Have you ever wondered what the Gospel of Matthew was like before translators and theologians got hold of it? We now have documents that answer this question! And by the way, they are written in Hebrew—the language in which Matthew wrote his gospel!
For hundreds of years, 28 ancient Hebrew manuscripts of Matthew have been locked away in libraries around the world. Now, like prying open oysters and harvesting their treasures, our groundbreaking Hebrew Gospel Pearls studies are opening these manuscripts and bringing the pearls to the surface for all to see their value!
Studying these documents raises questions we didn’t even know we needed to ask and provides answers that have eluded readers for centuries. At last, we can set aside what translators and theologians want us to think and focus on what Matthew intended us to understand.
No one else is doing anything like this! Don’t miss this unique opportunity to encounter the Gospel of Matthew “B.T.T.” (before translators and theologians). We believe these ancient manuscripts have a message for us today!
Have you ever wondered what the Gospel of Matthew was like before translators and theologians got hold of it? We now have documents that answer this question! And by the way, they are written in Hebrew—the language in which Matthew wrote his gospel!
For hundreds of years, 28 ancient Hebrew manuscripts of Matthew have been locked away in libraries around the world. Now, like prying open oysters and harvesting their treasures, our groundbreaking Hebrew Gospel Pearls studies are opening these manuscripts and bringing the pearls to the surface for all to see their value!
Studying these documents raises questions we didn’t even know we needed to ask and provides answers that have eluded readers for centuries. At last, we can set aside what translators and theologians want us to think and focus on what Matthew intended us to understand.
No one else is doing anything like this! Don’t miss this unique opportunity to encounter the Gospel of Matthew “B.T.T.” (before translators and theologians). We believe these ancient manuscripts have a message for us today!
Nehemia (00:00):
And where that becomes extremely important in Hebrew Matthew is that George Howard who published Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew, and originally in 1987, later in 1995, the second edition, he argued that there was a process of correcting Hebrew Matthew in the direction of the Greek.
Narrator (00:18):
You are listening to Hebrew Gospel Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson - exploring Hebrew New Testament manuscripts for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Keith (00:32):
Welcome to Hebrew Gospel Pearls, the second season, we hope. We are in a brand new section of the Hebrew gospel of Matthew. For many people you'll understand this to be what is traditionally called from my tradition, the Beatitudes, but I'm calling them the biblical beatitudes Nehemia. I think that with what we're about to do, at least let's say this, we're going to try to at least get through the beatitudes for this series. Would you, would you commit with me at least to get through the beatitudes? That's my question.
Nehemia (00:59):
For sure, The beatitudes. I'd love if we could get through this year through season two, the sermon on the Mount possibly. I don't know if we can, but at least in the beatitudes is Matthew chapter five verses one through 12 and it comes from the Latin word that means blessed, blessed. Blessed that are this, blessed are that. It's a series of statements like that, that are blessing.
Keith (01:21):
So here's what I want to do Nehemia. Before we get into this, I want folks to know that there, there really has been in every time I say this, it really is surprising to me. We've raised the bar again in terms of what we're going to be trying to do with the Hebrew gospel Matthew. And if you could, I know some of you are here for the first time. Uh, you've heard about us doing the biblical beatitudes series. This is your first time here. Nehemia, can you just give people a little bit of background of what we did in season one and sort of the new approach that we took with these manuscripts that you've, you've given us access to?
Nehemia (01:53):
So we're working on, uh, we're talking about the Hebrew gospel pearls and what we're doing is I'm coming from my perspective as a Kairite, coming from your perspective as a, uh,
Keith (02:06):
I'm just a good old fashioned Gentile kicked out of the Methodist church.
Nehemia (02:10):
And we're trying to look at the words of Yeshua, and the, the account of Yeshua, as it's told in the Hebrew version of the gospel of Matthew, comparing it to the Greek. And I want to say that upfront, if you've never heard Hebrew gospel pearls, you never heard me teach before. I am not saying throughout the Greek text, I'm not saying that at all. The Greek is the primary text that tells us what there is in the gospel of Matthew, um, or what happened 2000 years ago. The Hebrew text that was preserved by Jews for the middle ages, it was recorded by this rabbi named shaman Tobin taproot around the year 1380. That gives us another witness. Another testimony of what happened.
Keith (02:47):
A powerful witness.
Nehemia (02:49):
I think so. Now some people say, Oh, well, that was just translated from Greek, or it was translated from Latin.
Nehemia (02:54):
And I've, I've written a book about it, the Hebrew Yeshua versus the Greek Jesus. We wrote a book together called A Prayer to our Father. George Howard, before us had argued that this is based on an ancient Hebrew text. That doesn't mean every word and every letter is what Matthew wrote in the first century. It's been transmitted just like the Greeks been transmitted, right? It's transmitted through the centuries. And it is just another testimony and other witness of what may have happened in the first century. It presents a Hebrew perspective and you can see things there that you don't always see in the Greek, or I should say, I can see things there, right, when I read it in Hebrew. You know, sometimes I'll read something like the Dalish Translation, which Dalish was this guy in the 19th century, a Christian scholar. And he tells us that he translated his work from the Greek.
