Synoptica XXI - The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel

This blog entry is a follow-on to Synoptica XX, and is intended to further illustrate the importance of the Synoptic Problem.

In Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew we read (Mt. 10:5-6, in George Howard's translation):

5 These twelve he sent; he commanded them saying: To the lands of the Gentiles do not go and into the cities of the Samaritans do not enter.
6 Go to the sheep who have strayed from the house of Israel.

This is pretty clear, and we see that it is described as a command.

In Greek Matthew, which as we have shown was translated from Hebrew, just as Papias said, we have (in the RSV translation):

5 These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The wording is a little different, but the message is essentially the same: Don't go there.

Interestingly, none of this is in Mark or Luke.


Let's go now to Mt. 15:24 (in George Howard's translation from Hebrew):

24 Jesus answered them: They did not send me except to the lost sheep from the house of Israel.


In Greek Matthew (RSV translation) we have:

24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."


Again, there is silence from Mark and Luke.

These words of Rabbi Yeshua were spoken in the context of a foreign woman asking for his help. Hebrew Matthew describes her (Mt. 15:22) as "a certain Canaanite woman, who came from the lands of the East . . . " In Greek Matthew we read (RSV): "a Canaanite woman from that region . . ." Mark says (Mk. 7:26, RSV): "Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth." But in telling the story, Mark leaves out the statement about Rabbi Yeshua/Jesus being sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Luke does not tell the story at all, as he wishes not to offend his Gentile audience.


Only Matthew reports the words about the "lost sheep of the house of Israel," and he does so in two places. In both cases, Mark and Luke are silent about it.

Some scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark was written for the Romans, and may have originally been written in Latin, resulting in rather awkward Greek. There is a lot of evidence to indicate that the Gospel of Luke was written primarily for the Gentiles, whom he avoids offending. But the Gospel of Matthew was unquestionably written for the Jews.

We have already given strong evidence that the original language of the Gospel of Matthew was Hebrew, just as Papias stated in the second century. But even apart from considerations of language, we note from internal content that where Mark needed to explain Jewish customs to his audience, Matthew did not. We see a good example of this in Mt. 15:1-20, || Mk. 7:1-23, "What Defiles a Man."

If we were to assume Markan or Lukan priority, we could claim that the words about the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" were added by the Jews. But if we assume Matthaean priority, as did the Church for more than ninety percent of its history, then we can reasonably assume that these words were suppressed by evangelists writing for an audience of Gentiles.

Any theory of Markan or Lukan priority has two effects: 1) it stands history on its head; and 2) it has the effect, whether intended or unintended, of de-Semitizing the origins of Christianity.

Text © 2019 by Donald C. Traxler.