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By Dr. Eli
Lizorkin-Eyzenberg
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Hundreds of
thousands of Christians have asked this question in one form or another. The
reason for their curiosity is praiseworthy. It is the desire to get as close as
possible to God by getting as close as possible to His written
Word.
Deep interest
of modern Christians in the Jewish background of New Testament is not
new.
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Serious
Christians throughout the ages have recognized the importance of studying the
historic setting of the New Testament, Jewish or otherwise. Today’s interest in
the Jewish Jesus has been growing in intensity over time. Social networks and
the entries that pertain to the Jewishness of Jesus are buzzing with increasing
volume. Rapidly growing numbers of Christians worldwide are attempting to learn
Hebrew with self-study materials and are enrolling in formal classes on campus
and online.
So why do we see so much Christian interest in the
Jewish Jesus?
There are many reasons, but I will only mention a
few. My intention is to show you that what happens in the world heavily
influences (if not determines) the way Christians think about the Holy
Bible.
First, the Jewish Holocaust caused thinking Christians to ask many
difficult questions about God’s faithfulness to his Ancient people Israel, and
about the role of the Church to take a stand in the political arena. In addition
to this, the holocaust made the Church consider elements (and what needs to be
done about them) in its theology that may have contributed to the European
Jewish holocaust.
Second, the creation of the state of Israel has forced
Christians to reconsider the ancient promises of God concerning a physical
restoration of the Land to the people of Israel. This has generated many other
important questions that relate to this issue.
Third, archeological
discoveries and the eventual dissemination of the Dead Sea Scrolls have caused a
revolution in academic institutions (both seminaries and universities) regarding
issues of Christian origins and especially their relationship to their ancient
Jewish setting.
Fourth, a variety of liberal and conservative Christian
groups have begun to think about what all of this means and what is it they must
do to move from the realm of thinking to the realm of
doing.
Though this is all interesting, I think we better return
to our main question. Was the New Testament written in
Hebrew?
It is my opinion that the entire original text of the
document we have come to know as the New Testament was written by
Christ-following Jews (in the ancient sense of the word) in a language that can
be best described not simply as Koine or Common Greek, but as “Koine
Judeo-Greek”. Some authors who could afford a very good, professional scribe
(like was the case with Paul and, possibly with Luke as well) had an excellent
command of the language, while others like the authors of Gospel of John and the
Book of Revelation naturally wrote on a much simpler level. Just like in English
someone can write in an elegant style or express their thoughts in the same
language, but in a much simpler fashion (much like myself).
But
first of all what is Koine Greek?
Koine Greek (which is
different from Classical Greek) was the common multi-regional form of Greek
spoken and written during Hellenistic and Roman antiquity. New Testament
collection was authored during this historic period.
Now… I do not think
that the kind of Greek we see in the New Testament can be best described ONLY as
Koine Greek. There is another component to this Koine Greek – a significant
Jewish and Hebrew connection. For this reason I prefer to call it – Koine
Judeo-Greek.
What in the world is
Judeo-Greek?
Well… Judeo Greek, like the well-known Judeo-German
(Yiddish), Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) and the less familiar Judeo-Farsi,
Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Italian, and Judean-Georgian languages, is simply a form of
Greek used by Jews to communicate. This language retained many words, phrases,
grammatical structures, and patterns of thought characteristic of the Hebrew
language.
So is Judeo-Greek really Greek? Yes, it is, but it is
Greek that inherited the patterns of Semitic thought and expression. In this
way, it is different from the types of Greek used by other people
groups.
So, I disagree that the New Testament was first written
in Hebrew and then translated into Greek. Instead, I think it was written in
Greek by people that thought Jewishly and what is, perhaps, more important
multi-lingually. You see… the speakers of variety of languages manage to
also think in variety of languages. When they do speak, however, they always
import into one language something that comes from another. It is never a
question of “if”, but only of “how much”.
The main point made by
Christians who believe that parts of the New Testament was originally written in
Hebrew is that the New Testament is full of Hebraisms. (Hebraism is a
characteristic feature of Hebrew occurring in another
language.)
Actually, this is a very important point. It shows that
serious students of the New Testament must not limit themselves to the study of
Greek. They must also study Hebrew. With knowledge of Biblical Hebrew they would
be able to read the Koine Judeo-Greek text of the New Testament much more
accurately.
So, I suggest, that one does not need to imagine a
Hebrew textual base of the New Testament to explain the presence of the
Hebraisms in the text. Though possible, this theory simply lacks additional and
desperately-needed support.