Nehemia (03:37):
We know that, right. And when I read it in the Hebrew that he translated, I sometimes see things that I wouldn't see from reading it in the Greek or reading it in English. Sometimes it's not even what he translated. Like I did a teaching on John 17 where he repeatedly uses this one Hebrew word natan, natan, natan. It's the same word as a Netanyahu, which is Yehovah named Netanyahu means Yehovah gave, right. But when I'm reading it, I'm realizing, wait, there's another Hebrew word. And if I put in that other Hebrew word, as I'm reading it, I see it's you yahav, yahav, yahav , right. It may even be a play on words with Yehovah. So even though Dalish, didn't use that word by reading dalish, I see things that I didn't see that, uh, by reading in the English, right.
Nehemia (04:20):
That's just how my brain works. I can see things there. I like, okay, now this Hebrew word, I just swap it out in my head. What's another Hebrew word for that? Wow. That's a word that sounds like Yehovah. And then we have Ahava love. So when we come to Hebrew Matthew, you know, like I said, it's been argued and I think there's a good case to say it's based on a first century Hebrew text. It's been transmitted through the centuries. We have 28 manuscripts of Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew. For the section we're looking at today, which is Matthew chapter five, verses one to 12, we have 20 manuscripts that have been preserved. So there's eight manuscripts that don't preserve the section. Two of the manuscripts are only part of chapter one, right? There are what are called epitomes or abbreviated texts. The only part of chapter one, but for chapter five verses one to 12, we have 20 manuscripts. And in preparation for this, Keith, I spent quite a bit of time. And it's kind of funny because like I knew going into this, I'm going to spend days working on this. And it's something that we'll probably spend maybe five minutes in the program talking about. But it takes days. It's what it is.
Keith (05:21):
Nehemia, there's no way that we're going to let you spend the amount of time that you spent just with this section for five minutes. I really do believe in terms of what you're bringing to the table is fundamentally going to change the way we do Hebrew gospel pearls. Now, let me tell you this before we get started too far. I was talking to my wife about what we do. And she kind of gave me this look Nehemia, like, you know, she could repeat some of the words, like, she'd say yes, you guys are doing text criticism, but I didn't, I don't know if she really understood the significance of it. But then she said something at the end of the conversation this morning, she said, Keith. I said, Andrea, do you really, what it is, why this is such a game-changing situation?
Keith (06:00):
The work that nehemia has done, the texts that he's bringing forward. And the fact that we're able to look at them. She said, well, I may not get it all, but I do understand this. You say that your mission is to inspire people, to build a biblical foundation for their faith. And that's what you guys are doing. Exactly the same thing. And in other words, we're bringing to the table, something that can help people understand better with this other witness, potentially the original words that you Yeshua spoke. As you mentioned, that doesn't mean that every single letter in the Hebrew gospel of Matthew is exactly what it was. We certainly know that wasn't the case in Greek because he wasn't speaking Greek, but between the two we're able to come up with something that literally can help people build a biblical foundation for their faith. And these sources, the Hebrew sources of their faith, as you talk about in your mission, are just phenomenal Nehemia. You said there's 20 manuscripts, they're from different parts of the world and here's, what's exciting folks. He's actually gone to these places and seen these manuscripts for himself. So I just want you to make sure that I want people to understand it.
Nehemia (06:57):
When I seen all 24 myself, uh. ironically, there's some in like, kind of far off places like the Vatican that I've seen and held in my hands. Whereas the one in the ones in New York, I haven't seen because the library that has them in New York has been closed for several years. And now with COVID, it's, it's definitely inaccessible. I have held in my hand some of them . We are actually working on one of them, which is at Oxford that I held in my hands and photographed on my iPhone.
Keith (07:23):
Right
Nehemia (07:25):
Photos from my iPhone than what we had before, which was black and white based on microfilms. There's one photo we're going to bring, uh, if we get to it somewhere in this series or, or in this, I don't know if we'll get to it today, which is, I just am so excited about chapter five, verse four. To me, it's
Nehemia (07:42):
The most exciting thing we've done in the entire series, maybe with the exception of Matthew 3:10, right? That was a special story. But with the exception, this is probably the second, then the second most exciting thing, because the textual criticism thing there is it's, I call it a smoking gun. It's another smoking gun. That's very, very cool. So I'm very excited to get to that, but we got to do some background before we get there.
Keith (08:04):
We got to do background. Now, here's the thing I want people to consider in the second season, at least for this series. And, and I, I really, I want to throw this out Nehemia. You know, if people aren't interested and we get through the beatitudes, the biblical beatitudes, and there's not a lot of people interested, okay. It was a good run. But here's what I want to say. I want people to join in with us and they're going to be able to join in with us because of the work that you've done. So this is going to be joint study process. It certainly is for me Nehemia. You bringing these sources and then actually doing the transcribing that, I hope you'll talk about that some more, because now I'm looking at your work and I'm like, what, and how long did it take? Just for the section? I think you told me it was 12 hours.
Nehemia (08:42):
Yeah.
Keith (08:45):
So, but we're going to let people come along with us, by studying with us. And many people know about the beatitudes in Matthew chapter five, but we're going to take our time. And when I say we're going to take our time, we're going to give for those that don't know, this was something that we did last season is that we have a public section of what we do, which is to give you good information, inspiration, and revelation. And then for those who want to go deeper, and I will say the work that you have done and what you're bringing to the table really is a deeper look. We have plus episodes, both available at BFA International and Nehemia's Wall. So what'll happen is we're going to start now, we're going to jump right in to Matthew chapter five verses one. And let's just say it's chapter five verses one. And mostly you get the first two and of the first beatitude. Can we do that?
