I thought, while we were talking about the Aramaic underlying Matthew 16:18 ("You are Peter . . . ") that I’d show you this verse in the standard Armaic translation of the New Testament.
Many Catholics have heard that "kepha" is used in both places in this verse ("You are Peter \[kepha] and on this rock [kepha] I will build my Church . . . "), but few have seen it with their own eyes.
So I scanned it and here ’tis:
The standard Aramaic translation of the New Testament is known as the Pshitta or Peshitta (pronounce it the former way, not the latter). It is not generally regarded as an Aramaic original to the New Testament, but it is based on very early Aramaic versions that were utilized to produce a standard edition and, indeed, it uses kepha in both slots in this verse.
Because of the unfamiliarity of the scrip for most folks (NOTE: It’s read right-to-left instead of left-to-right), I’ve circled the word kepha both times it appears in the text so folks can tell that it does appear twice.