Think with me on this a little
further. Other than a multilingual competency of the New Testament authors their
most trusted (and rightly so) source for the Hebrew Bible quotations was the
Septuagint
(LXX).
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Now… we
must remember that the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible was translated into
Greek by leading Jewish scholars of the day. Legend has it that the 70
individual Jewish sages made separate translations of the Hebrew Bible and when
they were done, all of it matched perfectly. As I said “it is a legend”. The
number 70 is likely symbolic of the 70 nations of the world in ancient
Judaism.
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of the
world in ancient Judaism. This translation was not only meant for Greek-speaking
Jews, but also for non-Jews so that they too could have access to the Hebrew
Bible. You can imagine how many Hebraic words, phrases, and patterns of thoughts
are present on every page of the Septuagint. (Clickhere to see the oldest
version of the LXX).
So, other than the authors of the New Testament
thinking Jewishly and Hebraicly, we also have the main source of their Old
Testament quotations coming from another Jewish-authored document – the
Septuagint. So is it surprising that New Testament is full of Hebraic forms
expressed in Greek?!
As a side note, the use of the Septuagint by
New Testament writers is actually a very exciting concept.
The
Jewish text of the Hebrew Bible used today is the Masoretic Text (MT for short).
When the Dead Sea Scrolls were finally examined, it turned out that there was
not one, but three different families of Biblical traditions in the time of
Jesus. One of them closely matched the Masoretic Text, one closely matched the
Septuagint and one seems to have connections with the Samaritan
Torah.
Among other things, this of course shows that the Septuagint
quoted by the New Testament has great value since it was based upon a Hebrew
text that was at least as old as the base Hebrew text of what will one day
become – the Masoretic Text.
As I already stated, I believe that the
entire New Testament was written in Koine Judeo-Greek. Please allow me to
address one very important point. In several places in the writings of the
early church fathers, there is mention of a gospel in Hebrew.
The most
important and earliest reference is that of the early Christian writer, Papias
of Hierapolis (125 CE-150 CE). He wrote: “Matthew collected the oracles in the
Hebrew dialect and interpreted each one of them as best he could.” So… we do
have a very early Christian testimony about Matthew’s document in
Hebrew.
Was this a reference to the Gospel of Matthew in its Hebrew
original? Perhaps. Was it a reference to a document that Matthew composed, but
that is different from the Gospel of Mathew? Possibly.
This whole
discussion is complicated by the fact that all the Gospels are anonymous and do
not contain unequivocal references to a particular author (though some are
attested very early). The Gospel of Mathew is no exception. We do not know if
Mathew (the disciple of Jesus mentioned in the Gospels) was in fact the author
of the gospel that we call the “The Gospel according to
Matthew.”
Moreover, the phraseology, “he interpreted each one of them as
best he could,” used by Papias of Hierapolis is far less than inspiring. One
does not leave with a feeling that the majestic Gospel of Matthew that features
such key texts as the Sermon on the Mount and the Great Commission is in fact in
view. It is possible that Papias was referring to something less grandiose.
Namely, that he had heard that Mathew had collected Jesus’ sayings in Hebrew,
piecing them together as best he could. There is no reason to deny that such a
document once existed, but neither is there particularly strong reason to
identify it with the Gospel of Matthew.
Later Church Fathers also mention
that Matthew wrote the Gospel in Hebrew dialect, but their information is 1)
most-likely based on Papias’ statement and 2) guided by Christian theology to
show that Jews were witnessed to sufficiently.
Archeological discoveries
have shown that Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and even Latin were all used by the
people of the Holy Land during the first century of the Common Era. But the New
Testament itself, as best we can tell, was in fact written by Christ-following
Jews in Koine Judeo-Greek. This is the simplest and most factually accurate
possibility. This view readily explains the amount of underlying Hebraic
patterns of thought, reasoning, grammar, and vocabulary that make the New
Testament a thoroughly Jewish collection.
Reconstructing history is a
little bit like putting a puzzle with many missing pieces together. The more
pieces of the puzzle you have, the better you can see the contours of the image!
The more you know about the historical background of the New Testament and the
more familiar you are with the languages intricately connected with it
(especially Hebrew and Greek); the better you are able to interpret it
accurately for yourself and
others.
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To leave a comment, Click Here
Yours,
Dr. Eli
Lizorkin-Eyzenberg
Jewish Studies Department, Dean of the
faculty
eTeacherBiblical, Israeli Academy of
Linguistics and
History
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