Nehemia (09:26):
Sure. And then just to explain to people that haven't followed us before, we're going to do the, like you said, the public episode that you get that on your podcast, subscribe to it, share it with your friends. And then we do what we call Hebrew gospel pearls plus. This week it's going to be on your website and we alternate weeks. And that is something you can get if you join the, um, what is the thing?
Keith (09:45):
So we have an Academy and I will tell you we've made a shift and a change. And it is because of Hebrew gospel pearls. Just so everyone knows it doesn't change anything for those that want to be in the plus section. But we really made the site much more, what I call membership focused in that if you're a free member you get access to a lot of things. If you're a premium member, you get access to everything. And so all that's explainable, when you come to BFAinternational.com. We're going to have the plus episode for this section. But I I'll tell you right now Nehemia. I mean, we can, we can dive right in and
Nehemia (10:13):
Well, and then people who support my ministry, Makor Hebrew Foundation, they'll get access to the even numbered episodes of the plus. Wonderful. All right. Let's can we just start by reading it? Absolutely. Okay. And I just want to tell people what I'm reading here is a composite text. Okay. So what I'm reading here, as we dive into the individual verses, you'll see that while it might say that in one manuscript but the other manuscript doesn't say that. And you can make the composite text different ways. It's, it's it's, um, you know, there's, there's an element there where it's up to the judgment of the scholar. I mean, the truth is it's that way in the Greek as well. I did a series on John 6:4 and we talked about this verse in Acts that in some English translations there and some it's not, and it changes some pretty important things. That's all based on the Greek, forget about the Hebrew. That's all based in the Greek. Alright, so let's start with the Hebrew chapter five verse one (Hebrew). And it came to pass after this, at that time. And he saw the crowds or the multitudes, and he went up the mountain and he sat and they presented to him, his students, or his students approached him - could be translated both ways (Hebrew). And he opened up his mouth and he spoke to them saying,
Keith (11:44):
And before we go any further, why did he see the crowds and what was happening? He was becoming pretty popular. I call this the, uh, the red letter revival at the mountain. He had all these people that were interested in the work that he had done, the first four chapters. So when we get to this, when we get to this section, there were a lot of people that were interested and he thought let's have a, let's have a good old fashioned, uh, event at the mountain.
Nehemia (12:06):
You know, one of the things people have been doing for centuries is really, since probably even the second century is they create these books that are synoptic or, um, gospel harmonies is the other term for it. In other words, what you have is I guess, a synoptic is the opposite of gospel harmony, but basically what they do is the story is told by four different gospels in different ways. And what people have done is they take the different sections and try to make sense out of them. We could spend the entire time just dealing with that, but I want to refer people to a book we've talked about it before. It's called Synopsis of the Four Gospels by Kurt Allen. And what he does is he, he has, you know, different columns and each column in this case, there's two columns. One part of it there's three.
Nehemia (12:52):
Okay. So for example, on page 49 of his book, you have three columns, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And then there's really nothing in John for this part. And he gives the story as it appears in Matthew with the parallel words in Mark, and the parallel words in Luke. And sometimes there's a sentence or a phrase or something in Matthew that has no parallel in Mark and Luke and vice versa, right? So it's really, really interesting, fascinating stuff, extremely important. We'll get to some of that a little bit later. Let me just quickly, can I quickly read the backgrounds in Luke, or should I let the people do that themselves? I got to do Luke at least. And he came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judah and Jerusalem and the Seacoast of Tyre & Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.
Nehemia (13:43):
And those that were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowds sought to touch him for power came forth from him and healed them all. And he lifted up his eyes and his disciples and said, and then there's a section in Luke that some people refer to as the sermon on the plain. So we've got the sermon on the Mount and the sermon on the plain. And we actually did something in A Prayer to our Father. I don't think we're going to get to it today, but we actually looked for the place where, where there's both a plain and a mountain where somebody could speak from a mountain, but also be next to a plain. We'll get to that, maybe in a different program.
Keith (14:16):
Let me at least say this. Let me just say one thing about this. Folks, the process that we have been in is not this isn't like, Hey, let's do the sermon on the Mount, a series of Hebrew gospel pearls. This has been a decades long process that you've been in terms of study, invited me to be in with you. And what, what he's saying by that, for those that don't know us, you know, sometimes I think we think, Oh, everyone knows our story. You told me something years ago, Keith, you gotta remind people. And I at least want to let people know that there was something significant to what you just said for me, which was, I said to you Nehemia, I was in Israel before. And I know where the sermon on the mountain was. And you go, well, which, which spot. And I'm like, what you mean which spot? There's only one spot. There's a traditional spot for the sermon on the Mount. You're going to mess up my tradition. And sure enough, you invited me to the process of looking at where potentially it could have been. And I think there were six or seven spots where they're not.
Nehemia (15:05):
Uh, I remember five, but it's been so long.
Nehemia (15:07):
I could read our books that have a situation where the book actually knows more than we do, because we were so informed and knowledgeable when we wrote it. And I'm like, what year was it? 13 years ago, 12 years ago, something like this.
