Developing a Spreadsheet to Uncover the Hebrew Gospel

[stephan happy huller]

I am basically computer illiterate but I have an idea which might help prove or disprove the existence of a Hebrew proto-gospel. Does anyone have any idea how much this would cost to put together:

1. a list of synoptic synoptic textual variants (i.e. where Matthew or Mark or Luke have different Greek words in the same parallel section i.e. καλὸς vs ἀγαθός)
2. the parallel readings in the Peshitta or Old Syriac
3. a determination of whether (2) exists in Hebrew and whether it has a slightly different meaning or nuance in Hebrew
4. a comparison with (2) and (3) against the variants in (1)

Is this doable? How much do you think it would cost if we just stuck to the gospel and the writings of Paul?

[stephan happy huller]

Another example that just came to mind - the Greek distinction between 'the kingdom of heaven' and 'the kingdom of God' in Matthew and Mark. In Biblical Hebrew שמים only can mean 'heaven.' In Aramaic it can mean also 'God.' I can't think of an early Hebrew text that identifies שמים as 'God.'

[Peter Kirby]

What it would cost? Are you planning to do it yourself or hire somebody? If the former, how much do you value your time?

[stephan happy huller]

Yes Peter I mean pay someone to do it.

I just noticed this in Luke 14:5:

And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”

Why would the Greek have 'son' here? It is odd to place a child beside an ox in relation to saving someone on the Sabbath. Matthew Black has suggested assuming a pun on the three terms בעירא “cattle," בירא “well,” and ברא “son." It is worth noting that Irenaeus makes the mistake of reading ברא in Genesis 1:1 as 'son.'

[Peter Kirby]

(1) is, I suppose, nearly free, because I am all but certain that this has been done and can be found somewhere "off the shelf," online or off.

There is a very small niche of people who know Syriac and Hebrew. On the other hand, there is an even smaller niche of jobs. I think you'd just have to feel around to see who is in graduate school for this and whether they believe the project has any merit (which would incline them to work at it and finish).

Worst case, give a budget of 5,000 hours and $20/hr. and come up with $100,000. Better case, use a budget of 1,000 hours and $10/hr. and come up with $10,000. Best case, maybe this has already been done too or might soon be done as someone's thesis.

[stephan happy huller]

It hasn't been done. Scholars aren't methodical enough. They would find five examples that proved whatever point they were trying to make and abandon the totality.

[stephan happy huller]

See Peter most scholars have never investigated my theory that the Marcionite textual variants in specific go back to a Hebrew proto-gospel (because stupidly the Marcionites are supposed to be 'anti-Jewish'). But look at this. In Luke 6:17 for καταβὰς μετ' αὐτῶν (or, as Epiphanius reads: κατέβη μετ' αὐτῶν) having gone down with them, Marcion has κατέβη ἐν αὐτῶν “descended into them.” This too could be a variant not affecting the meaning: the Hebrew expression is quite common in the Scriptures. Here the Greek particle ἐν would mean the same thing as the particle bet in Hebrew, to which Greek ἐν corresponds. Now the particle ב can mean either ἐν “in,” and and µετὰ “with.” I think there are at least three or four other examples from the limited knowledge we have of the Marcionite text which support the same conclusion. I've just illustrated three.

Wouldn't it be diabolically clever if the Marcionites were deliberately accused of being anti-Jewish to implicitly lead to the assumption that the 'Jewish Christians' who used the 'Hebrew gospel' held fast to a predictable set of beliefs (which were wholly made up by the Church Fathers).

[stephan happy huller]

Plooij concluded with a chapter titled "Marcionite Readings," in which he subscribed to the thesis that Tatian was allied with Marcion's party in Rome, and that he knew and used Marcion's gospel text when composing the Diatessaron. At a theoretical level, the fact that both Marcion and Tatian were present in the mid- second century obviously raised the possibility of dependence. Plooij, however, based his conclusion on textual evidence in the form of readings common to Tatian and Marcion. Two of the most convincing are the following:

(1) The Liege Harmony harmonized Luke 12.3 with Matt 10.27 in the following example "dat ic u segge in demsternessen dat predect in der clerheit ende dat ic u rune in uwe ore, dat predekt oppenbare" ("What I say to you in darkness preach ye that in clearness and what I whisper to you in your ears preach ye that openly"). "Rund' ("whisper") was found in Luke in Syr" p and the Arabic Harmony. Plooij noted that one might be inclined (a la Julicher ?) to put the variant down to "Tatian's picturesque style," save for the fact that the same variant occurred in one of Tertullian's quotations from Marcion: "Cum subjiciat etiam quae inter se mussitarent" [v 1 tractarent] in apertum processura." (Adv. Marc. IV.28) Here again we find "whisper. Even more striking was Liege's variant "oppenbare" (openly) which finds its only parallel here in Marcion: "in apertum"! Apropos of this last variant, Plooij remarked:

We can hardly imagine that a textual form of which there is no trace found but in Marcion's Gospel and in Tatian's Diatessaron, ever belonged to any general tradition; not even to the Old- Roman Greek Text of the Gospel about 150 AD. So it suggests a very close relation between the Tatianic and Marcionite texts of the Gospel.

(2) At Luke 11.28, the Liege Harmony reads "en oc syn salech die horen dat Gods wart en dat behouden en dar na werken" ("And also are blessed those that hear God's word and keep it and do according to it"). The same interpolation is found in a single Greek manuscript, 2145 (Plooij calls it a "Tatianizing minuscule"), in Vetus Latina MS q, and in Marcion: "Immo beati qui sermonem dei audiunt et faciunt." (Tert Adv. Marc. IV.28) Interestingly enough, the Commentary of Zacharias Chrysopolitanus offers evidence that he knew the same variant.

Through some channel or another, said Plooij, Marcionite readings were incorporated into the Diatessaron. For the reason given above, he rejected the idea that both were dependent upon a common Roman Old-Greek text. One possible solution was mutual dependence upon the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Although the means by which the readings came about remains obscure, the examples noted by Plooij are incontrovertible evidence of a textual connexion between the text of Marcion (as given by Tertullian) and the Diatessaron. [Petersen, Diatessaron p. 192 - 193]

[stephan happy huller]

Eusebius in the Theophania which exists only in Syriac confirms that the language of the Gospel according to the Hebrews was ... well you guessed it ... Hebrew:

Then he taught about the divisions of the souls which will come about in the houses, as we have found somewhere in the Gospel which exists among the Jews in the Hebrew language, in which it is said: I choose for myself the good ones, the good ones whom my father in heaven has given to me. [Kjiln p. 62]

Eusebius also mentions this in the same work:

Since the Gospel which has come to us in Hebrew letters directs its threat not against the one who has hidden (his talent) but against the one who lived in spendthrift — for he possessed three slaves, one who spend the fortune of his master with harlots and flute-girls, the second who multiplied his trade and the third who hid his talent. One of them was accepted, one rebuked only, and one thrown into prison. I wonder whether the threat in Matthew, which, according to the letter was spoken against the one who did nothing, applies not to him but to the earlier one who was eating and drinking with the drunkards, by way or resumption.

[Peter Kirby]

Dave Gentile may have something useful towards building the spreadsheet you require in (1):

http://www.davegentile.com/synoptics/main.html

The simple list of variants is a task that could be accomplished by a computer and/or unskilled labor. The translation part (or judicious comparison of translations) is what gets expensive.