But the Gospels are not monolithic, and neither are their sources. The first two chapters of Luke contain material not common to the other Gospels, referred to as "special Luke." Most of this material was, almost certainly, translated from a document in the Hebrew language. There is a great deal of evidence for this, and some of the most convincing, as was brought to our attention by Jean Carmignac, is in the Benedictus (Lk. 1:68-79), specifically in Lk. 1:72-73. If one reads these verses in Hebrew, encoded into them are references to John (the Baptist), Zachary (his father), and Elizabeth (his mother). Like the Anunciation and the Magnificat, the Benedictus, spoken by Zachary, is a pastiche of quotations from Jewish Scripture. To catch on to this code, one has to know that the Hebrew form of John, Yohanan, means "God (Yah) is merciful (hanan)," the name Elisabeth means "My God (Eli) has sworn (saba)," and the name Zacharyah means "God (Yah) remembered (zakar)." It only works in Hebrew.
I might also add that these lovely biblical pastiches, The Annunciation, the Magnificat, and the Benedictus could only have been assembled by someone, or several someones, exceedingly well versed in the Hebrew Scriptures.
The first two chapters of Luke are as much about John the Baptist as they are about Jesus. In connection with this it is interesting to note that a lot of people believe that John was a member of the Essene community at Qumran. It is not impossible that the Hebrew document from which Luke got the "special Luke" material originated in the Qumran community, and we may yet find it, or fragments of it, among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
It is also interesting to note that in some ancient manuscripts of Irenaeus and Origen, as well as in some of the Old Latin texts, the Magnificat is actually attributed to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and not to Mary, the mother of Jesus. It is certainly a confusing transition: one minute they are talking about Elizabeth, and the next about Mary. But it is not only the first two chapters of Luke that were clearly translated from Hebrew. We have already shown that to be the case in connection with the "Our Father." It is likely that all of the Sayings material, the so-called "Q" material, was translated from Hebrew. Evidence of this abounds.
Since I have mentioned the hypothetical "Q" (from German Quelle = source) document, this is as good a time as any to say that I do not believe in its existence, nor do I need it to explain Synoptic textual relationships.
(to be continued)
ul.jpg)
The above image is from Delitzsch's nineteenth-century translation of the New Testament into Hebrew. It includes Luke 1:72-73, and I have underlined in red the encoded references to "mercy" (for Yohanan), "remembering" (for Zakaryah), and "sworn" (for Elisabeth), John the Baptist and his parents. This could be seen just as well in Salkinson's Hebrew translation, and indeed in any Hebrew rendering of these verses. But the "code" only works in Hebrew.
Text Copyright © 2022 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.
