Biblical Canon

The Assyrian Church of the East uses the Peshitta as its canonical biblical text. The Peshitta (meaning 'simple' or 'straightforward' in Syriac) is the ancient Syriac translation of Scripture, traditionally believed to have been produced in the 2nd century. In the Old Testament, the church accepts the books of the Hebrew canon. In the New Testament, the Eastern Peshitta canon consists of 22 books, excluding 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, and Revelation. These five shorter epistles and the Book of Revelation were historically questioned in the East Syrian tradition and are not included in the traditional canon.

The use of the Peshitta rather than the Greek New Testament gives the church's Scripture a distinctly Syriac character and reflects its history of development in the Syriac-speaking regions of Mesopotamia, Persia, and beyond. The biblical text, read and interpreted in Syriac, shapes the theological and spiritual life of the church. While the church has engaged with Greek patristic sources, its primary scriptural orientation is through the Syriac Peshitta tradition.