Keith (15:21):
So the point I'm trying to make though is, this isn't just like a quick process. And we've been in a process for a long time. Even your study of these manuscripts has been for decades. You said I've had stuff on my computer for years and years and years. The fact that we're now getting to it, and I want to bring context. Yeah, we're getting to it, folks. If you're listening to this 10 years from now, 20 years from now, or 30 years from now, we're actually getting to this during a time that's unprecedented. This is a pandemic that we're in. The Corona virus pandemic. And as a result of that, we're locked in our homes. This is why I want to say this. You know, we're, we're, we're sitting here right now because we have the ability. We can't get on trains, planes, and automobiles. The work you did before we now can bring to the forefront, the work that we did in Israel, we can now bring to the forefront. So the circumstances have kind of lined themselves up to be able to address now the sermon on the Mount, in this more in-depth process, that's all I wanted to say.
Nehemia (16:13):
Okay. So now I'm just going to read this little part from Luke six, verse 20, and it says, bless are you poor for yours is the kingdom of God. And then there's three other, four other separate. It goes on. Other statements that are blessed, that are blessed, that are blessed, that are, uh, verse 21, verse 22 verse 23 is rejoice in that day, which is kind of related. So we, we have some relationship between the sermon on the mountain, the sermon on the plain. And there's a few possibilities. One possibility is these are two completely different events, right? Yeshua was preaching for, depending on which chronology you follow, a year or three and a half years. These could be completely different events, unrelated. That's possibility number one. Possibility number two is it's the same event and the plain and the mount refer to the same event, uh, which is what we talked about in A Prayer to our Father. And we have to refer to Luke six to some to some degree because there is this intertextuality, there's some relationship between Matthew five and Luke six, that's going on. And then the introduction in Mark as well, perhaps is related Mark three ( look in Allen's book). All right. I want to continue reading Hebrew. Yes. I'm going to do my best, not to comment. So we can go back and start talking about this beautiful word. This word., ASHRAE. Ashrae, blessed is or blessed are or Beatae in Greek.
Keith (17:39):
Okay, now Nehemia so you're going to read Matthew five, verse three in Hebrew,
Nehemia (17:44):
(Hebrew) Blessed are the low in spirit for their's is the kingdom of heaven. (Hebrew) blessed are those who wait for they will be comforted. (Hebrew) Blessed are the humble for they will inherit the earth. (Hebrew) blessed are those pure in heart for they will see God. (Hebrew) blessed are those who pursue peace for they will be called sons of God. (Hebrew) blessed are those who are pursued or persecuted for righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Hebrew) blessed are you when they pursue and insult you and they say concerning you or to you all bad things about me or, or they say about you all bad things because of me, (it could be translate both ways) and they lie. (Hebrew). Wait, we'll get to that, Keith, we'll come back to that. (Hebrew) rejoice and be happy for your reward is very great in heaven for so did they pursue the prophets or persecute the prophets. So much to unpack here?
Keith (19:31):
Now, now Nehemia would love to jump right into the first word, but I have a question I need to ask you Nehemia that bothered me for several years. And I think this would be a great introduction to some of what we're going to do when we get to the plus section. But in Howard, I'm holding here folks, Howard's Hebrew gospel of Matthew and in Howard's Hebrew gospel of Matthew he does something really interesting that threw me for a loop. In chapter five, verse three, for the first blessed it's in parentheses, Nehemia. And when I saw it in parentheses, I thought, Oh no, what happened? And so for those that are, that may not know this, could you explain just in the basic and at a basic level, why Howard put the first verse of the blesseds, the beatitudes, why is the first beatitude in parentheses?
Nehemia (20:16):
Look in the 1995 edition of the Hebrew gospel of Matthew Page 16. You'll see the Hebrew text and you'll see the verse three has parentheses. Even if you can't read Hebrew, you'll see the little three, and you'll see that the words (Hebrew) are in parentheses. And then if you look at the bottom, you will see what is called a critical apparatus. So if you look at the bottom, you'll see it says five colon three, and it says whole verse. And there's a square bracket. And what that tells you is what follows is, is essentially an explanation of whatever's behind the bracket, right? It could be a word, it could be a verse. So the whole verse is admitted in the British library manuscript as well as manuscripts, B C, D E F G. And the text he's presenting here is based on manuscript A, which is enlightened.
Nehemia (21:06):
Now, Howard had nine manuscripts. I have now 20 manuscripts that preserve this section. So Howard's presented this because that's all he knew as the reading of one single manuscript. I now have it in seven manuscripts. Um, we're going to see something really fascinating. This is in some ways, this is the most. I'm going to save it for verse four, though. I'm going to, I'm going to reveal some of it now. So, so from Matthew one through 12, from this passage alone, I can now divide all 20 manuscripts of the 28 that have survived, right? I can divide those 20 manuscripts into groups A and group B into two distinct groups. I can call them the group that has verse three and the group that doesn't have verse three. Now, one data point like that, you might say, well, maybe it's just a coincidence, right? So we have some other data points - verse five, all the manuscripts that are missing verse three, all those same exact manuscripts are also missing verse five. Hmm. So that's not a coincidence, right? They're copying from a common source. And the ones that have verse five are copying from a common source. So we have 13 manuscripts that don't have verses three and five and seven manuscripts that do have three and five. Now it's not correct to say, well, the majority of manuscripts is what we follow, right? That's not a scholarly approach. It's more complicated that. But what we can say for certain is there's group A and group B and all of the group A manuscripts go back to a single manuscript and all the group B manuscripts go back to the single manuscript. And ultimately those two manuscripts go back to a single right, but we have a branching here. And then there's another data point. So the manuscripts that have verses three and five also have a word that's in verse 12, that doesn't appear in the ones that don't have verse three and five, right?
