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Gospel of the Hebrews
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The Gospel of the Hebrews (see "About titles" below) is a lost gospel preserved only in a few quotations in the Panarion of Epiphanius, a Christian heresiologist who lived at the end of the 4th century AD. The work was earlier than that, however: Irenaeus attested to a Matthew already used by Ebionites (known as the Gospel of the Ebionites) late in the 2nd century. Irenaeus proceeds to quote Papias as stating that Matthew wrote his gospel in Hebrew script.
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The Gospel of the Hebrews (see "About titles" below) is a lost gospel preserved only in a few quotations in the Panarion of Epiphanius, a Christian heresiologist who lived at the end of the 4th century AD. The work was earlier than that, however: Irenaeus attested to a Matthew already used by Ebionites (known as the Gospel of the Ebionites) late in the 2nd century. Irenaeus proceeds to quote Papias as stating that Matthew wrote his gospel in Hebrew script. This Gospel of the Hebrews was little known among the churches founded by Paul of Tarsus, for even among Paul's literate followers few were fluent in Aramaic, which was written in the same "square script" used to record Hebrew. But according to Eusebius, Hegesippus (died 180) used the Gospel according to the Hebrews and gives a quotation drawn from him.
About titles
The name Gospel of the Hebrews appears to have also been a generic term for Jewish-Christian gospels, which has led to some confusion with the Gospel of the Nazoraeans, the Gospel of the Ebionites, the Gospel according to the Hebrews and with the lost gospel of Matthew in Aramaic. In their fragmentary states, it is unfruitful to attempt to establish identities, derivations, or connections, except as noted in passing by mainstream Patristic writers. One point is clear: mainstream Christian writers withheld an authenticating name in labelling these gospels and intentionally characterized them solely by those who read them, perhaps giving a (false) impression of multiplicity.
The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) considers Hebrews to be the slightly modified Aramaic original of the Gospel of Matthew, written in Hebrew characters, based on Jerome's statements to that effect. However, Jerome is known to have confused it with the similar Gospels of the Ebionites and of the Nazoraeans, so it is unclear how much his statement on the matter can be trusted. The term Hebrews is thought probably to refer to the Jewish Christians residing in Egypt - the text contains mythological motifs and a certain style of writing that was most present in Egypt at that point.
Readership
In addition to Epiphanius, other mainstream Christian writers knew this text, without ever mentioning it by name. Cyril of Jerusalem quoted from it. Eusebius mentions that the Gospel according to the Hebrews was known to the church historian Hegesippus, whose history he was using as source material. Clement of Alexandria (Stromateis, II.ix.45) and Origen used it. According to Jerome's De Viris Illustribus chapter 3:
- Matthew, also called Levi, apostle and aforetimes publican, composed a gospel of Christ at first published in Judea in Hebrew for the sake of those of the circumcision who believed, but this was afterwards translated into Greek though by what author is uncertain. The Hebrew itself has been preserved until the present day in the library at Caesarea which Pamphilus so diligently gathered., a city of Syria, who use it. In this it is to be noted that wherever the Evangelist, whether on his own account or in the person of our Lord the Saviour, quotes the testimony of the Old Testament he does not follow the authority of the translators of the Septuagint but the Hebrew. Wherefore these two forms exist: 'Out of Egypt have I called my son,' and 'for he shall be called a Nazarene.'
Jerome identifies the writer and readers of this gospel as observant Jews, distinct from the culturally assimilated and Hellenized Jews, for whom the Greek Septuagint had been translated from Hebrew.
Jerome took a lively interest in this book. More than once he mentions that he made translations of it into Greek and Latin, labours that might seem scarcely necessary if the text were only trivially different from the canonic texts. Unfortunately, even these translations have been lost. Jerome's commentary on canonic Matthew ( ch. 2) refers to "the Gospel which the Nazarenes and the Ebionites use which we have recently translated from Hebrew to Greek, and which most people call the Authentic Gospel of Matthew...". Unfortunately, Jerome makes the choice of identifying all these texts as the same, which modern scholars, lacking the texts, consider to be in error.
