Hebrew Gospel of Matthew

Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. By George Howard. 2d ed. Macon: Mercer University, 1995, xiv + 239 pp., $24.95.

Howard's primary task is to take the Hebrew manuscript of Matthew that appeared in the body of a 14th-century polemical treatise entitled Even Bohan ("The Touchstone") by Jewish scholar Shem-Tob ben-Isaac ben-Shaprut and to demonstrate that this manuscript predates the 14th century. The second edition corrects a number of errors in, and addresses the questions raised by, the first edition of 1987.

From a number of sources in the early Church, the early Church fathers gave testimony to the existence of the gospel of Matthew written in Hebrew, or supposedly Aramaic, and then translated later into Greek. Papias (ca. AD 60-130) first stated that a Hebrew text existed but later fathers-Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, Epiphanius and Jerome-also cited a Hebrew text. However, Howard points out that the allusions and citations by these men have very little or no connection with the Church's preserved text of Matthew and Shem-Tob's Hebrew text of Matthew.

The Hebrew text of Matthew in Shem-Tob's possession is a Christian text in Hebrew, preserved by Jewish scholars, and it was used for a polemical purpose of pointing out its errors and in general the mistakes and wrong assumptions by Christendom regarding Jesus as Messiah.

In part 1 of the book, Howard presents the Hebrew text of Matthew of Shem-Tob with a critical apparatus, noting manuscript variations on the left pages while on the opposite side is the English translation. In part 2, Howard indicates that an earlier text of Matthew in Hebrew/Aramaic was known to and cited by the Church fathers mentioned above but the assessment is that "they are unclear about the relationship of" what they used regarding "our canonical Matthew." The rest of part 2 is a detailed demonstration that Shem-Tob's text of Matthew is unlike the Greek text of his day or the Latin Vulgate, and therefore the text predates the 14th century. The manuscript does reflect less "disparity between Judaism and Christianity than the canonical texts," but Howard points out that Shem-Tob's purpose was to strengthen Jewish people to not consider Jesus as the Messiah.

The book is valuable for those interested in considering what a possible ancient version of Matthew in Hebrew could be and for missiologists and missionaries who would want to note the polemics used by Jewish writers vis-a-vis the claims that Jesus is indeed the Jewish Messiah.

Louis for Jesus and Northeastern Bible College, New York, NY

Jews for Jesus and Northeastern Bible College, New York, NY

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Sep 1998
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