Presentation of “A Gospel of the Hebrews” at Aeon Byte:

On 5-3-2024, I gave a presentation on my new book: A Gospel of the Hebrews and discussed the material with Miguel Conner 5 3 2024 at the GodAboveGod website:

https://thegodabovegod.com

A Gospel of the Hebrews

The Untold Gospel: Matthew’s Lost Hebrew Manuscript

By James Brantingham BM, BS, DC, PhD

Brantingham, James. © (2023) A Gospel of the Hebrews: The Untold Gospel: Matthew’s Lost Hebrew Manuscript

I became interested in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew while reading about the Apostle Thomas in India. I discovered Bartholomew had also gone to Cochin to preach to the same Indians in about 55 CE. It appears he used the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew to preach about Yeshua and ‘the Way.’ Pantaenus (c. 190 CE) visited these Cochin Indians and returned (from India) the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew to the Alexandrian Catechetical School after returning.

Why it is possible some Gnostic ideas & or verses in the GHebrews likely go back to Yeshua Hamaschiach himself?

Stephan Shoemaker has looked deeply into the Research on Oral and Literary cultures (Shoemaker, Stephen J. 2022). Shoemaker reviews scientific research into “memorization” by “oral techniques alone” versus “oral memorization with back-up written material.” And it is a scientific fact now that a society that writes does an extraordinarily better job at memorizing scripture – scientifically significantly better than compared memorization by an illiterate society.

The evidence suggests Yeshua (Jesus) and his family were poor but not desperately poor. When Yeshua was brought to the Temple, though they may not have been able to afford a “lamb and a pigeon,” they could afford two pigeons, not just grain and wine. Nor do we hear about Joseph, a ‘tektōn’ not having work and the family unable to buy enough to eat or the loss of their house, clothes, etc. Yeshua’s father probably found enough work, and he sent Yeshua to the Yeshiva as a young boy. There I believe Yeshua (like many other young boys) memorized the entire Tanakh and much, much more. I also agree with some scholars that he probably learned Hebrew and even a significant amount of Greek (at the Yeshiva). But more than that: Yeshua ‘knew what it took to actually ‘memorize’ scripture!‘ He probably used Matthew to very early begin writing down his teaching. Then Yeshua and Matthew got the rest of the Apostles to learn it in the manner of the “Synogogal and Yeshiva way” by saying it out loud and repeating it over and over, plus referring back to what (Matthew – and Yeshua checked it) had written down! (Blizzard, Roy B. 2013; 2022; Flusser, David., Notley, R. Steven. 1997; Gordon, Nehemia. 2005-2010; Shoemaker, Stephen J. 2022).

In the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew (HGMatthew) but also in the Gospel of the Hebrews (GHebrews) is this ‘Well-known’ Gnostic verse:

“The one who seeks should not cease until he finds, and in finding he shall marvel, and having marveled he shall reign, and having reigned he shall rest.” This saying was attributed to Jesus by Clement of Alexandria and is found in the ‘Hebrew Gospel of Matthew.’

In the Gospel of Thomas 2, [Jesus says:] “Let him who see[ks] cease not [to seek until he] finds: when he finds, [he will wonder; and when he wond]ers, he will reign, and [reigning, he will have r]est!” (Greek Thomas from Doresse- Oxyrhynchus). These fragments of the Gospel of Thomas (GThom) were found between 1897 and 1903 and date GThomas (or just ‘Thomas‘) to about 200 AD or CE.

I believe there was a Hebrew Gospel of Matthew and that over the centuries, it was changed with interpolations (and deletions) into “The Gospel of the Hebrews” (or a variety of Gospels such as ‘GEbionites and GNazarenes’—though verses have been found, none were or have yet been labeled “Gospel of the Ebionites or the Nazarenes.” ) Verses alone have been found, but I will also use this “terminology” in discussing them.

Church Father Papias said Matthew left in Hebrew “logia of the Lord.” Some even think this was (and is or at least a significant part of) “Q!” But recently, others have been saying (cleverly as they did not in the past) that there were two books: HGMatthew and the GHebrews. They try to suggest that the GHebrews drew nothing from the HGMatthew—yet over and over again, they are related to or described as derived from the HGMatthew by Jerome, Hegesippus, Origen, and even Irenaeus!

Some do not believe “The Hebrew Gospel of Matthew Existed.” A ‘Gospel of the Hebrews’ has extant fragments. Some theology may change if an HGMatthew is found! ‘Gnostic’ sayings by Yeshua may be documented!

Church Father Papias (a ‘Talmid’ or disciple who sat at the feet of the Apostle John) wrote, “Matthew left Logia (Oracles or Sayings) of the Lord.”

