I’m thrilled to announce that our Hebrew-and-English Reconstruction of The Gospel according to the Hebrews is complete—and the hardback is now available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM3964X5. A Paperback edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM3GG163
This volume gathers the scattered ancient quotations and testimonies about this early Jewish Gospel and presents a careful reconstruction in Hebrew with a facing English translation. It’s a key milestone in restoring the earliest, Jewish voice of the Good News.
What’s next: restoring the original Hebrew and Aramaic of the Four Gospels
With this book out, I’m already deep into the next step: a restoration of the original Hebrew and Aramaic of the Four Gospels—produced in Jewish Western Aramaic and Hebrew, with a literal English translation.
Why this approach?
- The Old Syriac Gospels (Sinaitic & Curetonian) preserve a stream of the Gospel tradition that reflects Jewish Western Aramaic idiom and thought—often earlier and more Semitic than later church-standardized forms. They’re not mere “translations of Greek,” but revisions of an older, Jewish Aramaic Gospel tradition that still peeks through in wording, syntax, and idioms.
- By contrast, the Peshitta—though precious—is a later revision of that Old Syriac tradition, realigned toward the Greek Byzantine text-type and smoothed to fit post-Nicene theology and idiom. This is why it often reads “cleaner” but less Semitic.
- The larger picture that emerges is a Semitic textual history: Hebrew originals → early Jewish Western Aramaic → Old Syriac → Western-type Greek (the rough, Semitic-sounding Greek) → Alexandrian/Byzantine Greek; and the Peshitta reflects a revision toward Byzantine Greek.
- Practically, this means my restoration will collate the Old Syriac readings with early Peshitta witnesses (e.g., Codex Phillipps 1388), identifying where Semitic forms survived before later harmonization—and then render those in Jewish Western Aramaic and Hebrew with a literal English translation.
- Why not just stick to Greek? Because time and again we see that the most awkward, “un-Greek” features in early witnesses are exactly what we expect from literal renderings of Semitic originals—a signpost pointing back to the Hebrew/Aramaic substrate.
Put simply: this project aims to let the earliest Jewish voice of the Gospels speak again—in the languages in which Yeshua and His first disciples taught, with a transparent English that doesn’t hide the Semitic texture. The Old Syriac especially “opens a window into the authentic linguistic and cultural world” of the earliest Gospel strata and “preserves the voice of Jewish disciples before [later] Hellenistic” smoothing.
Why this matters
Our research continues to confirm the core thesis: the New Testament books were originally composed in Hebrew and Aramaic, and the Greek we know is, in many places, a translation or paraphrase of that Semitic base.
Recovering the Semitic shape of the Gospels clarifies difficult passages, restores idioms, and re-centers the narrative in its Jewish linguistic and cultural home. This isn’t just academic; it helps all of us hear Yeshua and His emissaries as their first hearers did.
How you can help (urgent)
We’re in a really tough spot right now. Yesterday we ended the day $100 in the negative, and as of today we are $398 pending in the negative. We have funds coming from GoFundMe, but they take a couple of days and won’t land until tomorrow or Thursday. If you can help with any part of this gap, it would be a lifeline.
As I’ve said many times, I look on this work as co-operative—you and me, combining our resources so we can get this truth out to all who will listen. Thank you for your prayers and your faithful support; you truly make this possible.
If you’re able, a one-time gift of $500 or $1,000 right now would stabilize things so I can keep the restoration work moving without interruption.
Donate via PayPal: donations@wnae.org
Give online: https://nazarenespace.com/blog/donate/
Now is the time to step up to the plate. Thank you—from the bottom of my heart—for standing with this work.
