Recovering Jewish-Christian Sects and Gospels (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae)

chapter five

JEWISH-CHRISTIAN GOSPELS

AND SYRIAC GOSPEL TRADITIONS

.. Three Rich Men in the

Gospel of the Hebrewsand theDiatessaron

...Introduction

The Latin translation of Origen’s commentary on Matthew’s gospel con-

tains a story about a rich man (cf. Mark :–; Matt :–, Luke

:–).^1

It is written in a certain gospel which is called according to the Hebrews

(if, however, it pleases somebody to accept it, not as authority but in order

to bring to light the question that has been put): Another rich man,^2 it says,

said to him: “Master what good must I do in order to live?” He said to him:

“Man, do^3 the law and the prophets.” He answered him: “I have done.” He

said to him: “Go, sell all that you possess and divide it among the poor and

come, follow me.” But the rich man begun to scratch his head and it did

not please him. The Lord said to him: “How can you say: I have done the

law and the prophets?^4 Foritiswritteninthelaw:loveyourneighboras

yourself. See, many of your brothers, sons of Abraham, are covered with

(^1) Origen,Comm. Matt. .. The translation draws on Klijn & Reinink , –
 and Vielhauer & Strecker ^2 (^1 ), .
(^2) Klijn & Reinink  translate “Another of the rich men,” and the English edition
of Vielhauer & Strecker ^2 (^1 ) “The other of the two rich men.” Both translations
are possible on the basis of the Latin original (alter divitum) but because it is not clear
from the context how many men there were, I prefer the simple translation “another rich
man.”
(^3) The English edition of Vielhauer & Strecker  (^2) ( (^1) ) reads: “fulfil the law and
the prophets.” “Fulfill” would be a strict translation of the Latinimpleoor Greekπληρ!ω.
Since different versions of this story do not use the same verbs, I have preferred here
a literal translation: ‘do’ for Latinfacio. The synoptic stories about the rich man have
1υλ%σσω(observe, obey). There may also be a difference in meaning between “doing
the law” (refers more to individual commandments; cf.πι ωin LXX Deut :; Gal
:,; :) and “fulfilling the law” (following the central principles; cf.πληρ!ωin Matt
:; Rom :; Gal :).
(^4) Due to a printing error, the first part of the question is missing from Klijn and
Reinink’s reprinted translation in Klijn , . The original runs “And the Lord said
to him: Why do you say: I did the law and the prophets? Is it not written.. .” The Latin