The “infrastructure” for my GHebrews (A Gospel of the Hebrews) comes from the “Hebrew Gospel of Matthew” reconstructed by George Howard (Shem-Tob & Howard, G. 1995) a 15th-century text and (for my A GHebrews) also from the ‘Gospels’ of the Nazarenes, Hebrews and the Ebionites. With some input from the Van Rensburg reconstructed HGMatthew (Van Rensburg et al. 2022. Hebrew Gospel of Matthew) and correlations, I have thought appropriate from some of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic-Christian texts. (Howard, George 1995; Van Rensburg, Justin J. 2022)

George Howard (Shem-Tob’s) Hebrew Gospel of Matthew is the core infrastructure to my text (although I have put it into my own words and I have made a minimal attempt to keep some type of a “Hebrew sense” in the text I used. However, it is primarily George Howards HGMatthew (1995).

Howard described his work as, ‘A Primitive Hebrew Gospel of Matthew and the Tol’doth Yeshu’. James Tabor in studying this text, found at least 22 of the “Q” sayings in the Shem-Tob translation are closer to the Gospel of Thomas than the Greek Luke or Matthew!

It is a possibility (but not all scholars support it) that based on a broad tradition, Aramaic-speaking Jews arrived in both Kerala and Konkin in the 1st century AD, and it’s possible that Aramaic-speaking traders came to Cochin in the first century CE. In this case, though there is no “evidence from the beginning of the first century,” still… like all other Human beings, Jews needed to make a living. They did so in Southern India to help and facilitate trading (especially between the Romans and Indians). If this is so (and it cannot be disproven), they likely also had a small synagogue. Certainly, they would have used its educational functions (in Kerala and Konkin) to learn Malayalam. Today, Cochin Jews strongly believe that their ancestors came to India as refugees after the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century CE.

However, Jews arrived in Kerala as early as 573 BCE, according to David d’Beth Hillel (1832) and James Henry Lord (1976) [1907]), so they insist it is found in the History of Kerala. (2024). Indeed (pre-islamic) ‘Arabs’ and Romans also had trade links with Kerala, starting before the 4th century BCE, and as Herodotus noted (484–413 BCE), goods brought by Arabs from Kerala were sold to the Jews at Eden or land located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Mesopotamia or in the Armenian Highlands or National Plateau. (Garden of Eden. 2024; Saint Thomas Christians. 2024).

I think that both the Apostle Thomas and especially the Apostle Bartholomew learned some Malayalam (or regarding Bartholomew, the Konkani language, an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Konkani people, where it is also possible that first-century Jews migrated for trade in the first Diaspora). Primarily for Thomas (and just possibly for Bartholomew), both had a local but small Jewish trade or (East to West) trading community and could translate Aramatic into Malayalam or the Konkani language into Aramaic (and so they evangelized the Indians) and that certainly those who published the reconstructed ancient “Q” James M. Robinson et. al (2000) accepted completely that Pantaenus sailed there in c. CE 190 and met the ‘Nasranis’ or the Indian Christians (particularly thought to have been evangelized where Bartholomew had been) – though maybe a different part of India (but in communication with the Thomaisonian Christians and Nasranis that Thomas visited. Pantaenus, a founder of the Catechetical School in Alexandria, Egypt (a Stoic philosopher and a converted Jew), saw there where Bartholomew had preached “the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew” and brought it back to Alexandria. No other official trip (or mission by a European Roman or Eastern Christian) is officially recorded before this time (and more so), and no Syriac OT and NT bible has been described or found before the 5th century (or the first half of the sixth century for the first Syriac Bible). Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic. In this case, the Kessel find is an Aramaic “palimpsest” dated to over 1 700 years old (Kessel, Grigory. 2023). Otherwise, it is very reasonable that both the Apostles could have found a Malayalam-speaking Aramaic trader (not necessarily a Jew) to help them preach Christianity (NSC- Admin. 2009; Konkani language. 2024; Bartholomew the Apostle 2024; Norteiro people. 2024; Saint Thomas Christians. 2024; Kessel, Grigory. 2023)

Two ancient testimonies support the mission of Saint Bartholomew in India. These are by the ‘first church historian’ Eusebius of Caesarea (early 4th century) and by Saint Jerome (late in the 4th century). Both refer to this tradition and the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, especially in Jerome’s case. Additionally, it was called the Gospel of the Hebrews at times or later. It was brought back to Alexandria after the reported visit of Saint Pantaenus to India in the 2nd century. (Eusebius in, Schneemelcher, Wilhelm., Wilson, Robert McLachlan., Hennecke, Edgar. Eds. 1991; 1992; 2003.)

