Rabbinical translations of Matthew
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The Rabbinical translations of Matthew are rabbinical versions of the Gospel of Matthew that are written in Hebrew; Shem-Tob's Matthew, the Du Tillet Matthew, and the Münster Matthew, and which were used in polemical debate with Catholics.
These versions are to be distinguished from the Gospel According to the Hebrews which was one or more works found in the Early Church, but surviving only as fragmentary quotations in Greek and Latin texts.
Some scholars consider all the rabbinical versions to be translated from the Greek or Latin of the canonical Matthew, for the purpose of Jewish apologetics.[] This conclusion is not exclusive. Other scholars have provided linguistic and historic evidence of Shem Tov's Matthew coming from a much earlier Hebrew text that was later translated into Greek and other languages. Early Christian author Papias wrote around the year 100: Matthew composed his history in the Hebrew dialect, and everyone translated it as he was able.[][]
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Rabbinical Jewish versions
Early Rabbinical citations of Matthew, 600-1300
Quotations from Hebrew translations of portions of various New Testament books - including the epistles of Paul - can be found in rabbinical treatises against Catholicism. These treatises multiplied wherever Jews lived in proximity to Christians - such as Spain before the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
- Sefer Nestor ha-Komer; "The Book of Nestor the Priest", 7th century. Contains significant quotes from Matthew, apparently from a Latin text.[]
- Toledot Yeshu; "Life of Jesus", 7th century.
- Milhamoth ha-Shem; "Wars of the Lord" of Jacob Ben Reuben 12th century, which cites texts including Matthew 1:1-16, 3:13-17, 4:1-11, 5:33-40, 11:25-27, 12:1-8, 26:36-39, 28:16-20.
- Sefer Nizzahon Yashan; "The Book of Victory" (in Latin Nizzahon vetus), 13th century.
- Sefer Joseph Hamekane; "Book of Joseph the Official" of rabbi Joseph ben Nathan, 13th century (Paris MS).
Jean Carmignac (Paris 1969, BNES 1978) identified fifty Hebrew translations of the Lord's Prayer from the 9th to the 18th centuries.[][][] Most scholars consider that the medieval Hebrew manuscripts are derived by translation from medieval Greek or Latin manuscripts, and therefore that it is extremely unlikely that any of the unique readings found in these medieval Hebrew manuscripts could be ancient.[]
Four principal versions in rabbinical Hebrew of Matthew have survived or partially survived:
Shem Tov's Matthew, 1385
The Shem Tov Matthew (or Shem Tob's Matthew) consists of a complete text of Gospel of Matthew in the Hebrew language found interspersed among anti-Catholic commentary in the 12th volume of a polemical treatise The Touchstone (c.1380-85) by Shem Tov ben Isaac ben Shaprut (Ibn Shaprut), a Jewish physician living in Aragon, after whom the version is named. Shem Tov debated Cardinal Pedro de Luna (later Antipope Benedict XIII) on original sin and redemption in Pamplona, December 26, 1375, in the presence of bishops and learned theologians. Nine manuscripts of The Touchstone survive, though if an independent version of the text of Matthew used by Ibn Shaprut ever existed then it is lost.
Spanish Jews of Ibn Shaprut's period were familiar with the New Testament in Latin. Jacob Ben Reuben in his Wars of the Lord translated Gilbert Crispin's Disputation of Jews and Christians from Latin into Hebrew, along with quotes from Matthew. Lasker (1998) remarks that "By the fourteenth century, most likely every Iberian anti-Christian Jewish polemicist knew Latin." Moses ha-Kohen de Tordesillas made proficient use of Latin phrases. Profiat Duran (fl.1380-1420) had extensive knowledge of Latin Christian texts, and devoted a chapter of his Disgrace of the Gentiles (Klimat ha-goyim) to criticism of Jerome's Latin Vulgate. Hayyim ben Judah ibn Musa argued with Nicholas de Lyra in his Book of Shield and Spear (Sefer magen va-romah).[] Likewise converts to Christianity such as Abner of Burgos (Alphonso of Valladolid, ca. 1270-1347) continued to write polemical, theological, philosophical, and scientific works in Hebrew.
