Hebrew Gospel of Matthew?

Some scholars maintain that idea of a Semitic origin to the Gospel of Matthew is preposterous. Nevertheless, here I will delineate several features of the Gospel of Matthew in Greek that lends credibility to the idea that it is was originally written in Hebrew.

1. First is the idea of biblical numerology, or gematria.

In the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel, the author employs a technique that would either only make sense in the Hebrew language or that would require his readers to immediately understand or know the Hebrew language. The author begins his book with the words, the book of the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (βιβλος γενεσεως ιησου χριστου υιου δαυιδ υιου αβρααμ). He then begins to recount Jesus' genealogy from the patriarch Avraham, through King David. Matthew divided the genealogy into three segments:

1. The first segment is from Avraham to King David.
2. The second segment is from King David to the deportation of Babylon (της μετοικεσιας βαβυλωνος).
3. The final and third segment is from the deportation of Babylon to Jesus, who is called Christ (ο λεγομενος χριστος).

After Matthew is done recounting the genealogy, he notes that each segment happens to have 14 generations.

1:17 Therefore all the generations from Abraam until David [were] 14 generations, and from David until the deportation of Babylon [were] 14 generations, and from the deportation of Babylon until the Christ [were] 14 generations. (πασαι ουν αι γενεαι απο αβρααμ εως δαυιδ γενεαι δεκατεσσαρες και απο δαυιδ εως της μετοικεσιας βαβυλωνος γενεαι δεκατεσσαρες και απο της μετοικεσιας βαβυλωνος εως του χριστου γενεαι δεκατεσσαρες)

I will argue that Matthew has some purpose for 14, that it is more than simply an antiquarian note. In fact, 14 is tremendously important, not just in the genealogy itself, but in the reason why Matthew incorporates the genealogy in the first place. Matthew needed to make sure that the three segments of the genealogy each had 14 generations.

What's so important about 14? Return to the first line: the book of the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew is, obviously, trying to show that Jesus is the descendant of David and hence a candidate for the messianic redemption. But Matthew is not just doing so through the genealogical descent, he is also using gematria.

In Hebrew, each letter of the alphabet has a numeric value. That is, if you wanted to write 1 in numeral form in Hebrew, you would write the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph. If you wanted to write the numeral 2 in Hebrew, you would write the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, bet.

1. aleph א
2. bet ב
3. gimel ג
4. daleth ד
5. he ה
6. waw ו

...and so on down the alphabet

In this genealogy, Matthew is using gematria on David's name in Hebrew. David's name in Hebrew is D-V-D (דוד), or Daleth-Waw-Daleth. Can you figure out the numerical value of that name? (Daleth = 4) + (Waw = 6) + (Daleth = 4). 4 + 6 + 4 = 14. David in Hebrew has the numerical value of 14! And Matthew's important number is 14! Basically, Matthew is saying that Jesus is David three times, or in other words, Jesus' fulfills David's kingly role thrice. Jesus is thrice David.

This feature is only apparent in the Hebrew language, in Greek it does not work. This fact means that Matthew wrote in the Hebrew language or that he wrote in another language but intended his audience to understand this Hebrew-language gematria. As to the latter possibility, it would be unlikely that Matthew would have written in another language (Greek) and would have intended his audience to understand Hebrew. If they understood Hebrew, he might as well have written in Hebrew. Since it would have been unhelpful to write in Greek—the gematria would have been lost—it appears that the former option is more likely. The gematria is only present in the Hebrew, and therefore it is more likely that he wrote in Hebrew.

2. The second line of evidence for an Hebraic autograph of Matthew is the Gospel's introduction of the name Jesus.

Matthew introduces Jesus' name first in the genealogy, and then in the narrative recounts how the messenger, or angel, of the lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him that Mary was having a child from holy spirit (no definite article, interestingly enough). The angel tells Joseph:

v. 20 Yosef, son of David, do not fear to take Miryam, your wife, for the thing in her, begotten out of spirit, is holy. (ιωσηφ υιος δαυιδ μη φοβηθης παραλαβειν μαριαν την γυναικα σου το γαρ εν αυτη γεννηθεν εκ πνευματος εστιν αγιου)

v. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you shall call his name Yesous, for he himself shall save his people from their sins. (τεξεται δε υιον και καλεσεις το ονομα αυτου ιησουν αυτος γαρ σωσει τον λαον αυτου απο των αμαρτιων αυτων)

That's all well and good until you realize that Yesous or Iesous has absolutely no meaning in the Greek language. (In Greek, if an i, or iota, appears at the beginning of a word followed by a vowel, it ends up making a /y/ sound; hence why Iesous in Greek is pronounced Yesous.) It is clear from the grammatical construction that the angel intends the statement to be an explanation of the child's name (you shall name him...because he will...). There is something about that name that the angel intends to connect with the following statement.

People who are familiar with the Messianic movement will know that Jesus' Hebrew name is Yeshua. Such people may also know that Yeshua is the Aramaic shortened form of the Hebrew Yehoshua (from whence we derive Joshua). In Hebrew, the Yeho- prefix as in Yehoshua refers to "Yah," the god of the Israelites. "Shua" means salvation, and so Yehoshua means Yah is salvation. Since Yeshua is a shortened form of Yehoshua, Yeshua also means Yah is salvation.

In Hebrew, the angelic announcement would have an alliteration on the name of Yeshua. One Hebrew translators translates it thus:

וְהִיא יֹלֶדֶת בֵּן וְקָרָאתָ אֶת־שְׁמוֹ יֵשׁוּעַ כִּי הוּא יוֹשִׁיעַ אֶת־עַמּוֹ מֵחַטֹּאתֵיהֶם

In English transliteration, the angel says: you shall his name, Yeshua, ki hu yoshia (...Jesus, because he will save...).

Notice the alliteration. In the explanations of name in the Book of Genesis, one will find a lot of these explanatory alliterations. If we were to reproduce this alliteration into English it could be something like:

You shall call his name Savior, because he will save...

This alliteration is significant, because it links the name (Yeshua) with the act (yoshia). However, this alliteration, which the author intended, is not found in the Greek. The alliteration is only found in Hebrew, which is another reason why it is more likely that Matthew wrote in Hebrew.

The scholar and poet Willis Barnstone offers this comment on the angel's introduction of Jesus' name:

The naming of the infant messiah as Jesus, Iesous in the Greek, is followed by the reason for naming Jesus, explaining that the name means he will save. But Jesus in the Greek, Iesous (Ἱησοῡς), has no meaning in the Greek other than being a transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua, from Yehoshua, which does mean Yahweh saves. This passage suggests either an earlier text in the Hebrew or the Aramaic or that the author of the Greek Matthew was a Greek- and Hebrew-speaking who had in mind the Hebrew or Aramaic name Yeshua or Yehoshua for the salvific lord and expected the readers or listeners to understand the name of the salvific lord in Hebrew embedded in the name Yeshua or Yehoshua. There seems to be no other explanation for attributing he will save to a Greek name which itself is meaningless.

Thus writes Barnstone. As far as we can tell, either Matthew wrote in Hebrew or he was a bilingual Jew who thought in Hebrew, wrote in Greek and expected his readers to do the same. While the latter would be fun, the former seems to be more likely.