Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

Did Matthew Write His Gospel in Aramaic? - Part 4

First, my apologies to all for missing this column last week. We lost power due to a freak ice storm before I had the chance to complete and send the column. The power was just restored for us yesterday, and I still do not have internet service at home. It gives some sympathy for those on the Gulf Coast who are still suffering through the aftermath of Katrina.

With regard to the origins of Matthew’s gospel, we have seen that the strong testimony of the early church is that the gospel was originally composed in Aramaic. In light of the testimony of other early church fathers (including, but not limited to Iranaeus, Origen, Cyril, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, and Jerome), the somewhat ambiguous statement that Eusebius quoted from Papias should probably be taken in just that sense. The main problem is that there is no early manuscript evidence for an Aramaic Matthew. The earliest Aramaic Matthew material is from the Syriac, which is not only second century, but is pretty clearly a translation of the Greek Matthew, not an Aramaic original.

The earliest manuscript evidence that we have of the Gospel of Matthew is the Greek gospel that currently forms the basis of our English versions. What then, is the reader to do with the conflicting evidence? One approach has been to reinterpret the statement of Papias regarding the composition of the gospel in Aramaic. Three attempts have been made here. The first is to take ta logia (literally "the sayings") as referring not to the gospel, but to some collection of the sayings of Jesus. While possible in a theoretical sense, it conflicts with Papias’s usual use of ta logia, which is to refer to the gospel accounts. The second attempt argues that ta logia refers to a collection of Old Testament proof texts that Matthew compiled for the composition of his gospel. The problem with this is not only does it conflict with Papias’s normal usage of ta logia, it also does not square with the fact that most of the Old Testament quotations in Matthew agree with the Septuagint. The third attempt agrees that ta logia refers to the gospel, but that "Hebrew dialect" does not refer to the language in which it was composed, but rather the style. The problem here is that the explanation does not square with the use of dialekto (dialect) as we find it elsewhere in the church fathers, where it consistently refers to language, rather than style. In addition, while there is a Semitic cast to the language of the Greek Matthew, it is no more distinctively Semitic than John. In fact, the style of John seems more strongly Semitic than does that of Matthew.

So it seems that the modern reader is left with an unpalatable choice. Either the gospel according to Matthew was originally composed in Aramaic, or it was originally composed in Greek. Either the early church fathers were universally wrong, or they were right. But if they were wrong, why was the view so universal? And if they were right, what has happened to the Aramaic gospel of Matthew, which seems to have completely disappeared from the scene?

One solution may be proposed that cuts this Gordian knot, and preserves both the rectitude of the testimony of the early fathers, and the legitimacy of the Greek Matthew. That is the suggestion that Matthew originally, and early, wrote a gospel for Jewish Christians that he composed in Aramaic. This gospel is the one noted by Papias and the other church fathers. At a later time, when the church had become more heavily gentile, Matthew rewrote his gospel, this time in the Greek that most of the church read and spoke. It is this gospel that has been preserved for us, replacing the earlier Aramaic version. This idea is not original with me, but is not often found in the modern literature on the subject. It seems to me a useful solution to the problem that I found in Thomas Hartwell Horne’s Introduction to the Scriptures, vol. IV, part II, sect. II, para. III.

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