HEBREW GOSPEL OF MATTHEW - CHAPTER 45

CHAPTER 10 (Part 3) — Section 045 [MT 10:23–32]

Note on Textual Divisions & Concordance Markers:
The section headings (פרק מ״ה) follow the authentic internal structural layout of Shem-Tob's Hebrew text, preserving the 116 original pericopes. Chapter and verse divisions ([MT 10:23–32]) were introduced over a thousand years later for Latin concordances and are supplied here strictly as navigational coordinates for readers cross-referencing standard printed versions.

Semitic Consonantal Translation

#	Shem-Tob Hebrew Text (Plate 46)	Literal Semitic Translation
23	עוֹד אָמַר יֵשׁ״וּ לְתַלְמִידָיו כַּאֲשֶׁר יִרְדְּפוּ אֶתְכֶם בָּעִיר הַזֹּאת בְּרָחוּ לְאַחֶרֶת אָמֵן אֲנִי אוֹמֵר לָכֶם לֹא תַשְׁלִימוּ לָכֶם עָרֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עַד כִּי יָבֹא בֶּן אָדָם׃	Again Jeshu said unto his disciples: When they hunt you down in this city, flee unto the other. Truly I say unto you, you shall not finish traversing the cities of Israel until the Son of Adam arrives.
24	אֵין תַּלְמִיד גָּדוֹל מֵרַבּוֹ וְלֹא הָעֶבֶד גָּדוֹל מֵאֲדוֹנָיו׃	A disciple is not greater than his Rav, nor a servant greater than his Master;
25	דַּי לַתַּלְמִיד לִהְיוֹת כְּרַבּוֹ וְלָעֶבֶד כַּאֲדוֹנָיו. אִם לְבַעַל הַבַּיִת יִקְרְאוּ בַּעַל זְבוּב כ״ש לִבְנֵי בֵיתוֹ׃	It is sufficient for the disciple to become as his Rav, and for the servant as his Master. If they have called the Master of the House "Lord of the Flies", all the more so the sons of his household!
26	אַל תִּירְאוּ מֵהֶם שֶׁאֵין דָּבָר שֶׁלֹּא יֵרָאֶה וְלֹא נֶעְלָם׃	Dread them not, for there is nothing covered that shall not be uncovered, nor hidden that shall not be made known.
27	אֲנִי אוֹמֵר לָכֶם בַּחֹשֶׁךְ אִמְרוּ אוֹתוֹ בָּאוֹר.	What I speak unto you in darkness, declare in the light!
28	וְאַל תִּפְחֲדוּ מֵהוֹרְגֵי שֶׁאֵין בְּיָדָם לַהֲרוֹג הַנְּפָשׁוֹת רַק פְּחָדוּ לַאֲשֶׁר יְכוֹלֶת בְּיָדוֹ לְאַבֵּד הַנֶּפֶשׁ וְהַגּוּף בְּגֵהִינֹם׃	And have no dread of the executioners who hold no power in their hand to slay the living soul; rather dread Him who holds the sovereign power in His hand to destroy both soul and body in Ge-Hinnom.
29	הֲלֹא שְׁנֵי צִפּוֹרִים אָבְדוּ בִּפְרוּטָה אַחַת וְלֹא תִפּוֹל אַחַת מֵהֶם עַל הָאָרֶץ כִּי אִם בִּרְצוֹן אֲבִיכֶם שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם׃	Do not two sparrows perish for a single perutah? Yet not one of them falls upon the earth apart from the sovereign will of your Father who is in heaven!
30	הֲלֹא שַׂעֲרוֹת רָאשֵׁיכֶם כֻּלָּם סְפוּרִים׃	Behold, the hairs of your head are all numbered.
31	אַל תִּירְאוּ שֶׁטּוֹבִים מִצִּפּוֹרִים אַתֶּם׃	Therefore do not fear; you are of greater worth than sparrows.
32	הַמְשַׁבֵּחַ אוֹתִי בִּפְנֵי אָדָם אֲשַׁבְּחֶנּוּ לִפְנֵי אָבִי שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם׃	Whoever praises and commends me before the face of Adam, I will likewise praise and commend him before the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Paleographic & Consonantal Apparatus Audit

