Commentary on the Teachings of Rabbi Yeshua VI - Second Matthaean Beatitude

אַשְׁרֵי הַחִוכִּים שְׁיְנוּחָמוּ׃

The above is the second Matthaean Beatitude, Mt. 5:4, according to Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew, pointed as well as I was able. It reads, "Happy are those who wait, for they shall be comforted." This differs, of course, from the canonical "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." 

Professor Howard tried to explain (p. 226 of his 1995 edition, footnote 104) mourn/wait as a translation variant. Maybe it is, somehow, but his explanation seemed like a stretch to me.

In some ms. traditions, this saying appears as verse 5, coming after "the meek," which appears in only one of the nine texts that Howard examined. The reversed verse order is found in the older, "Western" (Syro-Latin) tradition, and in the Vulgate.

I cannot explain why the Greek tradition has "mourn," while Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew has "wait." It seems to me, though, that "wait" fits in well here, coming after a verse about humility. Humility and patience are both personal virtues, while mourning is not. It would seem, thus, that Rabbi Yeshua intended this set of sayings to teach personal virtues.

As to the other verse, "the meek," I have never liked it, and to me it does not sound like Rabbi Yeshua's voice. Most of the mss. of Hebrew Matthew do not have it, nor does Luke. My view is that "the meek" is probably not original.

Text © 2020 by Donald Jacobson Traxler.

Between the Worlds (+Udugi, fr, es, pt)

He lives between the worlds,
where imagination and intuition make a difference.

atsvyai ehase equa-elohidi ayeli,
hatlv iyelisdo ale hawinaditlvge-unvtado gotlvdase nudalehnadone.

ᎠᏨᏯᎢ ᎡᎭᏎ ᎡᏆ-ᎡᎶᎯᏗ ᎠᏰᎵ,
ᎭᏢ ᎢᏰᎵᏍᏙ ᎠᎴ ᎭᏫᎾᏗᏢᎨ-ᎤᏅᏔᏙ ᎪᏢᏓᏎ ᏄᏓᎴᎿᏙᏁ.

Il vit entre les mondes,
où l'imagination et l'intuition font la différence.

El vive entre los mundos,
donde la imaginación y la intuición marcan la diferencia.

Ele vive entre os mundos,
onde imaginação e intuição fazem a diferença.

Text and image © 2020 by Donald Jacobson Traxler.

Self-Portrait / Autoportrait / Autoretrato / Auto-retrato

Self-portrait is a funny word,
it takes us on a wild ride
among faults, both real and those imagined,
but cannot show the self inside.

Autoportrait est un mot drôle,
il nous emmène dans une course folle
parmi les défauts, réels et imaginaires,
mais ne peut pas montrer le soi à l'intérieur.

Autorretrato es una palabra graciosa,
nos lleva en un viaje salvaje
entre fallas, tanto reales como imaginadas,
pero no puede mostrar el ser adentro.

Auto-retrato é uma palavra engraçada,
nos leva a um passeio selvagem
entre falhas, reais e imaginadas,
mas não pode mostrar o eu por dentro.

Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.

Commentary on the Teachings of Rabbi Yeshua V - First Matthaean Beatitude

וַיִפְתַּח פִּי(ה)וּ וַיִדְבֹר אֶלָיהֶם לֵאמֹר׃

אַשְרֵי שָׁפְלֵי רוּחַ שְלָהֶם מַלְכוּת שָמָיִם׃

The above is Mt. 5:2-3 in Sham-Tob's Hebrew Matthew. It reads as follows:

And he opened his mouth and spoke to them, saying:

(Blessed are the humble of spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.)

I have put verse 3, which Professor Howard showed in parentheses, in a smaller font, because it is only present in ms. A of those examined by Howard. In verse 2, I have added, in parentheses, a letter that should be there, but is not in Sham-Tob's writing. (I did this for the sake of clarity.)

This is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, arguably the core of Rabbi Yeshua's teaching. I included the prefatory verse 2 because it has the typically Semitic phrase "he opened his mouth and spoke."

There are many things to say about verse 3. First of all, it is loosely paralleled by Luke 6:20:

Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

In the Greek tradition, the Matthaean verse became:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The literal meaning of the Hebrew is:

Blessed are the low of spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the skies.

The "low" here can also mean "humble," thus Professor Howard's translation, and in English we usually translate "שמים" as "heaven.


The presence of verse 3 in only one of the nine mss, that Professor Howard examined, indicates that it was, for whatever reason, a late addition to Hebrew Matthew. The interactions between Matthew and Luke are particularly interesting in this case.In the Vulgate (ca. 400CE), St. Jerome has "beati paupers spiritu" (blessed are the poor in spirit" in Mt. 5:3, and he has "beati pauperes" (blessed are the poor) in Luke 6:20. One wonders how this difference came about, and also why, in the Greek tradition, we are now talking about poverty instead of humility. Which is more reasonable, that we should be rewarded with the spiritual kingdom for being poor, or for being humble?

I checked the apparatus in my old, worn Nestle-Aland (NA25), and found that it gave no variants at all for Mt. 5:3. But for the parallel in Luke, it gave several. First of all, the phrase "in spirit" is also found in some very old mss., especially Western ones. The NA editors thought this to be a harmonistic interpolation, but Hebrew Matthew puts this into question. Secondly, some mss. reference the poor in the third person, as in Matthew, and these include The very ancient witnesses W, syr-s, and Marcion, There is no indication, though, that any ms. of Luke has "humble" instead of "poor." The Greek word used is "ptOxós," which means "pauper" or "beggar." It does not say anything about humility.

Luke characteristically did a lot of editing, with the goal of making the Gospel more palatable or more attractive to his audience of non-Jews. This is why he has replaced the euphemistic "of heaven" with "of God." But why was humility replaced by poverty? Perhaps he, or the translator, thought it would make a better selling point.

Rabbi Yeshua's goal, though, was different. He was teaching spiritual principles, in this case humility of spirit, rather than a materialistic end to poverty.

Text and image © 2020 by Donald Jacobson Traxler.

76,000 Visits and a Bottle of Irish Cream

The bottle was O'Donnell's Irish Country Cream. It's similar to Bailey's, but costs much less. That's what we enjoyed last night after a fine dinner prepared by our house guests, who are French Canadian, and excellent cooks.

As to the 76,000 visits to this blog, we received the most recent one thousand in a period of fourteen days, which is faster than usual. That is because there is currently a concerted effort to learn the Udugi language, on the part of some group. I would like to believe that they were Cherokee (Tsalagi) people, but I think it more likely that they are members of a three-letter intelligence agency. That's fine. We have no secrets here, and I'll help anyone to learn it, if they want help. It is a beautiful and expressive language. Its only drawback is that it lacks words for many technical things that are part of modern life.

I have a lot of projects happening right now, so I'm spread rather thin between and among them. I am pointing the text of Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew (I have published Chapter Five without the pointing, and will probably have the pointed version available within a month). I'll be continuing the Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua, Will soon publish a new article in the Synoptica series (it will be Synoptica XXVI), this time on Hebrew Matthew and the Gospel of Thomas. Along with all this, I'll try, as time permits, to continue my memoir series, Journal of a Naked Poet (Part V is next). Of course, there will be poetry and photography as usual.

In the background, Sandy and I are very busy right now, so all of these projects will take some time.

Spring is coming, here on the west coast of mid-Florida. I intend to take some time to enjoy that, too.

As always, thanks to all of you for your continued interest and enthusiasm. Wadó. ꮹꮩ.

Text and images © 2020 by Donald Jacobson Traxler.

Genesis 2:25 Both of Them Were Naked / Tous deux étaient nus / +es, pt, Udugi

וַיִהְיוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם עֲוּמִים הָאָדָם וְאִשְׁתוֹ וְלֹא יִתבֹּשָׁשׁוּ׃

בראשית / Genesis 2:25

Both of them were naked, the man and his woman, and they were not ashamed.

Tous deux étaient nus, l'homme et sa femme, et ils n'avaient pas honte.

Ambos estaban desnudos, el hombre y su mujer, y no estaban avergonzados.

Ambos estavam nus, o homem e sua mulher, e não tinham vergonha.

igvla gesuise uyelvha, asgaya ale utseli ageyv, ale tla gesvise adehosga.

ᎢᎬᎳ ᎨᏑᎢᏎ ᎤᏰᎸᎭ, ᎠᏍᎦᏯ ᎠᎴ ᎤᏤᎵ ᎠᎨᏴ, ᎠᎴ Ꮭ ᎨᏒᎢᏎ ᎠᏕᎰᏍᎦ.

Translations © 2020 by Donald Jacobson Traxler ꮨᏺꭽꮅ.

Vielleicht

Possibly we will all live naked as the Lord intended,
as one family, working together to establish peace,
as one world, struggling to repair itself.
Possibly.
Perhaps.

Peut-être que nous vivrons tous nus comme le Seigneur le voulait,
comme une seule famille, travaillant ensemble pour établir la paix,
comme un seul monde, luttant pour se réparer.
Peut-être.
Peut-être.

Posiblemente todos viviremos desnudos como el Señor pretendía,
como una familia, trabajando juntos para establecer la paz,
como un mundo, luchando por repararse a sí mismo.
Posiblemente.
Quizás.

Possivelmente todos viveremos nus como o Senhor pretendia,
como uma família, trabalhando juntos para estabelecer a paz,
como um mundo, lutando para se reparar.
Possivelmente.
Possivelmente.

Text and image © 2020 by Donald Jacobson Traxler.