Gospel of the Nazarenes
This article possibly contains original research. (January 2011) |
The Gospel of the Nazarenes (also Nazareans, Nazaraeans, Nazoreans, or Nazoraeans) is the traditional but hypothetical name given by some scholars to distinguish some of the references to, or citations of, non-
Collation into Gospel of the Nazarenes
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Due to contradictions in the account of the baptism of Jesus, and other reasons, most scholars in the 20th century consider that the Gospel of the Nazarenes is distinct from the Gospel of the Hebrews and Gospel of the Ebionites, even though Jerome linked the Nazarenes to the Ebionites in their use of the Gospel of the Hebrews.[1][2]
Text editions of Gospel of the Nazarenes
The current standard critical edition of the text is found in
The name Gospel of the Nazarenes
The name Gospel of the Nazarenes was first used in Latin by
The hypothetical name refers to a possible identification with the
The Gospel of the Nazarenes has been the subject of many critical discussions and surmises throughout the course of the last century. Recent discussions in a growing body of literature have thrown considerable light upon the problems connected with this gospel. Its sole literary witnesses are brief citations found in patristic literature and quotations by the Church Fathers.
Nazarenes
The term
It was the term used to identify the predominantly Jewish sect that believed Jesus was the Messiah and would later be known as Christians.[16]
By the 4th century, Nazarenes are generally accepted as being the first
Primary sources
Concerning its origin, Jerome relates that the Nazarenes believed that the Hebrew Gospel he received while at
Epiphanius is of the same opinion; he states in his Panarion that Matthew alone expounded and declared the gospel in Hebrew among the New Testament writers: "For in truth, Matthew alone of the New Testament writers expounded and declared the Gospel in Hebrew using Hebrew script."[18]
Origen adds to this by stating that, among the four gospels, Matthew, the one-time tax collector who later became an apostle of Jesus Christ, first composed the gospel for the converts from Judaism, published in the Hebrew language.[19]
Scholarly positions
There exist two views concerning the relationship of the surviving citations from the "Gospel of the Nazarenes":
Gospel of the Nazarenes dependent on Canonical Matthew
Philipp Vielhauer writes of the Greek/Latin fragments collected as the Gospel of the Nazarenes that "Its literary character shows the GN secondary as compared with the canonical Mt; again, from the point of view of form-criticism and the history of tradition, as well as from that of language, it presents no proto-Matthew but a development of the Greek Gospel of Matthew (against Waitz). 'It is scarcely to be assumed that in it we are dealing with an independent development of older Aramaic traditions; this assumption is already prohibited by the close relationship with Mt.
Canonical Matthew is dependent on or a translation of the Gospel of Nazarenes
James R. Edwards (2009) argues that the canonical Matthew is based on a Hebrew original, and that the citations of the Gospel of the Nazarenes are part of that original.[22]
Edwards' view is predated by that of Edward Nicholson (1879), Bodley's Librarian. His conclusions were as follows:
- "We find that there existed among the Nazarenes and Ebionites a Gospel commonly called the Gospel according to the Hebrews, written in Aramaic, but with Hebrew characters. Its authorship was attributed by some to the Apostles in general, but by very many or most — including clearly the Nazarenes and Ebionites themselves — to Matthew."[23]
- "The Fathers of the Church, while the Gospel according to the Hebrews was yet extant in its entirety, referred to it always with respect, often with reverence: some of them unhesitatingly accepted it as being what tradition affirmed it to be — the work of Matthew — and even those who have not put on record their expression of this opinion have not questioned it. Is such an attitude consistent with the supposition that the Gospel according to the Hebrews was a work of heretical tendencies? This applies with tenfold force to Jerome. After copying it, would he, if he had seen heresy in it, have translated it for public dissemination into both Greek and Latin, and have continued to favor the tradition of its Matthaean authorship? And Jerome, be it observed, not only quotes all three of these passages without disapprobation; he actually quotes two of them (Fr. 6 and Fr. 8) with approval."[24]
Nicholson's position that The Gospel of the Hebrews was the true Gospel of Matthew is still the subject of heated debate.
The
The Gospel of the Nazarenes (Nazoraeans) emphasized the Jewishness of Jesus.[27][28] According to multiple early sources, including Jerome (Against Pelagius 3) and Epiphanius (Panarion 29-30) the Gospel of the Nazarenes was synonymous with the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Ebionites.[citation needed] Ron Cameron considers this a dubious link.[29]
Time and place of authorship
The time and place of authorship are disputed, but since
The extant reconstructed text of Gospel of the Nazarenes and variances with Canonical Matthew
The following list[30][31][32] represents variant readings found in Gospel of the Nazarenes against the canonical Gospel of Matthew:[33] Where Ehrman's order corresponds to the Schneemelcher numbering "(GN 2)" etc., is added for clarity:
- (GN 2) In Matthew 3, it reads: "Behold, the mother of the Lord and his brethren said to him, 'John the Baptist is baptizing unto the remission of sins; let us go and be baptized by him.' But He said to them, 'Wherein have I sinned that I should go and be baptized by him? Unless what I have just said is (a sin of?) ignorance.'"(Jerome, Against Pelagius 3.2")[34]
- (GN 3) Matthew 4:5 has not "into the holy city" but "to Jerusalem."
