We are familiar with these verses (Mt. 3:11-12), about John the Baptist, in the texts of the Greek tradition. Substantial light is thrown on them by a comparison with Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew, which I offer here in George Howard's translation:
11 John answered all of them: Behold I truly baptize you in the days of repentance, but another comes mightier than I, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten. He will baptize you with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
12 His winnowing fork is in his hand to fan his threshing floor and he will gather the grain into his granary and the straw (he will burn with fire which is not quenched).
First of all, the phrase "John answered all of them" is, in the Greek tradition, only found in Luke 3:16, and not in any Greek manuscript of Matthew that we have. According to my Layered Matthew Hypothesis, Luke got it from an earlier edition of Matthew, from which it was later edited out as superfluous. Similarly, the word "Behold" has been edited out of both Matthew and Luke in the Greek tradition, as an unnecessary Semitic artifact. The word "truly" only appears in Hebrew Matthew, and appears to have been replaced by the Greek word "μεν," probably on stylistic grounds, in the other tradition.
The phrase "in the days" is another story. In the days of repentance, בימי, is a copyist's error made in copying from another Hebrew ms. It should be במי, where "water" is in the construct state, which tells us that it belongs in a phrase with something else, in this case "repentance," in "water of repentance," a good description of baptismal water. Note that the only difference between the two words is one Yod, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This is an important clue, though, as it shows us that "repentance" does, indeed, belong in the verse. This is important, because the word "repentance" does not appear in the parallel verse in Mark at all, and shows up only in some "Western" texts of Luke. It is now generally (if grudgingly) admitted that the "Western" (Syro-Latin) textual tradition is older than the Greek textual tradition. Examples of the "Western" text type are not very numerous, because it was suppressed in favor of the Vulgate and Peshitta, which are both harmonized with the Greek textual type.
The Hebrew text clears up another mystery for us: Why is Matthew alone in saying "whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, while Luke has "the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie," and Mark is similar to Luke?" The cause of this is a translation variant when translating Matthew from Hebrew to Greek, specifically the similarity in appearance between the words התיר (unfasten) and הסיע (carry). This, of course, is further evidence that Matthew was originally written in Hebrew, not Greek. Also since Hebrew Matthew includes "thong/lace," we know that "unfasten" is correct, not "carry." The translation error in Greek Matthew was so pervasive, though, that none of the Greek manuscripts have the right verb.
Finally, the last part of Mt. 3:11 agrees verbatim with the parallel in Luke, "he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." This is not surprising, since the following verse also agrees verbatim in Matthew and Luke, This is part of the abundant evidence for literary dependence between Matthew and Luke. They could not have gotten Mt. 3:12 || Lk 3:17 from Mark, who does not even have it. Nor does Mark mention fire. But fire is logically necessary for the contrast with water, so has a good claim to being there originally. But what does "he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" even mean? The difficulty is cleared up by Hebrew Matthew, which says "he will baptize you with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Text © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.
