Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>]

There is, if I recall correctly, a tradition that Matthew wrote his gospel in 
Hebrew originally (or something like that--I don't think it's all that 
clear), 
and there is a medieval Hebrew manuscript of Matthew (which some have 
contended preserves an older tradition), and some Aramaic manuscripts, I 
believe. Otherwise, a recent translation that has tried to present the 
"Semitic NT" has had to resort to the Syriac version for basically every 
other 
book in the NT (which they consider to be an independent tradition, not based 
in any direct way on the GNT).

I haven't looked into the issue all that seriously, but one question that's 
been in my mind for quite some time is how well we can distinguish 
translational material from original writing. ISTM that we ought to be able 
to 
compare the GNT material with the GOT and observe common trends that show 
both 
to be translational or disparate trends that show the GNT to be an original 
composition. On the other hand, we should expect there to be Semitic 
influence 
on the style of the GNT, even if it is only that many of the writers were 
native Semitic speakers trying to write in Greek. Maybe the influences are 
such that they cannot be distinguished from the marks of outright translation.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics