jewish-christian gospels recovered identifies the gospel as the one “that the Nazarenes” use but never says
that he is quoting from the copy that he believed to be in the library of
Caesarea, although this is the place where the “original Matthew” would
have been most easily available for him. Both times when he refers to the
copy in Caesarea, the information is provided in addition to the fact that
the gospel was used by the Nazarenes (see above,Vir. ill.andPelag..).
In my view, there is no evidence that Eusebius would have known an
entire gospel in a Semitic language,^53 but it is quite possible that Jerome
interpreted Eusebius’ statements to the effect that the library of Caesarea
must have possessed a copy of Matthew’s gospel in the original Hebrew.
If Jerome believed that it might be possible for him to find such a copy
in Caesarea, it would partly explain why he started to see himself as an
author of a finished translation.
.. A New Reconstruction of the Gospel Used by the Nazarenes
As was noted above, Jerome’s own introductions to the passages some-
times suggest that the passages were derived from Greek sources since
he claims to have translated them into Greek as well. Introductions may
also bear witness to another group of users or to another title that was
connected to the fragment in Jerome’s source. For instance, one of the
fragments (about a mason whose withered hand Jesus healed) is intro-
duced as follows: “In the Gospel which the Nazarenesand the Ebionites
use whichwetranslated recently from Hebrewinto Greek.”The st person
plural, the reference to the Ebionites and to the Greek language all indi-
cate that the passage was probably derived from a Greek source where it
was ascribed to the Ebionites.^54
In the ancient world, writing was often a collective undertaking. Je-
rome also used scribes from the very beginning of his career (Jerome,
Epist. .), even when he was leading an ascetic life near Chalcis, away
(^53) See below, Chapter ...
(^54) Because the term Ebionites was a standard title for Jewish Christians, the passage
was not necessarily derived from the same gospel that was known to Epiphanius (=
theGospel of the Ebionites). The legendary and elaborate style resembles Origen’s Latin
passage (Origen,Comm. Matt. .; cf. “man scratching his hair”). There is also a
similar contrast betweenhonor and shame(see the shameful situation of the “brothers”
of the rich man who should alleviate their misery and restore their honor). In my own
reconstruction, I have attributed both passages to theGospel of the Hebrews.