Nehemia (23:08):
So we have all these little data points and in verse four, we're going to see maybe what's the most interesting one. I don't know that we'll get to it today, but it's really, I mean, this is exciting stuff to me, Keith, this is, this is huge. This is the type of thing that a textual scholar dreams of finding. What you're looking for are common characteristics. What you're really looking for a common errors that are in manuscripts. And I think what we can say - here, it's more complicated though. And this is true of Tanakh studies as well of Hebrew Old Testament studies and Greek New Testament. In other words, if we're, if we're looking at a manuscript of Josephus, so we're looking at a manuscript of, um, Plato. What we have is somebody copied the manuscript, another person copied from him and they start to branch off and it's very clean.
Nehemia (23:54):
At least that's the theory. What we have in, in Tanakh, in the New Testament, in Greek as well, is the copyist didn't just have that one copy. He was, didn't just have his source in front of him, his written source. In other words, he has a manuscript here and another manuscript here, and he's looking here and writing here, right? He's looking back and forth. So, uh, he's looking back and forth between his source and the manuscript that he's copying, but in his head he has other manuscripts. How does he have other manuscripts in his head? Because he spent his whole life in a monastery reciting prayers. And some of those prayers are verses from the New Testament. And every day they read from the New Testament and the same thing for Jews, the Jewish scribe who's copying. He might be copying the book of Chronicles, but he has read the book of Kings.
Nehemia (24:46):
And so when he's copying Chronicles, that verse from Kings is in his head and he sometimes miscopies it, right? That's, what's called textual criticism where we're trying to understand the relationship between the manuscripts. And it gets complicated in that there is this, you could even call it like a, um, uh, an influence of other manuscripts besides the two that are in front of the scribe, the source the one he's copying. And where, where that becomes extremely important in Hebrew Matthew is that George Howard, who published Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew in originally 1987 later in 1995, the second edition, he argued that there was a process of correcting Hebrew Matthew in the direction of the Greek. In other words, it was originally very dissimilar from the Greek. It was different from the Greek. And somebody said, wait a minute, the Greek has this verse. Why is verse three missing?
Nehemia (25:35):
And he came along and put it in, put in verse three because he knew it was supposed to be there because he'd read the Greek or maybe he even read other Hebrew versions. Right? Uh, we had the other Hebrew versions in the following centuries that were translated from Catalonia and in other languages. So it's possible. I would say it's more than, well, there's two possibilities. Let's put it that way. Verse three in verses three and five, the original version of Shem Tov in 1380 either had verses three and five or didn't have verses three and five. If it did have verses three and five, then the 13 manuscripts that don't have it have an error in them that there's a mistake that somebody forgot the copy of that verse. And that would be a very easy to explain mistake. What's the explanation? Introduction to Textual Criticism. The definitive book is called, um, I think it's called Introduction to Textual Criticism by Emanuel Tov. It's called ?. That is the similar beginning, ?. Hormoral Is the Greek word for similar. And arctone is the Greek word for beginning. So you have two verses that both begin with the word ASHRAE, which is the Hebrew for blessed be, Right? It's one word in Hebrew ashrae. And the scribe is looking back and forth from his source to the thing he is copying, his source. He writes in his source. He sees in the source, (Hebrew) and he writes those words and he looks back and he's looking for the next verse. And he sees ASHRAE and he says, oh I already copied that. And then he goes on to the next verse after that. Happens all the time.
Nehemia (27:13):
In fact, among the 13 manuscripts that have verses three and five there's manuscript G, which was known to Howard. Manuscript G also is missing verse four and then verse four, there's a possibly that was lost by hormoral arctone by the scribal error. That happens all the time. Uh, you see this in Torah scrolls, you see it in Tanakh manuscripts. You see it in Greek, New Testament manuscripts. You see pretty much any manuscript that's ever copied. They're going to have some example of hormoral arctone or his brother, which is ? uh, which is the similar ending. So second possibility. Possibility one we said is the original Shem Tov copied in 1380 had verses three and five, and it was lost in the 13 who don't have it. Second possibility, which is what Howard argued. And I lean towards this, but I'll the listener and viewer decide. The one I lean towards is this was not in Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew originally, and a scribe came along and said, wait a minute. We know this is in the New Testament. We've read the New Testament. We've got to supply the missing verse. And that's a process of, of, um, making the text more similar to the Greek. Now, what is the, what, what supports that suggestion in this passage? And like I said, this is the type of thing you can dream about as a textual scholar, right? You couldn't hope for such a good example. It's a textbook example. So the manuscripts that have verse five, it comes before verse four. Now why is that important? It's important because what tends to happen is the scribe who realizes the verse was missing, would write it in the margin. And the next scribe would come along and he'd say, wait a minute, this is missing. "Well, why is this in the margin?
