jewish-christian gospels recovered Let Celsus, then, learn, and Porphyri and Julian, those rabid dogs barking
against Christ; let their followers learn—those who think that the church
has had no philosophers, no orators, no men of learning; let them learn
the number and quality of the men who founded, built and adorned the
church, and let them stop accusing our faith of such rustic simplicity, and
recognize their own ignorance. (trans. Halton ).At the end of this list of illustrious, noble men there is—Jerome. Never-
theless, the reader of the book does not have to wait until the last lines
of this collection before he/she gets a glimpse of the linguistic skills of its
author. Second in the row, after Peter, is James, the brother of the Lord.
Some information about him is also to be found in the Gospel according
to the Hebrews,
which I have recently translated into Greek and Latin of which also Origen
often makes use. (Vir. ill. ; trans. Klijn ).
After James follows Matthew who, according to Jerome, composed a
gospel in Hebrew, which was later translated into Greek by an unknown
author.^39 However,
The Hebrew itself has been preserved until the present day in the library
at Caesarea which Pamphilus the martyr so diligently collected. From the
Nazarenes who use this book in Beroia, a city of Syria, I also received the
opportunity to copy it. (Vir. ill. ; trans. Klijn & Reinink ).Jerome continues explaining how it is to be noted that in this volume, the
scriptures are not quoted according to the Septuagint but according to the
Hebrew original. The view is exactly the same that he had expressed a bit
earlier in his preface toHebrew Questions. Thus it seems that Jerome’s
campaign for using the Hebrew original gets further support because the
Nazarenes had provided him with access to the original “Hebrew” text of
Matthew.
The third reference to a Jewish-Christian gospel inOn Illustrious Men
is in connection with Ignatius. After having presented the list of Ignatius’
letters which is concluded by the letter to the Polycarp, Jerome relates
(Vir. ill. ):
In this he bore witness also to the gospel which I have recently translated,
in respect of the person of Christ stating...
(Vir. ill. ; trans. Klijn & Reinink ).(^39) This information is obviously derived from EusebiusHist. eccl. .., .., ...