Eluvia

Paul or Shaul?

Why would you ask a question to which you already knew the answer?

Like Daniel J. Boorstin once said, the great obstacle to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.   While reading James White’s article regarding the gospel of Matthew (or Matityahu, as was his name), I was surprised to learn that the first gospel in the apostolic scriptures was probably written in Hebrew.  I understood that my sense of surprise came from my assumption that I already knew what there was to know about the origins of the “New Testament”.  I thought I already had the answer, so I never asked the question.

Spurred on by his article, I wanted to see what else ancient historians - people who were much closer to the events than modern biblical scholars - had to say regarding the Jewishness of the language of the apostles.  I discovered that, in addition to Matityahu’s account of Yeshua, there are reasons to believe that the Book of Hebrews was written originally in Hebrew, as well.  And by no less a person than the apostle Paul, or, as his contemporaries knew him, Rabbi Shaul.

EUSEBIUS, JEROME, AND CONTEXT

Eusebius refers to Clement’s Hypotyposes when stating in Church History 6.14.2:

“He says that the Epistle to the Hebrews is the work of Paul, and that it was written to the Hebrews in the Hebrew language; but that Luke translated it carefully and published it for the Greeks, and hence the same style of expression is found in this epistle and in the Acts.”

Earlier, in Church History 3.38.2-3, Eusebius states:

“Wherefore it has seemed reasonable to reckon it with the other writings of the apostle. For as Paul had written to the Hebrews in his native tongue, some say that the evangelist Luke, others that this Clement himself, translated the epistle.”

And then there’s Jerome who, in the fifth chapter of his On Illustrious Men, wrote that Rabbi Shaul, “being a Hebrew wrote Hebrew, that is his own tongue and most fluently”, and goes on to hypothesize that perhaps the reason the Book of Hebrews is in such a different style than Shaul’s is because it was translated into Greek from Hebrew.

To say nothing of the indirect evidence that arises when you translate the Greek texts into Hebrew, such as the wordplay that Jewish writers are so fond of, as well as those “secondary layers of meaning” James mentioned in his article.

We know from Scripture and archaeological evidence (contemporaneous letters, coins, et al.) that Hebrew was a living and hallowed language at the time of Yeshua, and that Yeshua spoke it. The common Jew under Roman rule was very adamant about resisting syncretism and assimilation into Hellenistic culture, including and especially the Greek language (as the Maccabean revolt and the Bar Kochba rebellion can testify to).

WORLDVIEW AND HUMILITY

It would make sense.  Why would a Jew write in Greek if he were writing for a Jewish audience regarding inherently Jewish topics, topics best related in the Hebrew language?  Hebrew had already developed terms to deal with concepts like the messiah, salvation, and the unity of justice and mercy.  A writer needs to write with an audience in mind.  The audience for the Book of Hebrews were Hebrews.

It can be humbling, to say the least, for a person raised with a Hellenistic, Western worldview to learn that the scriptures they’ve been studying were written by people with Jewish, Eastern worldviews for people with Jewish, Eastern worldviews.  The differences between Eastern and Western mentalities are considerable, and the negative effects of trying to grasp Jewish concepts through translations of translations of a text written in an age long gone by a person with a radically different outlook on life can be seen in any account of church history.

Even if all of the apostolic scriptures were originally written in Koine Greek, weren’t they still written by Jews?  About Jews?  To Jews?  The entire Bible is a Jewish book, and to claim “mastery” of it with a Hellenistic worldview is misguided at best.

Which is only to say what should always be said: we all need to take a step back, conform our minds to Yeshua’s model, and look at scripture with a fresh Jewish perspective.

E. English