Nehemia (29:01):
I got to put it in the body of the text." And he doesn't know where to put it in the body of the text. Maybe he's not that familiar with the Greek. So he puts it in the wrong place. So this is a very common, it's literally textbook, when they teach this type of thing in text. Am I right? When they teach textual criticism, they teach this type of example, that if you have a misplaced verse, it could be because it migrated into margin. Now here's what I don't have. I don't have the manuscript where verse five is written in the margin. I have, uh, a hint that's what happened, right? And in a sense, I'm speculating. That's all I can do, right? I mean, I have the evidence that's in front of me and I have to try to explain it. And I think that's a good explanation. So there's a very strong possibility verses three, five were added by some medieval scribe who was copying and the original Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew only had verse two followed by obviously one and two followed by verse four, followed by verses eight through 12. And it was a very short passage, which is actually quite similar to the sermon on the plane.
Keith (30:01):
Yeah. You skipped, you skipped one little thing now.
Nehemia (30:03):
I'll let you bring that - verses six and seven.
Keith (30:06):
Six and seven don't exist either.
Nehemia (30:08):
So, so verses six and seven don't exist in any of the 20 Hebrew manuscripts of Shem Tov that I have.
Keith (30:16):
At this point some people are saying this, wait a minute. What are you guys? What are you guys talking about? I mean, for those who don't know what we've been doing, like, what do you, what do you mean? Are you, are you, are you going to take away my versus are you going to take away things that I have. That's not what we're doing.
Nehemia (30:28):
And I was speaking to somebody and explaining this to her. I was very excited. I was talking to my wife and I was explaining this to her. And, and, and, and she said, so are you saying Jesus didn't say verses six and seven. I say, no, I'm not saying that. Right? We have a testimony from the Greek Mathew that, that's what he said. I'm not saying that. I'm saying the Hebrew version of Matthew doesn't preserve that, that it preserves a, um, a simpler version. You know, where verses six and seven came? They're from the Greek? No question about it. Uh, did they get, you know, with somebody there who heard it? I have no way of knowing that, right? That's, that's beyond the scope of what I can talk about. That comes to a matter of faith. That's not a question of textual criticism. What I can say is verses six and seven don't appear in Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew. Now we'll talk about verses six and seven if you let me, when we get that far.
Keith (31:15):
Of course.
Nehemia (31:15):
We'll talk about the Hebrew background and context of those verses. I think that's very important. I think it's fascinating in fact, but I don't think we're going to get to that this time. I, I, so here's what I'd like to do. So I want to set the stage for the multitudes that came to hear Yeshua preach. When they heard the phrase ashraya, ashraya, and in the Greek, there's 10. And some people have said, that's opposite the 10 commandments. That just as Yehovah called out from the mountain and the 10 commandments, the 10 words actually in Hebrew, that Jesus has now called out the 10 ashrays, that there's this new dispensation where things aren't there. People who say that?
Keith (31:55):
Absolutely.
Nehemia (31:56):
Or the whole, or sometimes they say the entire sermon on the Mount is, is opposite of the 10 commandments. Is a new dispensation, essentially replacing 10 commandments. Some Christians have said that. There's actually a very, I'll call it beautiful in an aesthetic sense. There's this beautiful building and the Galilee called Galilee House. It's a Catholic institution and they have this. They must have spent tens of millions of dollars, I'm guessing. They have this beautiful marble sculpture, I guess you could call it. And it has in Hebrew on one side, the 10 commandments and opposite it, the sermon on the Mount. And it's the place some Catholics believe the Sermon on the Mount, or even before the Catholics, someplace some Christians believe the Sermon on the Mount took place. We actually went there and they explained that the Sermon on the Mount replaced 10 commandments. This is the new law. Now, I mean, I guess that's a matter of faith. I'm not going to argue with that one way or the other. I don't think the Torah could ever be done away with. I think you Yeshua says that. We'll get to that in a later episode.
Keith (32:51):
Absolutely.
Nehemia (32:51):
But ultimately it comes down to theology. But here's what we can say. Anybody who came to Yeshua preaching, they had a whole constellation of ideas running around in their head and particularly the word ASHRAE. They had all these ashrays that they already knew. And if you believe what he says in Matthew 5:17, that we'll get to in a future episode, he's not replacing the ashrays in the Tanakh. I think he came to reiterate those. And so I think it's important that we look at the ashrays, the blessing be's, the beatitudes of the Tanakh. And I want to do that in the plus section, Keith, I think it's so important. I don't even know if could fit in the plus section before we, before we jumped to the plus section, I want to just do this. I want to explain the word ASHRAE just linguistically. What it means. It is translated, blessed be. But it has a connotation that's much more than that. And I just want to read two passages to illustrate that, or maybe a little bit more than two, we'll see. So Proverbs 31:28. It's one of my favorite passages in the Tanakh. I know I always say that, but it really is one of my favorite passages in the Tanakh. You know, for years, I prayed that Yehovah would give me the Proverbs 31 woman. That was my prayer in Hebrew, Proverbs 31 verse 10 begins [Hebrew] who will find a woman of valor. And when I found my woman of valor, I announced to the world, I found my (Hebrew) and people thought that was her name. They said, that's a strange last name, her last name is Chale. Um, but okay, sure. But why is this important? It's describing this woman of valor, the, the ideal Tanakh woman. Let's read it. It's so beautiful. A capable - I'm gonna read, you know, I'm gonna read the JPS translation, um, here, and I may have to jump in and correct some things. What a rare find is a capable wife. And the literally it's what, uh, says literally who can find a woman of valor and really it's a woman of might, right? It takes strength to be a devout wife, a good wife. Her worth is far beyond that of rubies. Her husband puts his confidence in her and lacks no good thing. She's good to him, never bad all the days of her life. She looks for wool and flax and sets her hand to them with a will. She is like a merchant fleet, bringing her food from afar. She rises while it is still night and supplies provisions for her household, the daily fare for maids. She sets her mind on the state and acquires it.
