How Matthew Mistakenly Quoted Jeremiah
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In the Gospel of Matthew, it appears that the author made a mistake in his account of the betrayal of Yeshua by falsely quoting the prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah). But if Matthew had mistakenly quoted Yirmiyahu, who was the prophet who should have been quoted? And besides, it is quite impossible to suppose that a Levite trained to serve in the Temple would have made such a blunder in the first place. The irony is that the New Testament people do not read the “Old Testament”.
It is the object of this work to expose the error found in the Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew and in the KJV translation which questions the credibility of the Greek manuscripts of the Apostolic Writings. And if the reader does not know how to be careful when reading translations but takes them by blind faith, he will inevitably become confused and misled. This should immediately awaken the thought of the reader as to how reliable the translations are. This is only possible when we refer to the Tanach (the Hebrew Scripture), and once we know what the Hebrew text of the gospel indeed reads. It is worth noting that this is not the only error found in the Greek texts of the “New Testament”, as we researched this in other places. The most pronounced example of this is in the genealogy of the Messiah found in the first chapter of Matthew. In the following, we would like to posit another way to look at this issue, as we will now remove all the difficulties.
“He who wrestles with nothing knows nothing and doubts nothing.” Navah
All the chief priests and rulers in the first century Judeah took counsel against Yeshua to put him to death. And having bound Him, they delivered him to the Roman governor of the province Pontius Pilate. Then Yehudah (Judas) having seen that Yeshua had been condemned to death by the governor, repented, and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests, which he was paid to deliver him in their hands. And throwing down the pieces of silver in the Temple he left and went and hanged himself. The chief priests took the silver pieces and took counsel to buy the potter’s field, for the burial of strangers (Mat 27:1-8). And according to KJV, Matthew wrote this,
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy* the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me”. (Mat 27:9-10 KJV)
Grammar notes: The Greek text has Ἱερεμίας, Ieremias, a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name יִרְמְיָהוּ Yirmeyahu, or of the short form יִרְמְיָה Yirmeyah, “YHVH will rise”; that is the prophet Jeremiah in English.
There is much to ponder over in this text. We should realize that we have a very serious problem here. We can read all fifty-two chapters of the Book of Jeremiah, but we will find no such prophecy or anything like what was quoted in the gospel. The author of the gospel, if this were his intent, would involve himself in contradiction. Is this a mistake the author of Matthew had made by not having known what the prophet had written, or there is a fault in the English translation? But, if we check in the “original” Greek text, we will find the same reference to the prophet Yirmiyahu, which explains the universal error in all translations from Greek. Most definitely, the apostle could not have possibly misquoted Yirmiyahu, but still the “original” Greek text does say “Jeremiah the prophet”. So, how could we solve this problem? On the one hand, Matthew could not have misquoted the Tanach, because everyone in Judeah knew that Yirmiyahu had never written such a prophecy.
On the other hand, there are a lot of commentators and commoners who will swear that the gospels are the infallible Word of God, hence incapable of having even a single error. By this they mean that the Greek manuscripts of the “New Testament“ are the “perfect word of God” and “inspired by the Holy Spirit”. Yet, there is an error in the Gospel of Matthew, which we will expose in the following for the studious reader’s consideration.
Insight: While this gospel is solely attributed to the disciple of Yeshua known as “Matthew”, in fact it is anonymous, and its author is unknown, as this is the case of the other three gospels. Nowhere in the gospel Matthew claims that he is the author. It is the Church’s tradition that makes this claim for him. There is consensus among the scholars that the canonical gospels were probably written between 66 and 110 CE, as the Gospel of Mark is accepted to be the earliest and the Gospel of John the latest. This puts their compositions likely outside the lifetimes of the alleged authors and eyewitnesses of the events, as the second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE and most of the Jews were exiled. We now return to the text.
At this point in the discussion, it is necessary to understand that if the Book of Jeremiah is not the textual source for the Gospel of Matthew, where did the author of the gospel take it from? There is only one prophet who could be the source for the account in the gospel.
Zechariah, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, was of priestly descent. He was a son of Berechiah and grandson of Iddo the prophet (Zec 1:1, Zec 1:7), the chief of one of the priestly families, which returned from exile along with Zerubbavel and the High Priest Yeshua (Neh 12:1-4). The prophet Zechariah lived at a very exciting time in history, when the Persian King Darius allowed his Jewish subjects to return to Yerushalayim and rebuild the Temple. While there were some who heeded the call, many did not respond with proper enthusiasm. The prophet tried to encourage the children of Israel to return by reiterating God’s promises and blessings regarding the land of Israel.
