Shem Tob's Hebrew Gospel of Matthew


Shem Tob's Hebrew Gospel of Matthew is the oldest extant Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew. It was included in the 14th-century work Eben Boḥan by the Spanish Jewish Rabbi Shem-Tov ben Isaac ben Shaprut. George Howard has argued that Shem Tov's Matthew comes from a much earlier Hebrew text that was later translated into Greek and other languages. A characteristic feature of this Hebrew gospel is the appearance in 20 places of השם, in the abbreviated form ה״, where the Gospel of Matthew has Κύριος.

Origin

Shem-Tob ben Isaac Ibn Shaprut was the author of an anti-Christian religious treatise, The Touchstone, completed in 1380 and revised in 1385 and 1400. Often referred to as "The Logic of Shem Tob", it argues against the belief that Jesus is God. It also argues against attributing the role of Messiah to Jesus.
For this reason Shem Tob's Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, which is included in this work, is considered the oldest surviving text of a New Testament book in Hebrew.
In 1987, Prof. George E. Howard said that the translation of the Gospel of Matthew in Shem Tob's work long predates the 14th century and may better represent the original text.
His view was rejected by W.L. Petersen and Petri Luomanen.

"Ha-Shem"

Shem Tob's text contains Ha-Shem 19 times in the abbreviated form ה״ where the Gospel of Matthew has either κύριος or θεός and once in full where the Gospel of Matthew has no corresponding term, employing it not only in Matthew's Old Testament quotations, but also in his narrative, either when introducing such quotations or when speaking of the "angel of the Lord" or the "house of the Lord", i.e., the Temple.
As Howard, referring to Ha-Shem as "the Divine Name", wrote:
Shem Tob's version has Ha-Shem even in 22:32, where the corresponding Old Testament phrase has Elohim, not YHWH; and it does not have it everywhere Matthew has Θεός, as in 15:8, where Matthew has that word several times.

Recent editions and translations

The first translation of Shem Tob's Hebrew Gospel of Matthew into English was George E. Howard's Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, published in 1987. A Polish translation by Eliezer Wolski, a Jewish theologian and Chassidic sympathizer, appeared in 2017. He presented the Hebrew text in stylized font imitating first-century Hebrew script. Grzegorz Kaszyński made another translation into Polish and published it along with Howard's English translation and other translations into European languages.
The following table shows how these translations represented the phrase "ha-Shem".
Eighteen translations of "Ha-Shem" in Shem Tob's ''Hebrew Gospel of Matthew

Extant manuscripts

Today, 28 manuscripts containing the Gospel of Matthew of Shem Tob have survived. These manuscripts are dated between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Among the most important manuscripts include:
There are translations of the Gospel of Matthew from the work of Shem Tob in several European languages. Among them are:

Claim of support received

, published by the Jehovah's Witnesses' Watchtower Society, refers to Shem Tob's Hebrew Gospel of Matthew in support of its decision to introduce "Jehovah" into the text of the New World Translation of the New Testament.