Hebrew Matthew
I think The Lord could sense I was getting bored with Matthew. I loath Greek and really only like to use it for insight into the Old Testament. After doing a study on what may have been going on linguistically in the time of Christ, I'm leaning towards the camp that believes Messiah spoke and taught in Hebrew, not Aramaic or Greek. Besides that, I get really bored using Greek as a primary source, so the Holy Spirit lead me to a Hebrew copy of Matthew's Gospel instead. In Ecclesiastical History, written about 100 years after the Resurrection, the first explicit mention of the Hebrew Matthew Gospel is made by Papias the bishop of Hierapolis (Phrygia): "Matthew gathered the sayings of Jesus in the Hebrew tongue, and each person translated them as he was able". In the middle ages, copies of Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew were distributed to Jews who might face persecution by the Catholic Church.
Knowing Matthew's credentials (the fact that he was a Publican and could take shorthand) he would seem the best source to study what Messiah said. What has really been intriguing is studying the titles they use to address The Lord! The interactions between Disciple and Teacher are richer and they grow on a much deeper level in the Hebrew. Also Matthew's presentation of Him as Messiah stands out even more and many verses that seemed contradictory (even in the Greek) are cleared up in this text. It's sprinkled with word-puns and poetry now and feels more like The Word than ever.
I'm primarily using the George Howard version as his has an English translation.
Knowing Matthew's credentials (the fact that he was a Publican and could take shorthand) he would seem the best source to study what Messiah said. What has really been intriguing is studying the titles they use to address The Lord! The interactions between Disciple and Teacher are richer and they grow on a much deeper level in the Hebrew. Also Matthew's presentation of Him as Messiah stands out even more and many verses that seemed contradictory (even in the Greek) are cleared up in this text. It's sprinkled with word-puns and poetry now and feels more like The Word than ever.
I'm primarily using the George Howard version as his has an English translation.