A Note on Codex Sinaiticus and Shem-Tob's Hebrew MatthewAuthor(s): George HowardSource: Novum Testamentum, Vol. 34, Fasc. 1 (Jan., 1992), pp. 46-47Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1561095 .

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Novum Testamentum XXXIV, 1 (1992)

A NOTE ON CODEX SINAITICUS AND SHEM-TOB'S HEBREW MATTHEW

by

GEORGE HOWARD

Athens, GA

In 1987, I published a Hebrew Matthew which I discovered within the body of a fourteenth century Jewish polemical treatise, entitled Even Bohan. The author, Shem-Tob ben-Isaac ben- Shaprut, wrote his work c. 1380, although he revised it several times later. The Hebrew Matthew incorporated in this text is char- acterized especially by its many differences from the canonical Greek Matthew.2

Recently, I isolated five readings in Shem-Tob's Matthew that are found elsewhere only in Codex Sinaiticus. An additional four are found in Codex Sinaiticus, one or more of the Egyptian ver- sions, and a few minor witnesses.

Since these nine readings may be significant, I list them here. NA26 is used as a basis for the collation.

Codex 01 and Heb Matt

7:27 xat '`rveuuaav ot avXeLot] omit 01* Heb Matt 13:44 tv Tx ayp4] omit 01* Heb Matt 21:17 i[o Tiq 76XEoS] omit 01* Heb Matt3 23:4 qpopT'r] + LETyaXa 01; + rrml Heb Matt

' George Howard, The Gospel of Matthew According to a Primitive Hebrew Text (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1987).

2 For a description of the differences see: George Howard, "The Textual Nature of Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew,"JBL 108 (1989) 239-257; "A Note on the Short Ending of Matthew," HTR 81 (1988) 117-20; "Was the Gospel of Mat- thew Originally Written in Hebrew?" Bible Review 2 (1986) 14-25.

3 Legg mistakenly notes ms. 28 as omitting these words. See S. C. E. Legg, Novum Testamentum Graece. Evangelium secundum Matthaeum (Oxford: Clarendon, 1940). Ms. 28 is an eleventh century gospel manuscript which breaks off at Matt 16:10 and does not pick up again until 26:70.

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AND SHEM-TOB'S HEBREW MATTHEW

24:35 6 ou'pocv6 xori c'j ?' -r npo?pXeae?toia, ot e Xoyot [ou orLj i rpeXOw-

aLv] omit 01 *; omit oi ... 7CO(peXOwatv Heb Matt

Codex 01, Egyptian Versions, and Heb Maat

5:30 xcx't d iXov t6' a744 aou] rn oXov tro aw?Loc aou 01 * mae Lucif; Im 5:)z Heb Matt 6:16 'ohrov] xoct otrav 01* boms Geo; 'IVRN3l Heb Matt 9:10 bXO'6'v-e] omit 01* 243 150 sams mae boms Heb Matt4 9:24 xcx' xXtOC-Xc..v ocu'zo5J + etbrote ort ocndocvev 01* 61 samss; + rinn m 'l;lz V M"O r I N57 M"'InIRI Heb Matt5

I find the agreement between Codex Sinaiticus/Egyptian ver- sions and the Hebrew Matthew remarkable. The disparity in time and geography between these two texts militates against one having direct collusion with the other during the fourteenth century. It is

unlikely that Shem-Tob knew or had access to either Codex Sinaiticus or the Egyptian versions. The uniqueness of the nine

readings listed above, then, suggests that the roots for the agree- ment between Codex Sinaiticus/Egyptian versions and Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew reach back to early antiquity.

243 is a fourteenth century manuscript. 1 61 is a sixteenth century manuscript.

477

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