- (GN 4) Matthew 5:22 lacks the phrase "without a cause" as in 67
- (GN 5) Matthew 6:11 reads, "Give us today our bread for tomorrow." (Jerome, Commentary on Matthew 6:11)[35]
- (GN 6) Matthew 7:23 adds, "If ye be in my bosom, but do not the will of my Father in heaven, out of my bosom I will cast you."2 Clement 2:15.[36]
- (GN 7) Matthew 10:16 has "wise more than serpents" rather than "wise as serpents."
- (GN 23) On Matthew 10:34–36, the Syriac translation of Eusebius' Theophania contains: 'He (Christ) himself taught the reason for the separations of souls that take place in houses, as we have found somewhere in the Gospel that is spread abroad among the Jews in the Hebrew tongue, in which it is said, "I choose for myself the most worthy; the most worthy are those whom my Father in heaven has given me."' (Eusebius, Theophania, Syriac translation 4.12)
- (GN 8) Matthew 11:12 reads "is plundered" instead of "suffers violence."
- (GN 9) Matthew 11:25 has "I thank thee" rather than "I praise you."
- (GN 10) At Matthew 12:10–13, the man who had the withered hand is described as a mason who pleaded for help in the following words: "I was a mason seeking a livelihood with my hands. I beseech thee, Jesus, to restore me to my health, that I may not in shame have to beg for my food." (Jerome, Commentary on Matthew 12:13)
- (GN 11) Matthew 12:40 omits "three days and three nights" immediately preceding "in the heart of the earth."
- (GN 12) Matthew 15:5 reads, "It is a korban (offering) by which ye may be profited by me." Compare Mark 7:11.
- (GN 13) .
- (GN 14) Matthew 16:17 has Hebrew "Shimon ben Yochanan" (Simon son of John) instead of Aramaic "Simon Bar-Jonah" (Simon son of Jonah).
- (GN 15) At Matthew 18:21–22, Jesus is recorded as having said: "If your brother has sinned by word, and has made three reparations, receive him seven times in a day." Simon his disciple said to him, "Seven times in a day?" The Lord answered, saying to him, "Yea, I say unto thee, until seventy times seven times. For in the Prophetsalso, after they were anointed with the Holy Spirit, a word of sin was found. (Jerome, Against Pelagius 3.2)
- (GN 16) At Kingdom of Heaven."[37]
- (GN 17) At Matthew 21:12, Jerome records, "For a certain fiery and starry light shone from His eyes, and the majesty of the Godhead gleamed in His face."[38] Also, there is quoted in a marginal note of a thirteenth-century manuscript of the Aurora by Peter of Riga the following: "Rays issued forth from His eyes which terrified them and put them to flight."
- (GN 18) Matthew 23:35 reads "Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada" instead of "Zechariah, the son of Barachiah."(Jerome, Commentary on Matthew 23:35)
- (GN 19) Matthew 26:74 has, "And he denied, and he swore (i.e., took an oath), and he cursed (i.e., forswore)."
- (GN 21) Matthew 27:51 states not that the veil of the temple was rent, but that the lintel of the temple of wondrous size collapsed.[39][40]
- (GN 22) Matthew 27:65 reads, "And he (Pilate) delivered to them (the chief priests and the Pharisees) armed men, that they might sit over against the tomb and guard it day and night."
- GN 4, 6, 15a, 19, 22 come from the 'Zion Gospel Edition', the subscriptions of thirty-six Gospel manuscripts dating from the 9th to the 13th centuries.[41]
- GN 24–36 (not listed) are derived from medieval sources.
See also
- Gospel of the Ebionites – 7 fragments preserved by Epiphanius of Salamis
- Gospel of the Hebrews – 7 fragments preserved by Jerome
- Gospel of Matthew
- Hebrew Gospel of Matthew– 3 medieval rabbinical translations of Greek Matthew into Hebrew
- Jewish-Christian Gospels– overview of the topic
- List of Gospels
- New Testament apocrypha – non-canonical and/or pseudepigraphical Gospels, Acts, and Epistles
- Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke
- Gospel of the Holy Twelve– a disputed, widely believed to be pseudepigraphical, text
Primary sources
- Wikisource – Gospel of the Nazoraeans
References
- ^ The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, F.L. Cross, E.A. Livingston (eds), Oxford University Press, 1989 p. 439.
