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MATTHEW, HEBREW GOSPEL OF

The early Church believed that Matthew originally wrote his Gospel in the Hebrew language. The earliest to report this tradition is Papias (ca. 60-130 c.e.; Eusebius HE 3.39.16) A host of later writers confirm the tradition, including Irenaeus, Pantaenus, Origen, Eusebius, Epiphanius, and Jerome. These writers, however, sometimes confuse the Hebrew Matthew with the Gospel of the Ebionites, the Gospel of the Nazoreans, and/or the Gospel according to the Hebrews, apocryphal Jewish Christian gospels written in the 2nd century. The early Christian witness to the text of the Hebrew Matthew is, consequently, unclear.

During the Middle Ages Jewish authors, writing in Hebrew, often quote the Gospel of Matthew in a text different from the canonical Greek. In 1380 the Spanish Jewish polemist Shemtob ben Isaac ibn Shaprut incorporated the entire text of Matthew in Hebrew in his treatise, ʾEben Boḥan. His text often corresponds to the earlier Jewish quotations of Matthew in Hebrew, leading to the speculation that Shemtob’s text preserves an early copy of the Hebrew Matthew.

In the 16th century Sebastian Münster and Jean du Tillet issued separate editions of Matthew in Hebrew, both reporting that they received their texts from the Jews. The versions of Münster and du Tillet, similar to each other, are distinct from the text of Shemtob. A close analysis of their differences reveals that the 16th-century editions, though based on a text like Shemtob’s, have been thoroughly revised so that the Hebrew now reads closely to the Christian Greek and Latin Bibles of the Middle Ages.

Bibliography. J. K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament, rev. ed. (Oxford, 1993); E. Hennecke and W. Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, rev. ed. (Louisville, 1991); G. Howard, Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, 2nd ed. (Macon, 1995); A. F. J. Klijn, Jewish-Christian Gospel Tradition. Vigiliae Christianae Sup 17 (Leiden, 1992); Klijn and G. J. Reinink, Patristic Evidence for Jewish-Christian Sects. NovTSup 36 (Leiden, 1973).

George Howard

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MATTHEW, HEBREW GOSPEL OF

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)