The Hebraic New Testament (Part 8)

This post is the eighth in the series of studies on the Hebraic New Testamant.

Eusebius of Caesarea, "The Father of Church History," made several references in his Church History to Apostolic writings in the Hebrew language. 

I am using Paul Maier's translation, Eusebius: The Church History, for the following quotes.  The references preceding the quotes are book.section.

3.24 – Matthew at first preached to the Hebrews, and when he planned to go to others also, he wrote his Gospel in his own native language for those he was leaving, his writings filling the gap left by his departure.

3.38 – For Paul had written to the Hebrews in their native language, and some say that the evangelist Luke, others that this same Clement translated the writing.

3.39 – Such is Papias's reference to Mark.  Of Matthew he had this to say: Matthew compiled the sayings [logia of Christ] in the Hebrew language, and each interpreted them as best he could.

4.22 – Hegesippus also describes the sects that once existed among the Jews....  He wrote much else, some of which I have already quoted, and cites the Gospel of the Hebrews, the Syriac Gospel, and especially works of Hebrew language and oral tradition, showing that he was a Hebrew convert.

5.8 – Matthew composed a written Gospel for the Hebrews in their own language.

5.10 – Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached to them and had left them Matthew's account in Hebrew letters, which was preserved until that time.

6.14 – The epistle to the Hebrews he attributes to Paul but says that it was written in Hebrew for Hebrews and then carefully translated by Luke for the Greeks.

6.25 – I learned by tradition that the four Gospels alone are unquestionable in the church of God.  First to be written was by Matthew, who was once a tax collector but later an apostle of Jesus Christ, who published it in Hebrew for Jewish believers.

These quotes don't provide the context— in most of them Eusebius is quoting other sources.  As I have described in earlier posts in this series, there is plenty of internal evidence within the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke,  and Acts and Revelation for a Hebrew original, or at least a writer who was more comfortable with Hebrew idioms.  The references above from Eusebius are independent external evidences for Hebrew writings that are the original sources for some of the books of the New Testament.

Wikipedia has an article on the Gospel of the Hebrews.

(My wife and I are currently in the middle of packing and moving.  I will probably not be writing many posts for a while.)