- ISBN 978-1-56563-409-1, 2005 "The Jewish Gospels. With one or two notable dissenters, most scholars in the last century have followed Philipp Vielhauer and Georg Strecker (in Hennecke and Schneemelcher NTApoc), and more recently A.F.J. Klijn (1992), in extrapolating from the church fathers three distinct extracanonical Jewish gospels: the Gospel of the Nazarenes, the Gospel of the Ebionites, and the Gospel of the Hebrews. A recent study by Peter Lebrecht Schmidt (1998), however, has called this near consensus into question. Critically assessing the discussion from Schmidtke to Klijn, Schmidt thinks that originally there was only one Jewish gospel, probably written in Aramaic about 100 CE, called the "Gospel according to the Hebrews," which was subsequently... " cf. Hans-Josef Klauck Apocryphal gospels: an introduction 2003 p37
- ^ Vielhauer and Strecker Gospel of the Nazaraeans in Schneemelcher NTA p.160-174 Fragments 1 to 36
- David Edward AuneThe Westminster dictionary of New Testament and early Christian Literature and Rhetoric. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003 p201 "Schneemelcher has reiterated the traditional classification of the various types of apocryphal gospels into three."
- ^ Craig A. Evans Ancient texts for New Testament studies: a guide to the background literature 2005
- ISBN 978-900408108-6.
- ^ e.g. Johann H. Majus, Repetitum examen Historia criticœ textus Novi Testamenti a PR Simonio, 1699
- ^ The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingston (eds), Oxford University Press, 1989 p. 626.
- ^ a b "Gospel of the Nazoreans". Maplenet. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
- ISBN 978-0-8028-6234-1pp. 120–25
- ^ F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingston, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1989, Oxford University Press, p. 626.
- ^ Jerome, Commentary on Micah, 7.
- ^ The Interpreters Bible, Vol. VII, Abington Press, New York, 1951, pp. 64–66.
- ^ Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men, Chapter 3.
- ^ Lawrence H. Schiffman, James C. VanderKam Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls: N-Z Nazarenes – 2000 – 1132 "... occurs only once in the post-New Testament Greek literature between Acts and Epiphanius, in Eusebius's Onomasticon, though it remains doubtful whether the term here concerns Nazoreans (rather than Christians in general)."
- ^ F.L. Cross & E.A. Livingston, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Oxford University Press, 1989. p 957 & 722.
- ^ The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingston (editors), Oxford University Press, 1989. p 957 & 722.
- ^ Panarion 30.3.7.
- ^ Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, 6.25.
- ^ Wilhelm Schneemelcher, transl. Robert McLachlan Wilson, New Testament Apocrypha: Gospels and related writings 1991 p. 159.
- ^ Vielhauer, Geschichte der urchristlichen Literatur (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1975) p652
- ^ James R. Edwards, The Hebrew Gospel & the Development of the Synoptic Tradition, © 2009, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
- ^ The Gospel According to the Hebrews, Edward Byron Nicholson, C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1879. p.26
- ^ The Gospel According to the Hebrews, Edward Byron Nicholson, C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1879. p.82
- ^ Bart Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium, © 1999 Oxford University Press, p.43
- ^ The Interpreters Bible, Vol. VII, Abington Press, New York, 1951, p.67
- ISBN 0-19-515462-2.
- ISBN 0-19-514183-0.
- ^ Ron Cameron, ed., The Other Gospels: Non-Canonical Gospel Texts (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press 1982), pp. 97–102
- ^ a b "The Gospel of the Nazoreans". Early Christian writings. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
- ^ "Gospel of the Nazoreans from Throckmorton". Early Christians writings. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
- ^ "Apocrypha: Gospel of the Hebrews". Interfaith. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
- ISBN 0-19-514182-2.
- ISBN 9780199743681. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
- ^ In his Commentary on Matthew, Jerome, citing the Gospel of the Hebrews which the Nazarenes used, writes: "In the so-called Gospel of the Hebrews, for bread essential to existence I found MAHAR, meaning of tomorrow. So, the sense is our bread for tomorrow, that is, of the future, give us this day." Latin: "In Evangelio quod appellatur secundum Hebraeos, pro supersubstantiali pane, reperi MAHAR (מחר), quod dicitur crastinum; ut sit sensus: Panem nostrum crastinum, id est, futurum da nobis hodie." Jerome, Commentary on Matthew 6:11
- ^ "CLEMENT OF ROME, Second Epistle". Pseudepigrapha.com. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
- ^ Origen, Commentary on Matthew 19:16–30
- ^ Jerome Commentary on Matthew 21:12
- ^ Jerome, Letter to Hedibia 120.8.
- ^ Strong's H4947 Concordance entry.
- ^ Schneemelcher New Testament Apocrypha: Gospels and related writings pp. 149, 160–62
External links
Online translations of the Gospel of Matthew:
- Matthew at WikiSource (KJV)
- Early Christian Writings: texts and introductions.
- Early Christian Writings: Gospel of the Hebrews
- Gospel of the Nazoreans at earlychristianwritings.com
- Development of the Canon of the New Testament: Gospel of the Hebrews