Gospel of the Hebrews

The Gospel of the Hebrews is a lost gospel preserved 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 Hhim.

Content

Most of the Gospel of the Hebrews has been lost. The following fragments are derived from quotation from this gospel in the writings of various Church Fathers. Several sources indicated that the Gospel of the Hebrews closely resembled that Gospel of Matthew and indicated points at which it diverged from Matthew's version. However, since "Gospel of the Hebrews" may refer to more than one writing, it cannot be said with certainty that all of these fragments actually come from the same gospel:

"When Christ wished to come upon the earth to men, the good Father summoned a mighty power in heaven, which was called Michael, and entrusted Christ to the care thereof. And the power came into the world and it was called Mary, and Christ was in her womb seven months." (Cyril of Jerusalem, Discourse on Mary Theotokos 12a)

"And it came to pass when the Lord was come up out of the water, the whole fount of the Holy Spirit descended upon him and rested on him and said to him: My son, in all the prophets was I waiting for thee that thou shouldest come and I might rest in thee. For thou art my rest; thou art my first-begotten Son that reignest for ever." (Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 4)

"Even so did my mother, the Holy Spirit, take me by one of my hairs and carry me away on to the great mountain Tabor." (Origen, Commentary on John 2.12.87)

"He that marvels shall reign, and he that has reigned shall rest." (Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 2.9.45.5) ...He that seeks will not rest until he finds; and he that has found shall marvel; and he that has marveled shall reign; and he that has reigned shall rest. (Ibid., 5.14.96.3)

"And never be ye joyful, save when ye behold your brother with love." (Jerome, Commentary on Ephesians 3) ...He that has grieved the spirit of his brother [is guilty of a grievous offense]" (op. cit., Commentary on Ezekiel 6 )

"And when the Lord had given the linen cloth to the servant of the priest, he went to James and appeared to him. For James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the cup of the Lord until he should see him risen from among them that sleep. And shortly thereafter the Lord said: Bring a table and bread! And immediately it added: he took the bread, blessed it and brake it and gave it to James the Just and said to him: My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of man is risen from among them that sleep." (op. cit., De viris inlustribus 2)

Due to the closeness of descriptions of the gospels of the Hebrews, Nazoreans, and Ebionites, some commentators include passages from Ephiphanius as belonging to the Gospel of the Hebrews. For our purposes, these will be included as relating to the Gospel of the Ebionites.

Significance

One of the unique features of the text is its reference to the Holy Spirit as being Jesus' mother. Some commentators believe that this reference stems from that the word "spirit" in Hebrew is of the feminine gender. In addition, the Shekinah (the "presence" of God as in the cloud which descended upon the Tabernacle in the time of Moses) is a feminine word, thought to be Yahweh's feminine aspect. Some have suggested that this passage may constitute an identification of the Virgin Mary as an incarnation of the Holy Spirit. Another possibility is that the passage reflects a Gnostic tradition of the femininity of the Holy Spirit.

Another interesting aspect of the Gospel of the Hebrews is that it lso 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 scholars agree with the Church Fathers who hold the canonical Matthew to be the original and the Gospel of the Hebrews to be an embellishment or abridgment of it.

The Stichometry, appended by Patriarch Nicephorus of Jerusalem to his Chronography in the ninth century states that the Gospel of the Hebrews is 2200 lines, 300 lines shorter than the canonical version of Matthew. Nicephorus lists three categories of scriptures: the canonical writings, the recognized apocrypha, and the antilegomena—disputed works. He incluldes the Book of Revelation among the latter category, along with the Apocalypse of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas, and this Gospel of the Hebrews.

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. Mainstream Christian writers labeled these gospels and characterized them by those who read them, while assigned specific authors to gospels considered to be orthodox. The term Hebrews is thought probably to refer to the Jewish Christians residing in Egypt, as the text contains mythological motifs and a certain style of writing that was most present in Egypt at that point.

Epiphanius records in his Panarion: "And they [the Ebionites] receive the Gospel according to Matthew... (which they) use to the exclusion of others. And they call it according to the Hebrews... (However it) is not whole and complete but forged and mutilated—they call it the Hebrews' Gospel." This work may or may not be the Gospel of the Hebrews dealt with here. Epiphanius, unlike other writers dealing with the Gospel of the Hebrews, claims this gospel he refers to is heretical: "They say that Christ was not begotten of God the Father, but created as one of the archangels... "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)

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 (Historia Ecclesiastica, IV.xxii.8) 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.

See also

• Jewish-Christian Gospels
• Gospel of the Ebionites
• Gospel of the Nazoraeans

External links

• Early Christian Writings: Gospel of the Hebrews: translations of the fragments and introductory material
• Gospel of the Hebrews at Wikisource
• "The Development of the Canon of the New Testament": Gospel of the Hebrews, called mid-2nd century and placed in Alexandria, in spite of Jerome

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