Shem Tov's The Touchstone (Eben = stone, bohan = test) has never been translated into English or published. It follows the model of Milhamoth ha-Shem of Jacob Ben Reuben in use of Matthew but contains not just sections of Matthew as Jacob Ben Reuben, but the whole text of Matthew and parts of Mark. George Howard excised the text of Matthew from among Shem Tov's comments and published it separately as The Gospel of Matthew according to a primitive Hebrew text (1987), a revised version Hebrew Gospel of Matthew (1995).[]
Shem Tov's quotations of Matthew in The Touchstone are marked by Jewish thought, and are interspaced with the comments of the author. As a consequence several scholarsTemplate:Who feel it is difficult to determine which parts are Shem Tov's commentary, and which parts are the actual text of the source he was quoting. Many scholars view the text as a mediaeval translation from the Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew, as well as being the likely source of all later Hebrew versions of Matthew prior to the 20th century.
Where the Tetragrammaton occurs in Tanakh quotations, instead one finds a single Hebrew He (ה) except in one place where the word "ha-shem" (השם, the name) is spelled out. There are some interesting readings of Matthew in The Touchstone.[]
- Matt 12:37 "According to your words you will be judged, and according to your deeds you will be convicted."
- Matt 24:40-41 "40 Then if there shall be two ploughing in a field, one righteous and the other evil, the one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at a mill; one will be taken and the other left. This is because the angels at the end of the world will remove the stumbling blocks from the world and will separate the good from the evil."
- Matt 28:9 "As they were going Jesus passed before them saying: 'May the Name deliver you.'"
- Matt 28:19-20 "Go and teach them to carry out all the things which I have commanded you forever."
- Mark 9:20-28 is placed into the text of Matthew between Matt 17:17 and 17:19. Matt 17:18 is omitted.[]
While the quotations in Shem Tov's The Touchstone, which are interspersed in his own commentary, diverge from the canonical text of Matthew, the text of the Münster Matthew and the Du Tillet Matthew are significantly very close to it in many passages.
Sebastian Münster's Matthew, 1537
The Münster Matthew is printed version of the Gospel of Matthew, written in the Hebrew language published by Sebastian Münster in 1537 and dedicated to King Henry VIII of England. He had received the text from Spanish Jews he had converted to Christianity in the 1530s. Apparently, these Jews had been using the text to understand the Christian religion in order to counter it. Münster felt that the text was defective, and set about reworking it. The original manuscript he received no longer exists; only his printed reworking of it survives, and it closely resembles the Du Tillet Matthew. Because the places where Münster changed the text is unknown, this text can be difficult to use for textual criticism.
Jean du Tillet's Matthew, 1555
The Du Tillet Matthew is a version of the Gospel of Matthew, written in Hebrew, known as Heb.MSS.132, and residing in the National Library, Paris. The manuscript was obtained by Bishop Jean du Tillet from Italian Jews on a visit to Rome in 1553, and published in 1555, with editing by Jean Mercier (Hebraist) and addition of a Latin version, dedicated to cardinal Charles de Guise.
While the text is less divergent from the Greek textual tradition than is the Shem Tov Matthew, this version share some deviations in common with the Shem Tov Matthew; for example, the Tetragrammaton is replaced with a sign composed of three yodhs or dots enclosed in a semicircle. Jean Cinqarbres (Quinquarboreus), Hebrew professor of the College Royal also worked on the Du Tillet Matthew.
Rahabi Ezekiel's Matthew, 1750
Rabbi Rahabi Ezekiel's Ha-sepher shel we-'angilu shel ha-Nosarim shel Yeshu [The book of the Gospel belonging to the followers of Jesus] is a polemical translation of Matthew dating from 1750.[] This may or may not be the same as the polemical rabbinical Hebrew New Testament of Rabbi Ezekiel bought by Claudius Buchanan in Cochin and known as the "Travancore Hebrew New Testament", which led Buchanan to urge Joseph Frey to commence work on a Christian translation.[]
Elias Soloweyczyk's Matthew, 1869
- See Also Elias Soloweyczyk
Christian Hebrew versions
Around half of the 20 known Christian translations of Matthew were also done by authors who were formerly rabbis, or came from a rabbinical training: Domenico Gerosolimitano and Giovanni Battista Jona, Rudolph Bernhard, Johan Kemper, Simon Rosenbaum (of Uppsala),[] However the principal modern Hebrew version of Matthew is based on the New Testament of a German, Franz Delitzsch.