Nehemia (35:28):
She plants a vineyard by her own labors. She girds herself with strength and perform her tasks with vigor. She sees that her business thrives, her lamp never goes out at night. She sets her hand to the distaff. Her fingers work the spindle. This is a beautiful passage. We should do a program just on this. Yes. I'm going to jump ahead. There's so many beautiful things here. Of course, there's the most beautiful part of the whole song or the whole, uh, it's really a poem. And by the way, it's an alphabetical poem. Every line of this begins with a different letter of the alef bet, right? So letter shin, which is verse 30 is [Hebrew]. Grace is deceptive. Beauty is a losery. [Hebrew] A woman who fears you Yehovah, she shall be praised. Now, what does that have to do? What does that have to do with the beatitudes? Well, first of all, happy wife, happy life. Ashray literally means happy. That's the significance.
Keith (36:27):
That's what I was waiting for, Nehemia.
Nehemia (36:31):
So Proverbs 31 verse 28 is (Hebrew), her sons, her children arise and they proclaim her happy. They ASHRAE her. Right? How do they ashray her? They, they declare her happy. Ashray literally means happy. We translate it as blessed be. And we translate as ? And in Greek, a similar word, but ASHRAE literally means happy. (Hebrew). Her children arise and they declare her happy. Her husband, and he arises and he praises her. And you can get an idea of what it means to proclaim somebody happy from the word viehallela. And he praises her. Now, this is the word that appears in hallelujah. Keith, what hallelujah mean? You're the hallelujah minister? What is it
Keith (37:25):
To me? Praise Yehovah. That's what it means.
Nehemia (37:29):
But what does hallel literally mean?
Keith (37:32):
Praise!
Nehemia (37:33):
This is the Pearl of the episode, Keith. It does mean praise, but it has a literal meaning. Now this is a very common thing in every language that I know of at least, but certainly in biblical Hebrew, that things start out with a concrete sense. And from there they expand to an abstract sense. And in the case of how hallel we have, we have a rare phenomenon in language, which is that most words in every language, linguists argue that there's no connection between the word and the object it signifies. So we have the word kelev, which means dog and mainstream linguistics maintains that the word kelev has nothing to do with the word dog. It's just that we've assigned that word. And we could say Yehovah assigned that word, because Hebrew is the original language spoken before the, before the mixing of the languages that creation was spoken in.
Nehemia (38:30):
You could say that, but there's nothing about the word kelev that would tell me it has anything to do with dog. What about the word woof? Right? A dog makes the sound woof, woof. So woof woof obviously has something to do with the sound it signifies. It's what we call an onamata pia. Anamata is, is, uh, it's basically the sound it makes in Greek. Okay.Onomata pia. So the onomata pia of woof woof in Hebrew, it's not woof, woof, it's hav hav, because when they hear a dog barking, they hear hav hav. So the word Hallel is actually an onomata pia. Did you know that?
Keith (39:07):
No, I did not.
Nehemia (39:07):
So if you go to a Jewish wedding, especially Jews who come from the middle East and you go to other events, other celebrations, you'll see, particularly the women will make a noise, which is the noise called hallel in biblical Hebrew. And the noise they make is with their tongue. It sounds something like, I can't do it. I'm not a woman. I'm certainly wasn't born in the middle East. But it sounds like (sound). Have you heard that?
Keith (39:39):
Yeah, of course.
Nehemia (39:40):
Okay. So in English actually has a term called Ululation. In Hebrew, modern Hebrew, it's called helium and in biblical Hebrew it's hallel. So why does that mean praise? Because when you praise someone, you know, in English, we say, wow, he's amazing. And in the middle East and ancient Israel, you say (sound).
Nehemia (40:06):
Now, some people will say, Oh no, Nehemia, that comes from the Arab culture. So I could actually show you this. This is a beautiful passage in a ancient rabbinical book called Genesis Raba. Genesis raba is a Midrash written around the year 500 or so, contains earlier material. And according to Genesis Raba, there's this cute word pun between the name of Leah and lululation. And it actually mentions there that the entire night before Jacob went in, remember the story, Jacob is marrying. He thinks he's marrying Rahel, but he's really marrying Leah. And the entire night before, according to Genesis Raba, the women were crying out the entire day before the big night. Let's put it that way. The women were crying out (sound). What Genesis Raba is saying is why do we make this noise when someone gets married? (Sound). Cause when Jacob married Leah, which sounds like (sound), the women were warning, Jacob, it's not Rahel. It's not Rahel. It's Leah, it's Leah.
