02-07-2015, 08:33 AM
guess it is based on this statement by Jerome in De Viris Illustribus, chapter 3:
Matthaeus, qui et Lovi, ex publicano apostolus,
Matthew, who is also Levi, and from a tax collector came to be an emissary
primus in Judaea propter eos qui ex circumcisione crediderant, Evangelium Christi Hebraicis litteris verbisque composuit:
first of all evangelists composed a Gospel of Messiah in Judea in the Hebrew language and letters, for the benefit of those of the circumcision who had believed,
quod quis postea in Graecum transtulerit, non satis certum est.
who translated it into Greek is not sufficiently ascertained.
Porro ipsum Hebraicum habetur usque hodie in Caesariensi bibliotheca, quam Pamphilus martyr studiosissime confecit.
Furthermore, the Hebrew itself is preserved to this day in the library at Caesarea, which the martyr Pamphilus so diligently collected.
Mihi quoque a Nazaraeis, qui in Beroea urbe Syriae hoc volumine utuntur, describendi facultas fuit.
I also was allowed by the Nazarenes who use this volume in the Syrian city of Borea to copy it.
Latin from here, English from here.
More info at Wikipedia and an article by a rev. Ron Jones.
Perhaps Jerome means the untranslated text, but not the original scroll. If there were periods of time when the Jews tried to destroy all copies of Matthew's gospel, it should have been hard to keep track of which manuscript was the original and who had it.
The second article has this quote:
In the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use (which I have lately translated into Greek from the Hebrew, and which is called by many (or most) people the original of Matthew), this man who had the withered hand is described as a mason ...
The Wikipedia page on Eusebius says:
The library's biblical and theological contents were more impressive: Origen's Hexapla and Tetrapla, a copy of the original Hebrew Version of the Gospel of Matthew, and many of Origen's own writings. ? Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 94.
I think these uses of "original" are deceptive.
Matthaeus, qui et Lovi, ex publicano apostolus,
Matthew, who is also Levi, and from a tax collector came to be an emissary
primus in Judaea propter eos qui ex circumcisione crediderant, Evangelium Christi Hebraicis litteris verbisque composuit:
first of all evangelists composed a Gospel of Messiah in Judea in the Hebrew language and letters, for the benefit of those of the circumcision who had believed,
quod quis postea in Graecum transtulerit, non satis certum est.
who translated it into Greek is not sufficiently ascertained.
Porro ipsum Hebraicum habetur usque hodie in Caesariensi bibliotheca, quam Pamphilus martyr studiosissime confecit.
Furthermore, the Hebrew itself is preserved to this day in the library at Caesarea, which the martyr Pamphilus so diligently collected.
Mihi quoque a Nazaraeis, qui in Beroea urbe Syriae hoc volumine utuntur, describendi facultas fuit.
I also was allowed by the Nazarenes who use this volume in the Syrian city of Borea to copy it.
Latin from here, English from here.
More info at Wikipedia and an article by a rev. Ron Jones.
Perhaps Jerome means the untranslated text, but not the original scroll. If there were periods of time when the Jews tried to destroy all copies of Matthew's gospel, it should have been hard to keep track of which manuscript was the original and who had it.
The second article has this quote:
In the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use (which I have lately translated into Greek from the Hebrew, and which is called by many (or most) people the original of Matthew), this man who had the withered hand is described as a mason ...
The Wikipedia page on Eusebius says:
The library's biblical and theological contents were more impressive: Origen's Hexapla and Tetrapla, a copy of the original Hebrew Version of the Gospel of Matthew, and many of Origen's own writings. ? Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 94.
I think these uses of "original" are deceptive.