The mainstream conclusion is that since the text was so similar to the canonical forms of both Greek and Latin Matthew, it was considered orthodox but was effectively redundant, and so eventually passed out of use.
Content
One of the unique features of the text, and one point where it differs from the canonical Gospel of Matthew, is its reference to the Holy Spirit as being Jesus' mother. Origen, in commenting on the gospel of John, notes that "if any accept the Gospel according to the Hebrews, where the Saviour himself saith, 'Even now did my mother the Holy Spirit take me by one of mine hairs, and carried me away unto the great mountain Thabor', he will be perplexed." (from ) M. R. James notes that he believes this comment springs from the fact that the word "spirit" in Hebrew is of the feminine gender. Two other translators, Throckmorton and Barnstone, concur: "Within Judaism, the Shekinah (or 'visible' cloud of the Presence) is a feminine word, thought to be Yahweh's feminine aspect; therefore, they called the Spirit the 'mother'" (from ). Some have suggested that this passage is, in fact, an identification of the Virgin Mary as being an incarnation of the Holy Spirit, although Mary's name does not explicitly appear in the passage quoted by Origen.
The Gospel also puts a particular emphasis on James the Just, as head of the Jerusalem church, and especially concentrates on arguing for obedience to Jewish law. James is portrayed in the Gospel as the first to have seen the Resurrection of Jesus.
Some modern scholars note from the extant fragments quoted by Epiphanius that much of this text was a harmony of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (and, probably, the Gospel of Mark as well), the most famous such harmony being the Diatessaron.
For those scholars who hold the canonical Matthew to be the original, the Gospel of the Hebrews is viewed as an embellishment of it, making careful clarifications such as replacing "daily bread" with "bread for tomorrow" in the Lord's Prayer; embellishments are usually taken as indications that the text is not original, as it is less likely that a later version would choose to make texts more obscure.
On the other hand, we know just how long the lost Gospel of the Hebrews was: 2200 lines, just 300 lines shorter than the canonical Greek Matthew. This suggests, some scholars argue, that the Hebrew Matthew cannot be an 'embellishment,' since it is shorter than the canonical version. The figures come from the Stichometry of Nicephorus, appended by Nicephorus, the 9th century Patriarch of Jerusalem, to his Chronography. The Stichometry lists scriptural books, in three categories, each with the count of its stichoi (lines). Nicephorus lists the canon and the apocrypha, and a secondary list of books that are the antilegomena "disputed": The Revelation of John, the Revelation of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas and this Gospel of the Hebrews.
Though modern commentators generally aver that its original title is unknown, Epiphanius is perfectly clear about what it was: "the Gospel that is in general use among them which is called 'according to Matthew,' which however is not whole and complete but forged and mutilated— they call it the Hebrews Gospel."
Of the lost text Epiphanius records in another place in his Panarion:
- And they [the Ebionites] receive the Gospel according to Matthew. For this they too, like the followers of Cerinthus and Merinthus, use to the exclusion of others. And they call it according to the Hebrews, as the truth is, that Matthew alone of New Testament writers made his exposition and preaching of the Gospel in Hebrew and in Hebrew letters.
Again Epiphanius records:
- They say that Christ was not begotten of God the Father, but created as one of the archangels ... that he rules over the angels and all the creatures of the Almighty, and that he came and declared, as their Gospel, which is called Gospel according to Matthew, or Gospel According to the Hebrews" reports: "I am come to do away with sacrifices, and if you cease not sacrificing, the wrath of God will not cease from you." (Epiphanius, Panarion 30.16,4-5)
See also
External links
: Gospel of the Hebrews: translations of the fragments and introductory material
Gospel of the Hebrews at Wikisource
: Gospel of the Hebrews, called mid-2nd century and placed in Alexandria, in spite of Jerome
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