"Paul is the apostle of the heretics." Tertullian, Adversus Marcion 3:5 (207 A.D.)

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The Original Gospel of Matthew

Standford Rives, as a follow up to his acclaimed book, Did Calvin Murder Servetus?, has released the thumbnail_image vol 3 at createspaceOriginal Gospel of Matthew (OGM) including Volume III The Final Reconstruction of the Earliest Matthew. The third volume is for devotions. It is built upon the proofs set forth in Volumes I (all variants) and II (scholarly studies in appendices).

The OGM represents what the early church identified as the original work of Matthew in Hebrew. The Ebionites maintained custody at a library in Caesarea which Jerome was granted access to, and he did a complete translation around 390 AD. While that translation manuscript was lost, over 49 quotes of that OGM were made by the early patristic commentators including over 20 by Jerome. Rives has built his reconstruction of the OGM based upon those 49 quotes along with various Hebrew versions of Matthew that have portions which scholars contend are from the OGM.

Volume III -- The Final Reconstruction to use for Devotions

The third volume is the culmination of the two prior volumes. It is 106 pages of color-coded text to identify the original variant sources in the best reconstruction yet of how Matthew's Gospel originally read. This OGM is now available as of February 2012 at this Create-Space store or at this AMAZON PURCHASING LINK.

With permission, here is a free online copy of volume 3--the "Final Reconstruction of the Earliest Matthew." Go to this link.

Mr. Rives has painstakingly restored the original Matthew, written in Hebrew, by primarily relying upon the 49 quotes of it in the early church. The early church called it the Gospel According to the Hebrews by Matthew, or GATHM for short. Also Rives includes Agrapha, quotations of Jesus from early prominent church commentators who quote it as from Matthew yet such language is lacking in our Greek Matthew. Thus, this "Agrapha" most likely came from the Hebrew Matthew. And Mr. Rives has also extracted variants from three versions of Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew (the Shem-Tob, Tillet & Munster versions) -- dating between the 1300s-1500s -- portions of which scholars regard as containing viable original material from Apostle Matthew. Finally, Mr. Rives also utilized the early section of the Didache which is the oldest sayings collection dating to about 100 AD. Often it overlaps our current Matthew. Yet, the Didache also has unique variants which many believe came from the original Hebrew version of Matthew.


With copyright permission, you can listen free to the OGM online at Podomatic. We link here to the audio version. We have several articles of our own relating to the first gospel written -- the original Hebrew Matthew:


Mr. Rives has written an article on the OGM for Knol by Google. Due to Google discontinuing the Knol project, we have reprinted Rives' article here -- The Original Gospel of Matthew.

On proof Matthew wrote his Gospel first and that Mark was a pro-Paul edit of Matthew, see S. Rives, Appendix F, Revisiting the Marcan Priority Claim, from The Original Gospel of Mattthew Vol. 2.

On the "Historical background on the Original Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew," see Appendix B from Rives' Original Gospel of Matthew Vol. 2 excerpted at that link.


The three volumes of the Original Gospel of Matthew are divided as follow:

I: The Variants From The Earliest Matthew -- This volume collects all viable earliest variants for Matthew overlaid on the framework of the American Standard Version of Matthew from 1901. These variants are color coded for easy identification. The variants are footnoted so the reader can read its source, and weigh its strength and viability. 231 pages, full color. This can be purchased at https://www.createspace.com/3687457 or at this Amazon link.

II: The Appendices To Explain The Earliest Matthew -- This volume collects important scholarly material on the validity of variants, and the significance of the changes to the tradtional text. 225 pages, black & white. This can be purchased at https://www.createspace.com/3760858 or at this Amazon link.

