Reading Matthew in Hebrew - V

Recently I've been enjoying reading the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew, the language in which at least the Sayings portion of it was probably originally written. The exercise has been very instructive. Consider, for example, Mt. 6:7-13. Here is verse 7 in the Revised Standard Version: "And in praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words." The word used in the Greek text for "Gentiles" is "ethnikoi." One of the very best texts though, Codex Vaticanus, has "hypocrites" instead of "Gentiles." Vaticanus, known as "B," is a fourth-century complete Bible in Greek, housed in the Vatican Library. The Old Syriac texts , also fourth-century, also have "hypocrites," as does the Peshitta, sometimes called the Syriac Vulgate, which is a fifth-century text.

The fourth century was a watershed year for textual changes. Something big had happened. Upon the conversion of Constantine, the fledgling Church had formed an alliance with its former oppressors, and no longer wished to offend them.

One of my texts of Hebrew Matthew, that of Shem Tob ibn Saprut, which may have been translated from either an Old Syriac text or an Old Latin one, uses instead the term "minim," a post-biblical word for heretical sectarians, which eventually came to be used for the Jewish Christians. If the latter is the meaning in the Shem Tob text, as it could be from the point of view of Jewish polemics, then it is a glaring anachronism. There is another possibility, though. It may have been used to refer to the Sadducees, who harshly enforced the Torah, but rejected the Prophets and the Writings. This would make sense from the point of view of the Pharisees, and the evidence that we have indicates that Rabbi Yeshua was a Pharisee, as was Saul/Paul. Paul was a student of Gamaliel, who was a student of Hillel.

But why would the people of Antioch, which was likely where the Syriac versions originated, have cared about offending the Gentiles? The answer is simple: the young church of Antioch was full of Gentiles, in addition to Jewish Christians. Rabbi Yeshua's original audience was composed of Jews, but by the fourth century this was no longer the case.

As I continued reading, I noticed that the Hebrew translation I was using, that of Delitzsch, had the longer, "Protestant" ending of the Lord's Prayer in Mt. 6:13. He wouldn't have wanted it that way, since it was not in accord with the best textual criticism of the time, but the British and Foreign Bible Society had forced him to use the "Received Text," which represents the Byzantine textual type. I checked the Salkinson translation, and found that, while the English on the facing page was exactly the same, the Hebrew reflected the shorter, "Catholic" ending. Shem Tob's text also had a short ending. All of this aroused my curiosity, so I did a little more digging.

I found that both the Curetonian Syriac (Syr-c) and the Peshitta (Syr-p) had the longer, Byzantine ending. Unfortunately, the older and better Sinaitic Syriac (Syr-s) is not a witness, due to a lacuna in the text. There are, however three very old texts that do have something resembling the Byzantine ending: Codex Bobiensis ("k"), the Sahidic Coptic version (SA), and the Didache (Did). Of these, "k" only mentions "the power" (virtus); the Sahidic says "the power and the glory," as does the Didache. But none of them mention "the kingdom." So we have a very interesting trajectory through time.

We have only two representatives of the Old Syriac textual type, both dating to the fourth century. This type of text was replaced by the fifth-century Peshitta, which aimed to more closely adhere to the Greek text, in the interest of Church unity. In fact, a serious effort was made to destroy all earlier texts, but as usual, they were not quite able to get them all.

Bobiensis ("k") is also a fourth-century manuscript, and its original provenance is thought to have been North Africa. It represents the earliest form of the Old Latin textual type. Thanks to quotations by Saint Cyprian and some others, we know that a text of this type existed at least as early as the third century. One theory is that the African type of Old Latin text originated in the same place as the Old Syriac, probably Antioch.

The Sahidic Coptic version is from the third century. The Didache is dated to either the first or the second century. The only copy we have of the original Greek, though, is a medieval one that was discovered in the late nineteenth century.

So the trajectory we are looking at in the development of the "longer ending" of the Pater Noster goes from terse in the early centuries of Christianity to verbose, adding "the kingdom" in the Alexandrian and Byzantine textual types. No part of the "longer ending" of the Pater Noster ever became official, however, in the Church of Rome. This is worth thinking about. In any case, the "longer ending" of the Pater Noster is only a loose echo of the matrix from which it sprang, which is Divrei HaYomim 1 (1 Chronicles 29:11): "Yours, Lord, are greatness, might, splendor, triumph and majesty--yes, all that is in heaven and on earth; to You, Lord, belong kingship and preeminence above all." [This English is from my JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh, and is based on the Masoretic text.]

By the late fourth century, the young church of Rome was stuck in a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, having fallen into an alliance with its former oppressors. No Roman emperor would have wanted to hear that the "kingdom" belonged to a foreign god. After all, the emperors themselves had claimed to be gods. It was, in any case, an unholy alliance.

It is to be presumed that the churches of the East had less circumspection about offending the Roman Emperor. Some may have been horrified by the "establishment" of the Roman church, and therefore of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Some, in the East, may have felt the need for a cautionary comment. It seems to me probable that this was the Sitz im Leben of the newly-expanded verse 13.

Some claim that the Pater Noster is taken from the third, fifth, sixth, ninth, and fifteenth blessings of the Amidah, or Shemoneh Esrei, the central prayer of the synagogue liturgy, which is recited by observant Jews three times a day. Certainly there are similarities. I have seen it claimed that Rabbi Yeshua was not the only itinerant Rabbi who taught a "boiled-down" version of the Amidah at that time. I'll take no position on these claims, since I haven't had time to research them. What I will say is that the Pater Noster (let's start calling it the Avinu) is very, very striking in Hebrew.

Avinu shebashamayim yitkadash shmecha

"Yitkadash shmecha." Let Your name be made holy. Because from this blessing all the others will flow. A world in which the Name is revered and respected, will be a world in which all Life is revered and respected, and in which we respect each other. It is a path to a better world.

Tavo malchutecha

May your kingdom come. (Replacing the rule of unethical imposters and usurpers who poison our existence because of their greed and lust for power.)

Yeaseh ritzoncha kmo bashamayim ken baaretz

May your will be done as in the heavens, so also on the earth.

Et-lechem chuqenu ten-lanu hayom

Give us this day our daily bread

Us'lach-lanu et-chovotenu kaasher salachnu gam-anachnu l'chayavenu

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors

V'al-t'viyenu liydey nisayon kiy im-chaltzenu min-hara'

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil,

[Kiy l'cha hamamlakhah v'hag'vurah v'hatipheret l'ol'mey olamiym] amen

[for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.] Amen.

That version, as I said above, agrees with the Received Text. Here is the Shaprut Hebrew Matthew version, which probably dates to the early centuries of the Common Era:

אבינו יתקדש שמך

ויתברך מלכותך רצונך יהיה עשוי בשמים ובארץ ׃

ותתן לחמנו תמידית ׃

ומחול לנו חטאתינו כאשר אנחנו מוחלים לחוטאים לנו

ואל תביאנו לידי נסיון ושמרינו מכל רע אמן ׃

Our father, may your name be sanctified;

may your kingdom be blessed; may your will be done in heaven and on earth.

Give our bread continually.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,

and do not lead us into the power of temptation but keep us from all evil, amen.