The Syriac Bible is a fascinating field to which too little serious research has been devoted. In the present volume, Jan Joosten gathers a number of pilot studies, published in various journals and collected volumes, shedding light on the Syriac "Old Testament", on the Syriac New Testament, and on the relationship between them. Although some of the studies are technical, their implications range widely. Notably, a number of studies advance the claim that the Old Syriac and Peshitta gospels preserve echoes of an Aramaic gospel tradition that bypassed the Greek gospels and gives independent access to the earliest, oral, traditions on the life and teaching of Jesus.