chapter three
nothing indicates that this “Syriac gospel” would have been especially
Jewish Christian. It is quite possible that it was theDiatessaron.
Eusebius says that his own quotations are from a gospel written in
Hebrew characters/language. The character of the quotations indicates
that Eusebius did not have the entire gospel(s) in hand but was relying
on secondhand information. There are also word for word connections
to the Greek Gospel of Luke which suggests that the traditions available
to Eusebius had originally been in Greek but were later on translated into
Syriac (more on this in Chapter ).
Overall, the passages referred to and quoted by Eusebius fit with
other Jewish-Christian gospel fragments. There are clear indications of
the influence of harmonizing traditions and the possible influence of
Wisdom traditions. Papias testifies to a GreekGospel of the Hebrews
in Asia Minor in the early second century, which is much earlier than
Origen and Clement of Alexandria start to quote theGospel of the
Hebrewsin Egypt. This also coheres with the hypothesis, to be discussed
in the next chapter, that Jewish-Christian gospels/gospel traditions were
only later on transmitted to Egypt and therefore it is no need to postulate
aseparateEgyptianGospel of the Hebrews.
The main reason why Eusebius placed theGospel of the Hebrewsin
the second category in his list of canonical writings was that it was
referred to by writers he understood to be trustworthy transmitters of
apostolic tradition. He also must have seen some quotations from the
Gospel of the Hebrewswhich he was able to utilize in his own exposition
of the scriptures. However, on the whole, his knowledge about the actual
contents of this gospel must have remained limited. This means that
although Papias, Hegesippus, Origen and Clement of Alexandria still had
Jewish-Christian gospels available in Greek, by Eusebius’ time the actual
GreekGospel of the Hebrewswasnolongeravailableforwriterswithin
“mainstream” Christianity. Rather, the way in which Eusebius introduces
theGospel of the Hebrewssuggests that the Christ believers who used this
gospel were living as Jews within Jewish communities.^105
This is perhaps one of the reasons why the career of theGospel of the
Hebrewson the fringes of canon was so short. In Eusebius’ time, it was
no longer a real option for writers within the “mainstream” but Eusebius,
who had carefully reviewed the writings of his predecessors, could not
dismiss it out of hand because it was referred to by esteemed teachers of
(^105) Further evidence for this view in Chapter ..