III: The Final Reconstruction of the Earliest Matthew --- This volume represents the best estimate of what the Original Gospel of Matthew contained. There is no commentary. It is simply a smooth flowing text with the best variants reflected in the text using color coding to know the source of each variant. The purpose of volume three is that it can be used for devotional reading. However, to know the actual citation for a variant, the color code is not enough. One must go back to Volume 1. The first and third volumes were separated solely to keep costs down. Mr. Rives permits readers thereby to select whether they wish one or both of these two versions.  110 pages, color. Thus, Volume 3 is now available at this PURCHASING LINK or at this Amazon link.thumbnail_image vol 3 at createspace


More Info on Rives' OGM

For information on the OGM project, see the OGM webpage:

https://sites.google.com/site/gospelofmatthewinhebrew/

Justification For OGM Project

Erasmus who died in 1536 was the first reformer to prepare the Bible in English from the best Greek manuscripts. He wrote:

You cry out that it is a crime to correct the gospels. This is a speech worthier of a coachman than of a theologian. You think it is all very well if a clumsy scribe makes a mistake in transcription and then you deem it a crime to put it right. The only way to determine the true text is to examine the early codices. (Erasmus (1466-1536 AD), quoted in Roland H. Bainton, Erasmus of Christendom (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969) at 135.)

I would only add that if all the codices prior to 340 AD are lost or destroyed, the best recourse is to examine the quotes from the original gospels by early church commentators. This way we see how the gospels read earlier in time.

Did Matthew Seal Up His Gospel In Hebrew To Protect It?

Jerome perceived Apostle Matthew wrote in Hebrew as a means to protect his gospel:

"A difficult work is enjoined, since this translation has been commanded me by your Felicities, which St. Matthew himself, the Apostle and Evangelist, did not wish to be openly written. For if it had not been Secret, he would have added to the evangel that which he gave forth was his; but he made up this book sealed up in the Hebrew characters, which he put forth even in such a way that the book, written in Hebrew letters and by the hand of himself, might be possessed by the men most religious, who also, in the course of time, received it from those who preceded them. But this very book they never gave to any one to be transcribed, and its text they related some one way and some another." (Jerome to Chromatius and Heliodorus)(Jerome, Works V: 445, quoted in Samuel F. Dunlop, Sod: The Son of Man (1861) at 46.)

In the Epistle of Peter and James, an Ebionite writing, we similarly read:

"Hear me, brethren and fellow-servants. If we should give the books to all indiscriminately, and they should be corrupted by any daring men, or be perverted by interpretations, as you have heard that some have already done, it will remain even for those who really seek the truth, always to wander in error.   Wherefore it is better that they should be with us, and that we should communicate them with all the fore-mentioned care to those who wish to live piously, and to save others."

Likewise, Schonfeld in his article said:

"The Gospel according to the Hebrews is a literary outlaw with a price on its head; but in spite of the scholarly hue and cry it still evades capture. Neither monastic libraries nor Egyptian rubbish heaps have so far yielded up a single leaf of this important document....  For behind Hebrews lies the unknown potentialities of the Nazarene tradition, which may confirm or contradict some of the most cherished beliefs of Orthodox Christianity. It is useless for certain theologians to designate Hebrews as "secondary" on the evidence of the present fragmentary remains preserved in quotation.... Judged by ancient testimony alone it is indisputable that Hebrews has the best right of any Gospel to be considered a genuine apostolic production;... Here is obviously a most valuable witness, perhaps the most valuable witness to the truth about [Yahshua]... whom even a jury composed entirely of orthodox Christians could not despise, and who ought to be brought into court. But the witness is missing, and all that we have is a few reported statements of his taken long ago... it may be argued that there has been dependence not of 'Hebrews' on the Synoptics but vice versa -- that 'Hebrews' was one of the sources on which one or more of them drew." (Hugh Schonfield, According to the Hebrews at pages13-18).

The Q Manuscript and the OGM

Arguably, the OGM is the intended goal of recovering what is known as Q. This was the acronymn used by German scholars for what they regarded was the Sayings (Logia) Source (Quellen) of Jesus.

Technically, Q is often defined in a different theoretical way -- as the common quotations in Matthew and Luke that are not present in Mark. ("Q Source," Wikipedia.) This is supposedly the original version of the source for the Greek Matthew and Luke. But there is direct evidence outside of the overlap of Matthew and Luke which supports Q, if viewed as OGM, of more original material. Thus, OGM is broader in concept than Q. Incidentally, Q in German is Logienquelle, i.e., "Source" (Quelle) and Words (Logia).

 

3/19/2012