jewish-christian gospels recovered the apostolic faith. On the other hand, from a historical point of view so
many of the surviving fragments seem to combine phrases from different
synoptic gospels that had a completeGospel of the Hebrewsbeen in the
hands of church writers, it would probably have been considered a gospel
harmony just like theGospel of the Ebionites.Thus,fromtheviewpointof
the “mainstream,” the history of Jewish-Christian gospels may go hand
in hand with Tatian’sDiatessaron. Gospel harmonies were dismissed and
destroyed as the “doctrine” about the four separate gospels gradually
became the standard.^106
...AReconstructionoftheGospel of the HebrewsThe above review of Eusebius’ references has added the last pieces to
the puzzle and now it is possible to sketch out the character of the
Gospel of the Hebrewsand to create the most likely picture of its history.
Before the analysis of Eusebius’ passages in the preceding chapter, there
were still two arguments that could have been presented in favor of
the old GH. First, the GH emphasizes that the first witnesses of the
Gospel of the Hebrewsare located in Egypt: Clement of Alexandria and
Origen. Second, Hans-Joseph Klauck, for instance, thinks that the three
descriptions of the baptism of Jesus are so different that they must stem
from three different gospels.^107
As regards Clement and Origen, we are left with only two sayings
that are important for this question: Clement’s saying about finding rest
(Strom. II IX . and V XIV .), and Origen’s saying about the Spirit as
Jesus’ mother (Comm. Jo. .).^108 However, in the provisional critique of
the GH, it was already noted that precisely these sayings are most clearly
paralleled in theGospel of Thomasand theActs of Thomas.Sincescholars
usually assign the composition of these writings to Syria,^109 the existing
evidencesuggestsaSyrianratherthananEgyptianoriginfortheGospel
of the Hebrewsas well (see above Chapter .).
(^106) In contrast to Metzger , , who thinks that theGospel of the Hebrewswas
dismissed because of it Semitic language and character that was totally different from the
synoptic gospels.
(^107) Klauck , .
(^108) Strom. II IX .: “He who has become astonished will become king and he who
has become king will rest.”Strom. V XIV .: “He who seeks will not cease until he finds
and having found he will marvel and having marvelled he will become king and having
become king, he will rest.” Origen,Comm. Jo. .: “A moment ago my Mother the Holy
Spirit,tookmebyoneofmyhairsandbroughtmetothegreathill,theTabor.”
(^109) See below Chapter . (on Thomas).