Nehemia (41:19):
I don't think for a minute that the women were trying to tell Jacob that this is Leah. But what it tells you is when this, when this was written around the year 500 or 450, AD or something like this, that Jews already making the sound at weddings. This was a celebration. This is ululation. So how does this have to do with ASHRAE? Because ASHRAE is to proclaim somebody happy. We say blessed, but really it's happy. And it is in many places, we have the word ASHRAE parallel to hallel. Um, and so when you say someone's happy, you are saying (sound). He's happy, hallelujah.
Nehemia (42:02):
and that is what it literally means, hallel, hallelujah.
Keith (42:04):
Thi is such a natural transition Nehemia, because what we're going to do is when we move into the plus section, we're going to talk about how you can be happy. And let me tell you folks, I don't know about you. Sorry. I don't know about you, but I could use some happy. And so what we're going to do is we're going to move on. Now, Nehemia, let me, let me just offer. Can I, can I offer something to people so that they can study along with us? Um, we did do a section, uh, at BFA international. So when this plus section is going to be at BFA International. You go there, you, you go to BFA international front page, you become a premium member and you get the plus section, which we're going to dive into what I call the biblical beatitudes. Getting to the depth of what Yeshua was teaching from a biblical basis.
Keith (42:50):
But for those of you that are not ready to go to the plus section, we also have the red letter series, which is actually covering these verses. So what we're not able to do right now, because of time, we are able to give you access to that through a free opportunity to study. I think there's six pages of notes just on Matthew chapter five, verse three. And we go through the entire beatitudes and throughout the sermon on the Mount. But what I love about this is this, this allows us to really get to what I'm calling... And, Nehemia, please excuse me for saying this, but I just feel like we just let you loose with the information that you have. That's exciting information. It's going to take a hard hat. So folks that want to go deeper that want to get into the depth of this, both from a textual standpoint, language, history, and context, please join us in the plus section for this particular part. I don't know how far we're going to get, but then we'll be doing more. The next time we're gonna do another episode, and we'll be at nehemiaswall. So that's what we want to invite people to is to right now, come with us to be (sound) as Yeshua taught the blesseds. And that's what we're about to move to. Is, is that, is that good with you?
Nehemia (43:57):
Yes. So, so I, I just want to explain to people one more time. So what we're doing now is this is the constellation of ideas, that we're not just going to get to the Tanakh ones, hopefully. We're also going to look at other things from like Ben Sira. We have something from the dead sea scrolls. These are the set of ideas that when people came to hear Yeshua say ashrae, it wasn't that, Oh, now we're replacing all the ashraes we had in the past. No he's clarifying. And so the ashrays they had in the past, this is a natural extension when he was teaching. And I know there's some people out there who are probably nervous, who are saying, wait a minute, you didn't even really talk about verse three, you really going to do Matthew five, one through 12, but not talk about verse three. And so in the previous season and season one, when we ran out of time, we said, okay, we just won't be able to get to that. We actually made a decision beforehand that there's so much important in this passage and itself five, one through 12, that if it takes, you know, two episodes or four episodes or whatever it takes, we're going to get through the beatitudes. Yes. We're going to do everything we can at least to get through these beatitudes, Yehovah willing.
Keith (44:57):
Yes. And we're taking our time, you all, because I'll just tell you from me personally, it has already blessed me abundantly. It's even changed some of my actions and things that I've looked at it from a Hebrew standpoint that really, really have blessed me. And so I'm looking forward to this for you, you all. We want to invite you to be a part of the plus episode. Go to bfainternational.com become a premium member at seven days free? You can be there if you don't like it, you don't have to do it, but supporting us is important. And I want to say something about the support issue. The support issue is why we're able to sit here right now. I think it took us five to seven minutes just to go through a checklist of all the different things we have to do to put this together, which doesn't include all the work that Nehemia did in giving us access to these manuscripts. So we really do want your support. We need your support. We're asking for your support, your prayer support, your financial support. We're going to continue to make these publicly available for folks. But for those that are ready to be a part of, uh, uh, what I call the hard hardhat section, we'll see you in the plus section at bfainternational.com. Can we pray Nehemia? You pray first.
Nehemia (45:55):
Sure. Yehovah, I'm so elated. I am so excited that I've had the opportunity, that I've lived long enough to be able to share this information with people, to learn it for myself, to come before you in praise. Yes. And learn what it means, how to be happy and to praise before you praise you with lululation. You're amazing. Hallelujah. Amen
Keith (46:28):
Father, thank you so much for the work that's been put in, uh, for the dedication that Nehemia has just, just provided and has shown us in terms of the study. Thank you for having access, that we have access to this for our friends around the world. We pray that they would study along with us. Give them, uh, inspiration, uh, give them the zeal to want to have the knowledge. And as a result of that, father, help us to understand just what Yeshua was teaching in a practical level, biblical level, practical level, so that we can actually put it into practice in our life. We thank you in advance. We ask for a blessing over our producers. How they do this, we don't know. We just ask that you continue to bring in supporters, both in prayer and financial support. We thank you in advance for what you're going to do through this series of the biblical beatitudes. And we give the entire book of Matthew to you for however long you give for us to study. We're going to do excellence with what you've given us each time we have an opportunity to do it in your name. Amen.
Narrator (47:27):
You have been listening to Hebrew gospel pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. For a more in-depth study, check out Hebrew gospel pearls plus at nehemiaswall.com and BFAinternational.com. Thank you for your support.