organizations to which Dr Lamsa belonged: the American Oriental Society, the American Geographical Society, and the Author’s League of America. He was a Fellow, Royal Society of Arts, London, England. He also appeared in several volume’s of WHO’S WHO IN AMERICA during the 1940’s and 50’s. (See Volumes 23-26. In Volumes 27-31 his name is listed with reference to Volume 26.)

​

Dr Lamsa favored no single denomination, but he worked for years to create a greater cooperation and understanding between all people. His teachings from the Aramaic writings are without creed, dogma or theology. His earnest desire was to teach the universal spiritual principles of love and understanding among all people.

​

Dr Lamsa died September 22, 1975, and was interred in Turlock, California.