1. Verse 25: The Slander of the Household — Ba'al Ha-Bayit vs. Ba'al Zevuv

Standard Greek translations and their vernacular derivatives transcribe the term as an obscure proper noun, "Beelzebul," reducing a pointed Semitic polemic to abstract mythological jargon. On Plate 46, the confrontation is strictly legal and structural: בַּעַל הַבַּיִת (Ba'al Ha-Bayit—the Master, Owner, or Husband of the Estate) is branded by the religious establishment as בַּעַל זְבוּב (Ba'al Zevuv—"Lord of Flies, Swarming Insects, or Refuse").

This is not an academic insult; it was a targeted smear directed against Jeshu’s domestic community and marital standing. The religious hierarchy at Jerusalem despised his household order, slandering it as a house of defilement and concubinage. Jeshu warns his companions: if they cast so foul a reproach upon the Master of the Estate, the sons of his house (בְּנֵי בֵיתוֹ) must expect the identical label from the institutional synod.

2. Verse 28: The Slayers at the River of Death

Notice the abrupt grammatical form on Plate 46: מֵהוֹרְגֵי (me-horgei—an apocopated construct participle: "slayers of..."). Later scribes across Manuscripts ABDEFG, unsettled by the raw syntax, attempted to insert "the body" (הַגּוּף) to force agreement with the standard Greek version (apokteinontōn to sōma). But the unmolested consonantal reading directly targets the human executioners who can only terminate mortal flesh.

Readers should examine Joshua 3:14–17 and Jeremiah 12:5: the executioners represent the terrifying swell of the mortal river—the Jordan crossing—where human flesh is dissolved. The persecutors possess power over the physical vessel (גּוּף), but have zero jurisdiction over the living breath and continuous soul (נֶפֶשׁ) governed by the Father.

3. Verse 29: Perished (אָבְדוּ) vs. Sold (נִמְכְּרוּ) — The Commercial Cover-Up

Every standard European translation follows the Greek: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?" (pōleitai). If Shem-Tob were a back-translation from Greek or Latin, it would inevitably employ the routine commercial verb נִמְכְּרוּ (nimkeru—sold).

Instead, the consonantal Hebrew manuscript preserves the explosive verb: אָבְדוּ (avedu—from אָבַד, to perish, be destroyed, or lost). The text does not record a casual market transaction; it records a legal reality: two clean creatures are destroyed and discarded for the smallest legal denomination in Israel, a single copper פְּרוּטָה (perutah). The institutional world treats the clean, vulnerable remnant as an expendable loss, yet not one falls outside the sovereign purpose of the Father.

4. Verse 29: The Gender Rupture and the Legal Token of Betrothal

Examine the startling grammatical rift in verse 29: the subject begins in the masculine plural (שְׁנֵי צִפּוֹרִים אָבְדוּ ... מֵהֶם), but the fatal descent shifts into the solitary feminine: וְלֹא תִפּוֹל אַחַת ("and not one [fem.] shall fall").

Why does the feminine bird fall upon the earth for a single פְּרוּטָה? In Israelite jurisprudence (Mishnah Kiddushin 1:1), a single perutah is the absolute minimum monetary token required to contract a legal marriage; anything less is legally null. Readers must cross-reference Leviticus 14:4–7 (the two clean birds of the outcast leper) and Psalm 124:7 ("Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers"). The feminine soul (נֶפֶשׁ), stripped of earthly status and counted as cheap as a slaughtered sparrow, is the true bridal remnant preserved by the Father.

5. Verse 32: Shavach (שָׁבַח) vs. Greek Homologeō

Standard European translations reduce this statement to: "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess." (Greek: homologēsei). Ecclesiastical institutions have historically flattened this into verbal lip service—reciting baptismal creeds or chanting holy names while living in complete alignment with the predatory systems of this world.

