Gospel of the Hebrews, Hebrew-Matthew or Proto-Matthew
Testimony
Summary Overview:
When Matthew was about to continue his mission of spreading the Gospel, certain Jewish converts insisted that he provide them with a written account before departing. Matthew composed the first edition of his Gospel in the Hebrew tongue (whether Aramaic or Hebrew), tailored for a Jewish audience. Not long after, a Greek edition was published, though the identity of its translator remains uncertain. While the Greek version soon eclipsed the Hebrew in popularity, the Hebrew text continued to be read by many. Tradition holds that the apostle Bartholomew carried this Hebrew Gospel to India. Almost a century later, Pantaenus discovered it still in use among the Indian Christians and brought a copy back to Alexandria. There, Alexandrian teachers such as Clement and Origen frequently cited it in their writings. In the meantime, some heretical sects such as the Nazarenes and Ebionites had adopted the original Hebrew version as their primary Gospel. By the fifth century, Jerome records that a copy of Hebrew Matthew was preserved in the library at Cæsarea, and he himself undertook to translate it into Latin. Even in the eighth century, Bede regarded it not as apocryphal but as an ecclesiastical history. In the centuries that followed, however, the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew vanished, leaving only fragments preserved in the quotations of early Christian writers.
Papias [AD 120]
“Matthew put together the oracles [of the Lord] in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could.” Fragment Preserved by Eusebius in Church History 3.39.16
Hegesippus [c. AD 170]
“And from the Syriac Gospel according to the Hebrews he (Hegesippus) quotes some passages in the Hebrew tongue, showing that he was a convert from the Hebrews, and he mentions other matters as taken from the unwritten tradition of the Jews.” Preserved by Eusebius in Church History 4.22.7
Irenaeus [AD 180]
“Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome.” Against Heresies 3.1.1
“The Gospel according to Matthew was written to the Jews. For they laid particular stress upon the fact that Christ is of the seed of David. Matthew also, who had a still greater desire [to prove this], took particular pains to afford them convincing proof that Christ is of the seed of David. Therefore, Matthew begins with His genealogy.” Fragment 29 from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus
“They (the Ebionites) use the Gospel according to Matthew only.” Against Heresies 1.26
“For the Ebionites, who use Matthew’s Gospel only, are confuted out of this very same, making false suppositions with regard to the Lord.” Against Heresies 3.11
Origen [AD 228]
“Matthew wrote for the Hebrews, who looked for the [Messiah] to come from the line of Abraham and of David. Therefore, he says, ‘the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.’” Commentary on John 1.6
“We will begin with Matthew, who is reported by tradition to have published his Gospel before the others. [He wrote it] to the Hebrews, namely, those of the circumcision who believed.” Commentary on John 6.17
“Among the four Gospels, which are the only indisputable ones in the Church of God under heaven, I have learned by tradition that the first was written by Matthew, who was once a publican, but afterwards an apostle of Jesus Christ, and it was prepared for the converts from Judaism, and published in the Hebrew language.” Commentary on Matthew Book 1 (Preserved by Eusebius in Church History 6.25.4)
Eusebius [AD 312-326]
“For Matthew, who had at first preached to the Hebrews, when he was about to go to other peoples, committed his Gospel to writing in his native tongue, and thus compensated those whom he was obliged to leave for the loss of his presence.” Church History 3.24.6
“…one also was Pantaenus, and it is said that he went to the Indians, where word has it he found that the gospel according to Matthew had preceded him among some there who had known Christ, to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached and left them the writing of Matthew in letters of the Hebrews, which was even saved unto the time mentioned.” Church History 5.10.2-3
Augustine of Hippo [AD 400]
“Of these four, it is true, only Matthew is reckoned to have written in the Hebrew language; the others in Greek… For Matthew is understood to have taken it in hand to construct the record of the incarnation of the Lord according to the royal lineage, and to give an account of most part of His deeds and words as they stood in relation to this present life of men.” Harmony of the Gospels 1.2.4
Rufinus of Aquileia [AD 402]
“Pantaenus was considered outstanding and illustrious among them. They say that when he reached the Indians, he found that the apostle Bartholomew had planted the first seeds of the faith among them, and had left Matthew’s gospel written in Hebrew, and that Pantaenus brought it back when he found it there at that time.” Church History 5.10.1
John Chrysostom [AD 407]
“Of Matthew again it is said, that when those who from among the Jews had believed came to him, and besought him to leave to them in writing those same things, which he had spoken to them by word, he also composed his Gospel in the language of the Hebrews… For this cause then Matthew, as writing to Hebrews, sought to show nothing more, than that He was from Abraham, and David; but Luke, as discoursing to all in general, traces up the account higher, going on even to Adam.” Homilies on Matthew 1.7
Jerome [AD 420]
“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 Cæsarea which Pamphilus so diligently gathered. I have also had the opportunity of having the volume described to me by the Nazarenes of Berœa, a city of Syria, who use it.” On Illustrious Men, Chapter 3
“In the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which is written in the Chaldee and Syrian language, but in Hebrew characters, and is used by the Nazarenes to this day (I mean the Gospel according to the Apostles, or, as is generally maintained, the Gospel according to Matthew, a copy of which is in the library at Cæsarea), we find…” Against the Pelagians 3.2
“In the Gospel that the Nazarenes and Ebionites use, which I have lately translated into Greek from the Hebrew, and which is called by most people the original of Matthew…’” Commentary on Matthew 12.13
Epiphanius [AD 374-377]
They (the Nazoraeans) have the Gospel according to Matthew in its entirety in Hebrew. For it is clear that they still preserve this as it was originally written, in the Hebrew alphabet. But I do not know whether they have also excised the genealogies from Abraham to Christ. The Panarion, 29, 9.4
“They (the Ebionites) too accept the Gospel according to Matthew. Like the Cerinthians and Merinthians, they too use it alone. They call it, ‘According to the Hebrews,’ and it is true to say that only Matthew expounded and preached the Gospel in the Hebrew language and alphabet in the New Testament.” The Panarion, 30, 3.7
Bede [AD 709-716]
“Here it must be noted that the Gospel according to the Hebrews, as it is called, is not to be reckoned among apocryphal but among ecclesiastical histories: for it seemed good even to the very translator of Holy Scripture, Jerome, to use very many evidences from it, and to translate it into the Latin and Greek language.” Commentary on Luke
Nicephorus of Constantinople [AD 806-815]
Nicephorus states that The Gospel of the Hebrews in his time was 2200 lines long.