Questions From Readers

Is the Tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters of God’s name) found in the Hebrew text of Matthew copied by the 14th-century Jewish physician Shem-Tob ben Isaac Ibn Shaprut?

No, it is not. However, this text of Matthew does use hash·Shem’ (written out or abbreviated) 19 times, as pointed out on page 13 of The Watchtower of August 15, 1996.

The Hebrew hash·Shem’ means “the Name,” which certainly refers to the divine name. For example, in Shem-Tob’s text, an abbreviated form of hash·Shem’ appears at Matthew 3:3, a passage in which Matthew quoted Isaiah 40:3. It is reasonable to conclude that when Matthew quoted a verse from the Hebrew Scriptures where the Tetragrammaton is found, he incorporated the divine name in his Gospel. So while the Hebrew text that Shem-Tob presented does not use the Tetragrammaton, its use of “the Name,” as at Matthew 3:3, supports the use of “Jehovah” in the Christian Greek Scriptures.

Shem-Tob copied the Hebrew text of Matthew in his polemical work ʼEʹven boʹchan. What, though, was the source of that Hebrew text? Professor George Howard, who has researched this matter extensively, suggests that “Shem-Tob’s Hebrew Matthew dates somewhere within the first four centuries of the Christian era.”a Others may disagree with him on this.

Howard notes: “The Hebrew Matthew incorporated in this text is characterized especially by its many differences from the canonical Greek Matthew.” For example, according to Shem-Tob’s text, Jesus said about John: “Truly, I say to you, among all those born of women none has risen greater than John the Baptizer.” It omits Jesus’ next words: “But a person that is a lesser one in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he is.” (Matthew 11:11) In a rather similar way, there are many differences between the extant Hebrew text of the Hebrew Scriptures and the wording in the corresponding text of the Greek Septuagint version. While we acknowledge their differences, such ancient texts have some place in comparative study.

As mentioned, Shem-Tob’s text of Matthew includes “the Name” where there is good reason to believe that Matthew actually used the Tetragrammaton. Thus, since 1950, Shem-Tob’s text has been used as a support for employing the divine name in the Christian Greek Scriptures, and it still is cited in The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures—With References.b

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