Hebrew Matthew

Sometime very late on Friday night or very early Saturday morning, I stumbled upon a fascinating find. I went searching on Google for some visual interpretations of the Lord's Prayer that might inspire a thought or embellish a sermon for the saints of Seneca Presbyterian Church. I came upon a visual recitation of the Lord's Prayer in Hebrew. That video took me to a site and a resource entitled A Prayer to Our Father: Hebrew Origins of the Lord's Prayer. I've been fascinated ever since.

The book tells the story of an unlikely collaboration between an African American Methodist pastor (Keith) and a Caucasian American Jewish scholar (Nehemia). Their story is fascinating - and too complicated to recount here. Their friendship has enabled them to study - extensively - a manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew written in Hebrew. It comes from 14th century Spain and scholars debate its history. Yet its discovery intrigued Nehemia who is a Hebrew linguist and translator of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nehemia invited his friend Keith to share a journey of exploration and interpretation, focusing especially on the Lord's Prayer in Matthew as it is found in this manuscript, what scholars call Hebrew Matthew.

I realize one must be skeptical of biblical scholarship that is found through Google and You Tube, but when I read an endorsement of the book by James Tabor, professor of religious studies at UNC-Charlotte, the entire matter gained some credibility for me. We once invited Dr. Tabor to speak at St. John's Baptist in Charlotte. He, too, is an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls and I found him a reputable and insightful scholar.

What Keith and Nehemia believe they have found is a translation of the prayer that lies at the heart of Christian faith that also speaks to the Jewish faith. Even though each holds passionately to the faith he proclaims, they find joy and wisdom interpreting this prayer together. They even traveled together to Israel searching for what they believe is the site where Jesus first spoke these words.

The entire adventure is based on two debatable assumptions:

• that Hebrew Matthew is not a translation of Greek Matthew but is instead authentic to the first or second century; 
• that Jesus spoke in Hebrew and not Aramaic. (Nehemia, Keith, and Dr. Tabor all believe that Hebrew was a spoken language even in the first century, and at the very least Jewish texts would have been written in Hebrew.) 

Regardless, scholars have long believed that the Lord's Prayer comes from the Jewish heart of Jesus. How fascinating it is to see in the 21st century an affirmation of a shared vision that unites two major world religions. Could it unite even more?