The Hebrew text cuts far deeper with the covenant root שָׁבַח (shavach): to commend, laud, praise, and openly glorify. Lip service was denounced throughout the prophets (e.g., Isaiah 29:13: "with their lips do they honour me, but have removed their heart far from me"). In authentic Semitic thought, you cannot praise or commend a Master before the face of Adam (בִּפְנֵי אָדָם) with words while denying his household order and covenant conduct. True commendation is mutual: whoever openly honors and stands with the rejected Master under fire is the one Jeshu personally honors and commends before his Father in the celestial assembly.

Forensic Prophetic Commentary

I. The Trap of the Fathers: The Sons of Korah Break the Mold

Section 045 opens with an urgent command: when they hunt you in one city, flee to another. The sent ones will never exhaust the cities of Israel before the final reckoning. This relentless persecution is spearheaded by the established religious hierarchy. This clarifies why Jeshu establishes the boundary: "A disciple is not greater than his Rav, nor a servant greater than his Master; it is sufficient (דַּי) for the disciple to become as his Rav."

Religious institutions have long twisted this verse into an ecclesiastical club to demand unthinking obedience to clergy, bishops, and rabbis. Yet Scripture itself exposes this falsehood. In Psalm 45, the title explicitly attributes the royal coronation song to the Sons of Korah. Korah was one of the most infamous rebels in Israelite history, swallowed alive by the earth for his ecclesiastical pride and rebellion against Moses (Numbers 16). Yet Numbers 26:11 records the miracle: "Notwithstanding, the children of Korah died not."

The sons of Korah broke the generational curse of their father. They refused to follow their biological and religious sire into his arrogance. The student is not bound to mirror the corruption of an unrighteous teacher or hypocritical institutional father. Truth bypasses the institutional hierarchy to deal directly with the upright soul.

II. The Whited Sepulchre and the True House of Flies

Why did the scribes and priests level the smear of Ba'al Zevuv against Jeshu’s household? Because his fellowship operated completely outside their legal machinery, elevation, and control. In their eyes, any domestic order not certified by their ecclesiastical court was an abomination.

In parallel accounts preserved outside Latinized channels (such as Chapter 45 of the Italian Gospel of Barnabas), Jeshu marches into the Jerusalem temple courts and shatters this veneer of sanctity. He exposes the priests and Pharisees as whited sepulchres—gleaming white on the exterior for men to admire, but within filled with rottenness, dead men's bones, and crawling worms. The institutional hierarchy that dared to call the Master of the House "Lord of the Flies" was itself the decaying carcass attracting the swarms. Their righteousness was an external performance calculated for human applause, while their inward chamber was full of theft, extortion, and murderous jealousy.

III. The Hidden Secret and the Kneeling of the Nations

Jeshu assures his companions: שֶׁאֵין דָּבָר שֶׁלֹּא יֵרָאֶה וְלֹא נֶעְלָם—"There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hidden (נֶעְלָם / ne'elam) that shall not be made known."

Readers should note Daniel 12:4, 9, where the prophetic scroll is shut up and sealed until the time of the end (עֵת קֵץ). Scribes, editors, and canon organizers systematically excised the plain and precious realities of Jeshu’s household and his teachings on the Father to build an imperial priesthood. What was whispered in the narrow darkness (בַּחֹשֶׁךְ)—in the straits of affliction (Psalm 118:5)—is precisely what is now breaking forth into the daylight.

This institutional arrogance faces an inescapable reckoning. As illuminated in prophetic writings addressing this identical trial (such as Chapter 45 of the prophetic record, Al-Jathiyah / "The Kneeling"), those who turn their institutional desires and traditions into their god will find their pride dismantled. When the books of judgment are opened, every corrupt religious assembly that hunted down the faithful will be seen brought to their knees in terror. The outward glory of the temple synod will dissolve, while the solitary soul that was counted as cheap as a perishing sparrow will be raised up, openly commended before the throne of the Eternal Father.