jewish-christian gospels and syriac gospel traditions manuscripts helps to reconstruct the factual sources that were available
to the composer of Origen’s story.
In contrast to many earlier discussions about theGospel of the Hebrews,
I will not speculate about independent traditions if parallel expressions
can be explained on the basis the Two Document Hypothesis. If a believ-
able trajectory from the “original” canonical gospels to Origen’s story can
be demonstrated through existing variant readings, versions and Diates-
saronic witnesses, then there should be no reason to assume a separate,
independent tradition that would have effected the development of tex-
tual tradition at several stages.
Matthew
There are four notable features that Origen’s passage shares with the
Gospel of Matthew.
First, in contrast to Mark and Luke, who relate that a person “asked”
Jesus, both Matthew and Origen’s Latin quotation use the verb “say.”
Second,inMatthew,aswellasinOrigen’spassage,theteacherisnot
“good.” Instead, the man asks “what good” or “good things” (τ γα!ν,
quid bonum)heshoulddoinordertolive.
On the basis of the Two Document Hypothesis, it was the editor
of Matthew’s gospel who made the man ask “Teacher, what good.. .”
instead of “Good teacher, what.. .” Consequently, in Matthew, Jesus
responds “Why do you ask me about good.. .?” instead of “Why do
you call me good.. .? The above expressions are also clearly Matthean
elsewhere. The phrase “came and said” (πρσελ<ν...ε:πεν)andthe
address “teacher” (διδ%σκαλε)—without the word “good”—are Matthe-
an expressions in passages where outsiders pose questions to Jesus.^16 On
the basis of the similarities in the introduction, there seems to be no
doubtthatthepresentquotationfromtheGospel of the Hebrewswas
written after the canonical Gospel of Matthew.
Third, both Matthew and Origen’s passage refer to the love command-
ment. The commandment is Matthew’s addition at the end of verse :
and it is the only commandment that is mentioned explicitly in Origen’s
passage.
Fourth, Origen’s quotation does not list the individual commandments
as the synoptic versions of the story do. Instead, Jesus only tells the
(^16) See, for instance, U. Luz’s list of Matthew’s favorite expressions: Luz , –.
A fuller discussion of the above expressions and of the usability of word statistics in the
study of Matthew’s gospel in general is to be found in Luomanen , –, , .