It should be noted (finally) and with an honest and strong emphasis, that Mar Elijah (the Emeritus Metropolitan of the Nazarani Church says that the two languages (Aramaic and Syriac) anciently but especially today, use different alphabets, which they use to write different words which are pronounced differently, using different grammar and different sentence structure and orthographies. In short, they are different in every possible respect in which a divergent language could differ from its parent language. A comparable relationship exists between French and Haitian Creole. Creole was once an African dialect of French, which became isolated within Haiti, where it developed into a language entirely on its own. (Bar Israel, Hadrian Mar Elijah. 2015).

So even if there is a constant drumbeat that “Jesus spoke Aramaic,” it was not even in his life that it was easily understood by other “Syrianc” speakers. This thus brings out the great need for Yeshua Hamaschiach to have spoken Hebrew (and probably Greek) too! The Aramaic Jesus spoke is near extinction (and it is not Syriac), and the Syriac Bibles, even in the third century, do not denote truly nor completely exhibit nor speak the actual and real language Yeshua spoke (Bar Israel, Hadrian Mar Elijah. 2015). So, there is a great need for Matthew to have left Yeshua’s words in Hebrew!

James Brantingham PhD

Fine Tuning Physical Constants and Humanity:

Recently, Roger Penrose got more explicit about the chances of a human being – being “created” by our universe and suggested how likely this would be:

During an interview with BBC Radio 4 on 25 September 2010, Penrose stated, “I’m not a believer myself. I don’t believe in established religions of any kind.” He regards himself as an agnostic (per 2021). In the 1991 film A Brief History of Time, he also said, “I think I would say that the universe has a purpose, it’s not somehow just there by chance … some people, I think, take the view that the universe is just there and it runs along—it’s a bit like it just computes, and we happen somehow by accident to find ourselves in this thing. But I don’t think that’s a very fruitful or helpful way of looking at the universe; I think that there is something much deeper about it.

Recently, Penrose calculated the odds of a human being existing (which are):

The probability of that happening is about 1×10^2,685,000 or 10, followed by 2,685,000 zeros. For comparison, the Universe only has 10⁸⁰ atoms. The infographic finishes by letting you know that the probability of you existing (as you are) is zero. Dec 14, 2015. 

Roger Penrose. (2024, May 7). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Penrose

This is the number of Universes that must have come into being to get all the fine-tuning necessary to have created us – human beings! And yet, there is still no evidence for multiverses (and no falsified null hypothesis in research to support this hypothesis). Dr. Penrose has proposed that at the end of our universe (its ‘heat death’ – or loss of heat/energy), trillions and trillions upon trillions and trillions of years after the ‘big bang’) the conditions he predicts will move whatever ‘quantum fields’ left over become ‘just right’ to cause the conditions to cause another big bang (for the next universe! However, this is hypothetical, and it has not yet been demonstrated by any research. And parallel universes? Again, no evidence (or falsified research) demonstrating metaverses exist! Maybe in a ‘googolplex of years, we will find them!

What is 10 to the 101st power? This is called a “googol.” Googol is 10 to the 100th power, 1, followed by 100 zeros. While this is an unimaginably large number, there’s still an infinite quantity of larger numbers. One such number is googolplex, 10 to the power of a googol, or 1, followed by a googol of zeros.

Of yet, the number 1×10^2,685,000 is smaller than a googolplex! 

How many zeros are in a googol? Or a googolplex?

A “googol” is written as follows:

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

However, as explained above, a googolplex has so many zeros that it can’t be written! Yet there are bigger numbers than this.

Ten to the power of googolplex is called googolduplex (also called googolplexplex, googolplusplex, and googolplexian). Writing down the full decimal expansion would take 10 trigintillion (10⁹⁴ ) called 10 trigintillion or also written out as (10^94) books of 400 pages each, with 2,500 digits on each page (except for the first, which would have 2,501).

Even though a googolplex is immense, Graham’s and Skewes’s numbers are much larger. Named after mathematicians Ronald Graham and Stanley Skewes, both numbers are so large that they can’t be represented in the observable universe.

Or Googolplexian is “ten to the power googolplex”, while googolplex is “ten to the power googol”, and googol is “ten to the power one hundred”. In other words, googol is 1 followed by a hundred zeroes, googolplex is 1 followed by a googol zeroes, and googolplexian is 1 followed by a googolplex of zeroes!

The number 1×10^2,685,000 is huge but even it is not a googolplex. 

How many zeros are in a googol? A googolplex?

A “googol” is written as  10¹⁰¹⁰⁰ Or 10, followed by 100 zeros

10,^{000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000} (this has one extra zero…). This does not consider 10X10 (that comes before 10X100).

