אשרי רודפי שלום שבני אלקים יקראו׃ 9
אשרי רדפי שלום כי־בני אלהים יקראו׃ 9
The meaning is the same in both cases:
"Blessed are the peace-pursuers for they shall be called sons of God."
The first line is Mt. 5:9 in Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew.
The second is the same verse in the nineteenth-century Delitzsch Hebrew New Testament (I've left out the pointing so that the similarity can be better seen.
Why is this significant? Well, these are the ONLY texts I could find that use the phrase רדפי שלום (pursuers of peace). Not the Greek, not the Old Latin, not the Vulgate. not the Peshitta, Not Ezekiel Margoliouth, not Münster, not Du Tillet, not Salkinson. Not any other known text (so far as I know), yet Delitzsch kept this phrase in place through all of his editions, and after his death in 1890 his successor, Dalman, did the same.
Why? Because he (and also Dalman) recognized its significance. Significance that is very great both for the original language and transmission history of the Gospel according to Matthew, and also for the proper evaluation of Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew.
The phrase in question is a reference to Psalm 34, verse 14:
"Depart from evil and do good;
seek peace, and pursue it."
Who are the peace-pursuers? They are the peaceful. Mt. 5:9 says nothing about "peaceMAKERS." That is a mistranslation into Greek, and it appears that all of the Greek mss reflect it (all of those in the apparatus to my NA25 do, at least). When I checked the oldest Old Latin that we have, Codex Bobiensis ("k"), I found "Baeati patifici (=pacifici, the peaceful) quoniam ipsi fili di uocabuntur." After that, I checked the Vulgate, and found "beati pacifici quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur." The spelling in "k" is more archaic, but both are correct (though not literal) translations of the Hebrew, as seen in the Shem-Tob Hebrew Matthew. The Greek, on the other hand, is NOT a correct translation.
Now, I don't think "peacemakers" occurs in the Old Testament (I searched two concordances and didn't find it), but it's perfectly possible to say "make peace" in Biblical Hebrew. In fact, Isaiah did it twice in 27:5. But the original Hebrew of the Gospel of Matthew did not say "peacemakers;" it said "peace-pursuers." How do we know that this is true? Read on.
The verses Mt. 5:8-12 are all connected by catchwords. Catchwords are a mnemonic device often connected with the stage of oral transmission. These verses are part of the oldest kernel of the Gospel of Matthew. Mt. 5:9 (peace-pursuers / peacemakers) is connected by catchwords to both the preceding verse and the following three verses by catchwords. Prominent among these catchwords is the verb רדף (Strong's #7291), which in Hebrew means both "to pursue" and "to persecute." If you mistranslate Mt. 5:9, as was done in the Greek manuscripts, you lose the catchword connection to the following three verses. This is, no doubt, why Delitzsch kept the correct Hebrew, as reflected in the Shem-Tob Hebrew Matthew, even though other texts did not share it. He understood its significance.
I am not surprised that Professor Delitzsch was aware of the Shem-Tob Hebrew Matthew. He was a very scholarly man, and was probably aware of many of the translations into Hebrew that had preceded him. When the British and Foreign Bible Society agreed to publish his work, they insisted that he follow the Textus Receptus (Received Text), not even allowing him to base his translation primarily on the Codex Sinaiticus, as he had done in his first (1877) edition. Even so, he allowed "peace-pursuers" to stay, knowing (for the reasons that I've stated above) that the phrase was correct, and that it was strong evidence for the original language of the Gospel of Matthew. On this, he never backed down.
Text © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.
The second is the same verse in the nineteenth-century Delitzsch Hebrew New Testament (I've left out the pointing so that the similarity can be better seen.
Why is this significant? Well, these are the ONLY texts I could find that use the phrase רדפי שלום (pursuers of peace). Not the Greek, not the Old Latin, not the Vulgate. not the Peshitta, Not Ezekiel Margoliouth, not Münster, not Du Tillet, not Salkinson. Not any other known text (so far as I know), yet Delitzsch kept this phrase in place through all of his editions, and after his death in 1890 his successor, Dalman, did the same.
Why? Because he (and also Dalman) recognized its significance. Significance that is very great both for the original language and transmission history of the Gospel according to Matthew, and also for the proper evaluation of Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew.
The phrase in question is a reference to Psalm 34, verse 14:
"Depart from evil and do good;
seek peace, and pursue it."
Who are the peace-pursuers? They are the peaceful. Mt. 5:9 says nothing about "peaceMAKERS." That is a mistranslation into Greek, and it appears that all of the Greek mss reflect it (all of those in the apparatus to my NA25 do, at least). When I checked the oldest Old Latin that we have, Codex Bobiensis ("k"), I found "Baeati patifici (=pacifici, the peaceful) quoniam ipsi fili di uocabuntur." After that, I checked the Vulgate, and found "beati pacifici quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur." The spelling in "k" is more archaic, but both are correct (though not literal) translations of the Hebrew, as seen in the Shem-Tob Hebrew Matthew. The Greek, on the other hand, is NOT a correct translation.
Now, I don't think "peacemakers" occurs in the Old Testament (I searched two concordances and didn't find it), but it's perfectly possible to say "make peace" in Biblical Hebrew. In fact, Isaiah did it twice in 27:5. But the original Hebrew of the Gospel of Matthew did not say "peacemakers;" it said "peace-pursuers." How do we know that this is true? Read on.
The verses Mt. 5:8-12 are all connected by catchwords. Catchwords are a mnemonic device often connected with the stage of oral transmission. These verses are part of the oldest kernel of the Gospel of Matthew. Mt. 5:9 (peace-pursuers / peacemakers) is connected by catchwords to both the preceding verse and the following three verses by catchwords. Prominent among these catchwords is the verb רדף (Strong's #7291), which in Hebrew means both "to pursue" and "to persecute." If you mistranslate Mt. 5:9, as was done in the Greek manuscripts, you lose the catchword connection to the following three verses. This is, no doubt, why Delitzsch kept the correct Hebrew, as reflected in the Shem-Tob Hebrew Matthew, even though other texts did not share it. He understood its significance.
I am not surprised that Professor Delitzsch was aware of the Shem-Tob Hebrew Matthew. He was a very scholarly man, and was probably aware of many of the translations into Hebrew that had preceded him. When the British and Foreign Bible Society agreed to publish his work, they insisted that he follow the Textus Receptus (Received Text), not even allowing him to base his translation primarily on the Codex Sinaiticus, as he had done in his first (1877) edition. Even so, he allowed "peace-pursuers" to stay, knowing (for the reasons that I've stated above) that the phrase was correct, and that it was strong evidence for the original language of the Gospel of Matthew. On this, he never backed down.
Text © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.
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