Posts: 329
Registered: Oct 98

posted 03-09-1999 02:59 PM            

The DuTillet version of Matthew is taken from a Hebrew manuscript of Matthew which was confiscated from Jews in Rome in 1553. On August 12th, 1553, at the petition of Pietro, Cardinal Caraffa, the Inquisitor General , Pope Julius III signed a decree banning the Talmud in Rome. The decree was executed on September 9th (Rosh HaShanna) and anything that looked like the Talmud, that is, anything written in Hebrew charaters was confiscated as the Jewish homes and synagogues were ravished. Jean DuTillet, Bishop of Brieu, France was visiting Rome at the time. DuTillet was astounded to take notice of a Hebrew manuscript of Mattew among the other Hebrew manuscripts. DuTillet aquired the manuscript and returned to France, depositing it in the Biblioteque Nationale, Paris. It remains there to this day as Hebrew ms. No. 132.
While most scholars have ignored the DuTillet Hebrew version of Matthew, two scholars, Hugh Schonfield and George Howard, have stated their opinion that this Hebrew text underlies our current Greek text. Schonfield writes:

...certain linguistic proofs... seem to show that the Hebrew text
[DuTillet] underlies the Greek, and that certain renderings in the
Greek may be due to a misread Hebrew original.
(An Old Hebrew Text of St. Matthew's Gospel, Hugh Schonfield; 1927; p. 3-4)

Howard concluded that DuTillet is a "revision of an earlier Hebrew Matthew" related to the Shem Tob version (JBL 105/1 (1986) p. 63 n. 34). Howard elsewhere states his belief that the Shem Tob text is a decendant of a Hebrew text which served as a model for our present Greek text.

In my book THE SEMITIC ORIGIN OF THE NEW TESTAMENT I give a great deal of evidence that the Hebrew text of the DuTillet descends from a Hebrew Matthew which was Hebrew text behind our Greek Matthew.

The new edition will have:

* A greatly revised and expanded introduction.

* The typeset Hebrew text on parallel pages.

* Revised translation (I have learned more in the nine years since the
first edition was published.

* Typos have been corrected from the first edition.

* The new title for the book will be DUTILLET HEBREW MATTHEW
WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION (The old title was B'SOROT MATTI;
THE GOODNEWS ACCORDING TO MATTHEW FROM AN OLD
HEBREW MANUSCRIPT).

* The sacred name translated as YHWH in the english text.

* Quotations from the TANAK are boldfaced and footnoted.

We are now taking prepublication orders for this important book. To reserve your copy
just send check or money order for $35.00 ($30.00 plus $5.00 Postage and handling) made out to THE SOCIETY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NAZARENE JUDAISM and mail to:

SANJ
Po Box 471
Hurst, TX 76053
USA

Please write "DUTILLET" in the memo of the check.

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