There are definitely many reasons to learn Syriac from a Biblical Studies perspective, and I would encourage anyone interested in deepening their understanding of both the Bible and Church History to dive right in. Also, I think anyone with a background in Semitic languages (such as Biblical Hebrew or Biblical Aramaic) will find the language very interesting and easy to pick up….
As I worked on my dissertation on Ps 68 in Judaism and Paul’s epistles, I came across several articles that approached the problem of Ps 68:18 in Eph 4:8 from a text-tradition perspective. Paul changes Ps 68:18’s “you received” to “he gave” in Eph 4:8, so naturally an examination of early versions was a first step. But one of the early versions is the Peshitta, to which I had no linguistic access, but which was appealed to in several articles and commentaries. I quickly learned that Syriac was yet another language I needed to learn if I would study the New Testament….