George Howard

This is a revision of my first book. I wanted it to be a smaller, handier book to hold and carry (pocket-sized). It's full of Yorkshire humor and I hope this gives a respite from the serious poems. Above all I hope you like it and thanks to all my friends who supported me whilst writing it.

This is the second edition of a work which first appeared in 1979. The first edition gave an interpretation of Paul's Letters to the Galatians which proceeded along the following lines: firstly, Paul's opponents at Galatia were Jewish Christians who believed that Gentiles had to accept the Law in order to be saved; secondly, that Paul first revealed his noncircumcision gospel to James, Cephas and John at the Jerusalem Conference; thirdly, Paul's view of justification by faith was seen in terms of Christ keeping faith with Abraham's promise that all nations would be blessed; and fourthly, that Paul considered Torah as binding upon Jewish Christians, but not upon Gentiles. In his second edition, the author brings the discussion into line with his present thinking, and proposes a more nuanced view of the Galatian opponents. These, he feels, did not all share the same opinions, although they were Jewish Christians. The chief discrepancy in their views consisted in the fact that some believed all Gentiles would be saved at the present time if they kept the Law, while others thought the Gentiles would be saved, rather, at the dawn of the age to come.

For centuries the Jewish community in Europe possessed a copy of Matthew in the Hebrew language. The Jews' use of this document during the Middle Ages is imperfectly known. Occasionally excerpts from it appeared in polemical writings against Christianity. By the end of the fourteenth century, however, the entire Hebrew Gospel appeared in the polemical treatise Even Bonham, by the Spanish writer Shem-Tob ben -Isaac ben- Shaprut. An important thrust to this volume is to establish that the Hebrew Matthew of the Even Bohan predates the fourteenth century. It shares many readings with ancient Christian writings, some of which were lost in antiquity only to reappear in modern times. These included Codex Sinaiticus, the Old Syriac version, the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, and a host of others. It also analyzes the language, artistic touches, and theology of the Hebrew Gospel.