Insight: Zechariah is one of the most esoteric books of the Bible, probably only second to Isaiah. This scroll was written during the period of return of the Babylonian exile to the land. The book of Zechariah has three clear parts. Chapters 1 to 6 of Zechariah recall the nation’s history. Chapters 7 and 8 deal with the mourning for the destruction of the city. Chapters 9 to 14 consist of two “prophecies” or “burdens”. The first prophecy (Zec 9-11) gives an outline of the time of the coming of the Messiah. The second prophecy (Zec 12–14) points out the latter days, the final conflict of the war of Gog of Magog, and triumph of God’s kingdom. We now return to the text.
We read form the JPS translation of Zechariah 11:12-13 thus,
And I said unto them: ‘If ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear.’ So they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me: ‘Cast it into the treasury, the goodly price that I was prized at of them.’ And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the treasury, in the house of the LORD. (Zec 11:12-13 JPS)
As we see above, the author of Matthew quoted Zechariah the prophet, not Yirmiyahu. How could he have misquoted Zechariah? In Hebrew the names “Zechariah” and “Yirmeyahu” are quite distinct from each other.
Do we have a second witness?
The Church fathers and of Christianity were about 70 theologians who lived in the period from the 2nd to the 7th century whose writing established and confirmed official Church doctrine. The best-known Church Fathers are Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome. The Church fathers cannot be blamed for being Jew-lovers. Yet, they testified to the fact the primacy of the Hebrew text of Matthew.
Jerome (347-420) was one of the great Fathers of the early Christian Church whose major work was his translation of the Scriptures from Hebrew and Greek into Latin (which became the Vulgate). He wrote:
“I am now speaking of the New Testament. This was undoubtedly composed in Greek, with the exception of the work of Matthew the Apostle, who was the first to commit to writing the Gospel of Christ and who published his work in Judea in Hebrew characters.” CHURCH FATHERS: Prefaces (Jerome) (newadvent.org)
Eusebius (circa 270-340) was Christian bishop of Caesarea in Palestine; a church historian and a leading early Christian exegete. He wrote (H.E. 6.25.4):
“As having learnt by tradition concerning the four Gospels, which alone are unquestionable in the Church of God under heaven, that first was written according to Matthew, who was once a tax collector but afterwards an apostle of Jesus Christ, who published it for those who from Judaism came to believe, composed as it was in the Hebrew language.” CHURCH FATHERS: Church History, Book VI (Eusebius) (newadvent.org)
After all of the above, it remains for us to explain the error in the Greek text. According to Jerome, Eusebius and others, the Gospel of Matthew was written in Hebrew. And according to the Church fathers, there is a second witness to our proposition that the author of Matthew misquoted the prophet.
George Howard translated into English the Hebrew text of Matthew aka Shem-Tov’s Hebrew Matthew, Mercer University Press, 1995. On page 143 we read Matthew 27:9-10 thus,
Then was fulfilled the word of Zechariah the prophet: ‘And I said to them if it is good in your eyes, multiply my wages, but if (not), forbear. And they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord* said to me: Cast it unto the potter. This is from the man who forms clay+, as the Lord commanded.
Notes: * The Hebrew text has it, “YHVH”; + The phrase ”This is from the man who forms clay” appears to be a gloss by the Hebrew copyist to explain the word “potter”.
The ancient text known as Shem-Tov’s Hebrew Matthew was the first manuscript to be discovered, yet it is not the last one. Since 1995, other manuscripts were found as well, such as Hebrew MSS of Gospel of Matthew Even Bohan. In the last years, the Karaite Jew Nehemiah Gordon found more than twenty Hebrew manuscripts of Matthew forgotten in libraries and archives throughout Europe. They all confirm the Hebraic origin of the Gospel of Matthew, and perhaps, of the other gospels.
Knowing what we have learned so far, it should not come as a surprise that Matthew 27:9 of the Greek New Testament indeed quotes Zec 11:12-13 but falsely credits the quote to Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) the prophet. (Perhaps because of a similar prophecy in Jer 18:2; Jer 19:11; Jer 32:6-9). The Shem Tov Hebrew Matthew, however, correctly attributes the quote to Zechariah. Thus far the Greek New Testament.
One final thought. It is evident now why a broad consensus has developed that the Greek text of Matthew is a mere translation from Hebrew, and by laying out all of the above considerations, we hope the readers will become more critical of what they read in the translations. The readers who are acquainted with the Tanach will succeed in finding other errors in the “New Testament”. It behooves, therefore, each one of us to acquire as much insight into the Hebrew Scripture as possible.
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May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days!
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