Shem Tov's Touchstone in Christian Aramaic primacy debate
- See Also Aramaic primacy
The hypotheses of Hebrew and Aramaic primacy posit that the Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic. Scholars who support these hypotheses sometimes appeal to these 3 medieval Hebrew manuscripts. However, the vast majority of scholars believe Matthew was originally written in Greek.[]
George Howard, Associate Professor of Religion and Hebrew at the University of Georgia has argued (1995) that some or all of these three medieval Hebrew versions may have descended (without any intervening translation) from ancient Hebrew manuscripts of Matthew, which may have been used by early Christians in the 1st or 2nd century, but were nearly extinct by the time of Jerome, late in the 4th century.[]
However the surviving citations from Jewish-Christian Gospels (namely Gospel of the Nazarenes, Gospel of the Ebionites and Gospel of the Hebrews) preserved in the writings of Jerome, Epiphanius and others, lead critical scholars to conclude that those Gospels themselves either were Greek or were translated from Greek Matthew.[] In fact, most scholars consider that the medieval Hebrew manuscripts were descended (by translation) from medieval Greek or Latin manuscripts, and therefore that it is extremely unlikely that any of the unique readings found in these medieval Hebrew manuscripts could be ancient. []
Horbury (1999)[] notes that the characteristics of ibn Shaprut's Touchstone are better explained by the influence of Latin Gospel harmonies.
Patristic testimony
- See Also Gospel of the Hebrews
There was a strong tradition in the early church, attested by Papias, Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, Epiphanius, and Jerome, that Matthew had written a gospel in the Hebrew language (although some of them may have conflated Hebrew and Aramaic languages). Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Jerome identify the Gospel of the Hebrews with this Hebrew gospel of Matthew.[]
By the time of Jerome, some commentators believed that the Gospel of the Hebrews was the original Gospel of Matthew.[] Epiphanius of Salamis in the Panarion wrote that,
"They [Jewish Christians] too accept Matthew's gospel and like the followers of Cerinthus and Merinthus, they use it alone. They call it the Gospel of the Hebrews, for in truth, Matthew alone of the New Covenant writers expounded and declared the gospel in Hebrew using Hebrew script."[]
Papias and the Hebrew Tradition of Matthew
About whether Matthew was written in Hebrew, Papias (as quoted by Eusebius) wrote this:
- Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered. It was not, however, in exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him. But afterwards, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who accommodated his instructions to the necessities [of his hearers], but with no intention of giving a regular narrative of the Lord's sayings. Wherefore Mark made no mistake in thus writing some things as he remembered them. For of one thing he took especial care, not to omit anything he had heard, and not to put anything fictitious into the statements. Matthew put together the oracles [of the Lord] in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could.
Citing this text, many argue that Papias claimed that Matthew was written in the Hebrew language, (as it is often translated in English). However, Papias' comment in Greek, (Ματθαῖος μέν οὖν Ἑβραίδι διαλέκτῳ τά λόγια, "Hebrew dialect") is a common construction in Greek and is seen in many different sources and contexts and seems to consistently refer to a style or subset of a language being spoken; and, this is distinguished from the general Greek term for language or tongue, "γλῶσσα". Papias' statement seems to signify a style of language or dialect being used by the "Hebrews", (or in other words, the style or subset of a language being used by the Hebrew race). In the historical context, the "dialect of the Hebrews", (Ἑβραίδι διαλέκτῳ), was most probably a reference to Hebrew's congener, Aramaic.[]
Notes
References
- Flavius Jospehus Antiquities of the Jews Bk 5, Sec 121: ... δὲ ὄνομα τοῦτο σημαίνει Ζεβεκηνῶν κύριος: ἀδωνὶ γὰρ τῇ Ἑβραίων διαλέκτῳ κύριος γίνεται:
- Diodorus Siculus, Library: Bk 13, Chap 35: ... ἢ ἐξηγητὴν τοῦ νομοθέτου, διὰ τὸ τοὺς νόμους γεγραμμένους ἀρχαίᾳ διαλέκτῳ δοκεῖν εἶναι δυσκατανοήτους. μεγάλης δὲ οὔσης κατὰ τὴν νομοθεσίαν
- Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers Bk 2, Chap 8: ... διάλογοι πέντε καὶ εἴκοσιν, οἱ μὲν Ἀτθίδι, οἱ δὲ Δωρίδι διαλέκτῳ γεγραμμένοι οἵδε: 84 Ἀρτάβαζος.
- Acts, Chap 2: ... τὸ πλῆθος καὶ συνεχύθη, ὅτι ἤκουσεν εἷς ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ λαλούντων αὐτῶν: ἐξίσταντο δὲ καὶ ἐθαύμαζον λέγοντες Οὐχὶ ἰδοὺ... λαλοῦντες Γαλιλαῖοι; καὶ πῶς ἡμεῖς ἀκούομεν ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ ἡμῶν ἐν ᾗ ἐγεννήθημεν; Πάρθοι καὶ Μῆδοι καὶ