^Or 10¹⁰¹⁰⁰

10^{000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00,000.} Written out in ordinary decimal notation, it is 1 followed by 10¹⁰⁰ (10^100) zeroes; that is, a 1 followed by a googol of zeroes. Its prime factorization is 2googol ×5googol.

^{000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000}

A googolplex is the large number 10googol (10^googol or 10^googol), or equivalently. This looks like a googol until you realize it is not 1 followed by 100 zeroes. Rather, it is 10, which is raised to the power of 1, followed by 100 zeroes.

10^{10000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,} Written out in ordinary decimal notation, it is 1 followed by 10¹⁰⁰ (10^100) zeroes; that is, a 1 followed by a googol of zeroes. Its prime factorization is 2googol ×5googol.

However, as explained above, a googolplex has so many zeros that it can’t be written! Yet there are bigger numbers than this.

Ten to the power of googolplex is called googolduplex (also called googolplexplex, googolplusplex, and googolplexian). Writing down the full decimal expansion would take 10 trigintillion (10⁹⁴ ) called 10 trigintillion or also written out as (10^94) books of 400 pages each, with 2,500 digits on each page (except for the first, which would have 2,501).

Even though a googolplex is immense, Alon Amit, a PhD Mathematics, writes that Graham’s number and Skewes’ number are much larger. Named after mathematicians Ronald Graham and Stanley Skewes, both numbers are so large that they can’t be represented in the observable universe. Graham’s and Skewes’ numbers are both upper bounds and are so large they cannot be written using conventional notation. Graham’s number is much larger than many other large numbers such as Skewes’s and Moser’s numbers, which are, in turn, much larger than a googolplex.  Instead, they are written using Knuth’s up-arrow notation, which extends arithmetic operations like addition, multiplication, and exponentiation:

Large?

That’s nothing! But wait! That’s merely the first step in constructing Graham’s number. The next step involves (specialized mathematical notation). 

3↑…↑3 with as many arrows as that first step. That’s ridiculously past anything we’ve seen so far. And then Graham’s number does this again, and again and again… 64 times.

The unbelievers (today usually part of the “new atheists” that really, as before, are the latest newly arrived and aggressive atheists. These aggressive unbelievers feel they can say whatever they want (and should be able to make others believe in anything – believe in nothing as they do and as they wish). These unbelievers can believe as they want as long as they do not force on me or impose on my family (and country) their ‘brand of Atheism and me’ and force down our throats laws that we must agree to their “knowing – that there is no Cod,” and that existence is meaningless.

These numbers above literally make a “miracle possible,” and Occam’s Razor suggests “a creator” is more likely than a one in 1×10^2,685,000 chance that this number of Universes will finally end up being (our) meaningless, senseless, purposeless ‘creator’!

So, I am open to more (and more), even Gnosticism…

—————————————————-

If this isn’t yet “infinity” how could any God “infinitely punish” a puny human being for such a period? I recognize that “eternal” has or was mistranslated in many (almost all) places where it should have been translated “for a time,” or “for an age, or ages and ages”). But clearly in a few places (in both) the OT and NT the terms used emphasize it in such a manner as to mean “infinity” as it is described above.” This cannot be Yeshua’s Loving God or Father! So there must be more to God and the Afterlife than this! This is one reason I am open to the Gnostic and Nag Hammadi literature (as an ‘eclectic Christian.’) This is (or my use of) ‘eclectic’ with a small “e.” It is not a denomination (or if it is, and there is a denomination called Eclectic Christianity I am not a part of that ‘denomination.’ I do not mean to put down here churches or religious bodies that use the terms above… such as the Catholic church that states:

According to the Catholic Church, people who die in a state of mortal sin immediately go to hell. Mortal sin (also known as deadly, grave, and serious sin) is a seriously sinful act that can lead to damnation if a person doesn’t repent before death. A person is guilty of mortal sin if they meet three conditions:

• They commit a grave wrong
• The act involves grave matter, such as breaking one of the Ten Commandments
• The person who commits the act knows it’s wrong and understands its sinful nature 

Some examples of mortal sins include:

• Anger
• Blasphemy
• Envy
• Hatred
• Malice
• Murder
• Neglect of Sunday obligation
• Sins against faith (incredulity against God or heresy)
• Sins against hope (obstinate despair in the hope for salvation) 

Can mortal sin be forgiven without a priest?

‘Ask His forgiveness with all your heart with an act of contrition, and promise Him, ‘Afterward, I will go to confession. ‘ You will return to God’s grace immediately. You can draw near, as the catechism teaches us, to God’s forgiveness, without having a priest at hand.”

