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Summary: This book is revolutionary for NT studies
Review: All of our canonical gospels were written originally in Greek. This is what everyone in the academe thinks, and everyone in the academe thinks so because all the evidence points this way, and no evidence indicates otherwise. And no evidence indicates otherwise because everyone thinks that anything that might indicate otherwise does not really counts as evidence?In spite of the fact that everyone thinks that Yeshu and friends and most of the earliest Christians all spoke primarily if not exclusively a Semitic tongue, everyone also thinks that all of our canonical gospels were authored originally in Greek. Somehow this always seemed a little doubtful to me; something just didn't make sense here. Well, now that I looked into this mater for myself, what do we have? There's this highly intriguing Hebrew gospel of Matthew, as preserved in a medieval work by Shem-Tob ben-Shaprut, that seems quite early. Prof. George Howard has done a lot of work on this gospel, and his book shows it. He saved HebMt from its undeserved obscurity. Shem-Tob Ben Yitzach ben-Shaprut, a Jewish scholar working in Spain, preserved this document in his polemical treatise EVAN BOHAN that dates to the 14th century (ca 1380 C.E.). It is now agreed upon almost universally that Shem-Tob did not make the translation himself. He received the Hebrew text from some previous tradents, most likely Jewish. So who prepared the translation, and when? Or is it really a translation? Maybe it's the real thing? Perhaps it is the Greek Mt that was the translation from the Hebrew? And what does this mysterious gospel do to the Synoptic problem, and to the theorising about the HJ? After reading Howard's book, it seems to me that some of the answers to these questions may lie on the surface, while others still remain hazy and need more research. Nevertheless, it seems reasonably clear that the Hebrew text was not the product of some medieval translator. At least some parts of this text, indeed, seem to go back to early antiquity. In my view, the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew is now well on its way towards making a revolution in biblical scholarsip. The wheels of academic scholarship grind slowly, but eventually they always produce results, and good evidence always finds acceptance in the end. Unfortunately not enough attention is given to this text so far. Buy this book and read it. This is a very important book. Yuri.
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