Abstract
The allure of a Hebrew or Aramaic language origin for the synoptic tradition continues to fascinate scholars, and encourages them to write massive books on this elusive possibility. Baltes assembles evidence that alongside Aramaic and Greek, Hebrew remained a spoken and literary language in Palestine in the first century of the common era. As part of this argument, selected synoptic passages are retroverted into Hebrew. What this demonstrates is questionable. Just because one can successfully translate an ancient Greek text into plausible ‘first century’ Hebrew, perhaps demonstrates more about the scholar’s skill, than actually proving anything about the actual existence of a Hebrew vorlage for the retroverted passage. Baltes argues for the existence of a Hebrew language proto-Matthean stage of the gospel tradition that is earlier than the three canonical gospels.
It would not be fair to be entirely dismissive of Baltes’ proposals, for if any of the synoptic traditions find their ultimate origin in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth then presumably there is indeed a Semitic substratum – no matter at how many stages removed from the current form of the synoptic tradition. However, whether this is recoverable in any meaningful way is highly dubious, and it is even more uncertain whether it is possible either to verify or falsify proposed reconstructions. Yet more fundamentally, for those who view Mark as the earliest of the synoptic Gospels, proposals about a proto-Matthean Hebrew gospel stage, which is also pre-Markan, appear implausible.
Baltes’ study is detailed, thoroughly researched, and contains many interesting facets. Unfortunately, its fundamental problem is the lack of plausibility for the overall thesis. This will become a book that will be the starting point for any further studies that wish to propose a recoverable pre-canonical Hebrew language stage for the synoptic tradition.