James Brantingham PhD

References:

Bartholomew the Apostle. (2024, May 2). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_the_Apostle

Bar Israel, Hadrian Mar Elijah. (2015) How Do We Know That Galilean Aramaic is the Language of Yeshue?, Righteous Endeavor. At: Linked In: What is the Difference Between Syriac and Aramaic? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-difference-between-syriac-aramaic-hadrian-m%C3%A2r-%C3%A9lijah-bar-isra%C3%ABl#:~:text=In%20fact%20Syriac%20and%20Aramaic,no%20relation%20to%20the%20original.

Blizzard, Roy B. (2013) Mishnah and the Words of Jesus. Copyright © 2013. by Bible Scholars. Austin, Texas. Kindle Edition.

Blizzard, Roy. (2022) Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus. https://www.biblescholars.org/.  (Accessed 3 7 2022)

Brantingham, James. © (2023) A Gospel of the Hebrews: The Untold Gospel: Matthew’s Lost Hebrew Manuscript

d’Beth Hillel, David. (1832). The Travels of Rabbi David D’Beth Hillel; From Jerusalem, Through Arabia, Koordistan, Part of Persia and India. publisher: British Library, Historical Print Editions, 2011 ISBN 10: 1241083665. Madras in August, 1832

Flusser, David., Notley, R. Steven. (1997) Jesus. Hebrew University Press. Jerusalem.

Garden of Eden. (2024, April 10). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Eden

Googol and Googolplex: https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/googol-and-googolplex#:~:text=A%20googol%20is%2010%20to,by%20a%20googol%20of%20zeros.

Googolplex. (2024, February 3). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googolplex

Graham’s number. (2024, July 4). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham%27s_number

History of Kerala. (2024, April 19). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kerala

Howard, George (1995). Hebrew Gospel of Matthew 2nd Ed. Mercer University Press, Macon, Georgia.

Kessel, Grigory. (2023) A New (Double Palimpsest) Witness to the Old Syriac Gospels (Vat. iber. 4, ff. 1 & 5), New Testament Studies (2023). DOI: 10.1017/S0028688522000182

Kirby, Peter. (2012) Ed. Gospel of Thomas Sayings https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/thomas/gospelthomas2.html (Accessed 2017 through 2022). The Coptic word “repose,” m̅ tan (ⲙ̅ ⲧⲁⲛ), translates Greek anapausis (ἀνάπαυσις), “cessation of a movement or, rest”.

Konkani language. (2024, May 7). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkani_language

Kusuman, K. K. (1987). A History of Trade & Commerce in Travancore. Mittal Publications. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-8-1-7099-026-0. Retrieved 30 May 2015.

Lord, James Henry (1976) [1907]. The Jews in India and the Far East (Reprint ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-83712-615-9.

McGiffert, Arthur Cushman. (2023; 1890) From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250105.htm> (2023). (Accessed 4 2024). Church History (Book V) Eusebius

Norteiro people. (2024, February 18). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norteiro_people

NSC- Admin. (2009) Last updated Oct 10, 2014“Mission of Saint Bartholomew, the Apostle in India”. Nasranis. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2020. https://www.nasrani.net/2007/02/13/saint-bartholomew-mission-in-india/

Schneemelcher, Wilhelm., Wilson, Robert McLachlan., Hennecke, Edgar. Eds. (1991; 1992; 2003.) New Testament Apocrypha I and II: Writings relating to the Apostles; Apocalypses and Related Subjects. Westminster John Knox Press. Louisville, KY. (Includes the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and Recognitions regarding unclean meat & flesh). Church History by Eusebius. Book V Chapter 10. And Pantaenus the Philosopher.

Shoemaker, Stephen J. (2022). Creating the Qur’ran: a historical-critical study. University of California Press. Oakland.

Van Rensburg, Justin J. (2022) The Hebrew Gospels of Shephared. The Gospel According to Matthew. A literal translation of an Amazing medieval Hebrew Manuscript in the Vatican Library, Vat. Ebr. 100 (V2.2 March 2021).

Gordon, Nehemia. (2005-2010) The Hebrew Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus. New Light on the Seat of Moses from Shem-Tov’s Hebrew Matthew.

Kerala. (2024, May 5). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala

Robinson, James M., Hoffmann, Paul., Kloppenborg, John S., Moreland, Milton C. (2000) The Critical Edition of Q with Publisher Fortress and Peeters Press. Minneapolis.

Saint Thomas Christians. (2024, March 24). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christians

Tabor, James. (2023) The Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. https://jewishromanworldjesus.com/?page_id=288 (Accessed 7 25 2023)