Logan Copley, our librarian and missionary faculty member successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, Lexical Consistency in the Peshiṭta of Deuteronomy from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His promotors were Prof. dr. W.T. van Peursen and Dr. M.L. Folmer. Fellow colleagues, Derek Bass and Mario Tafferner, were at his side as paranymphs.
Logan’s question looks narrow and goes deep. Why does the ancient Syriac translation of Deuteronomy render the same Hebrew word with different Syriac words? Commentators often reach first for theological motives or stylistic taste. Logan shows that the variation usually comes from the language itself: a verb like “to come” changes with the direction and kind of movement it describes. A faithful translator doesn’t repeat the same word mechanically. He serves the text inside the possibilities and limits of the language he is writing in. Logan argues that linguistic explanations should be tested before theological ones. He also shows that ancient translations like the Peshiṭta can hold traces of texts older than some surviving Hebrew manuscripts, and he uses computational methods to get at questions the humanities have long asked.
You can read more about his project here: https://vu.nl/en/events/2026/phd-defense-l-s-copley
A doctorate takes years of patient, often hidden work, and it also asks a great deal of family and friends. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Copley, and in thanking God for his perseverance and for the gifts he brings to Tyndale Theological Seminary.
Szaszi Bene Vice President of Academic Affairs - October 2026
