The Return Letter of James: Cochin Hebrew James

When the disciples were instructed to take the gospel to the world, two disciples, Thomas and possibly later, Andrew, took Yeshua’s words literal and made their way to Cochin, India. However, the earliest information available about the Hebrew gospel is linked to the church established by the apostle Thomas in India. According to Eusebius, the Gospel according to Matthew had been taken to India by the apostle Bartholomew [Thomas]… written ’in Hebrew script’ and preserved in India until the visit of Pantaenus… Jerome repeats this testimony of Eusebius, adding that Pantaenus brought the Hebrew Matthew with him on his return from India to Alexandria. Thomas traveled throughout India and was responsible for the establishment of churches in the state of Travancore, where the city of Cochin is located. In 1803, Claudius Buchanan discovered the Hebrew New Testament manuscripts in the synagogue of black Jews and purchased them for his collection. These were later incorporated into the Moses Gaster collection, which was added to the Rylands Library, and included the MS Oo.1.16.2 and Oo.1.16.1 manuscripts and is now located at the Cambridge University Library in the United Kingdom. The Return Letter of James: The Return Letter of James is a copy of the Hebrew letter written to the scattered twelve tribes of Israel by James (Yaakov) who was called “the brother of Yeshua” (see Mt 13:55; Mk 6:3). The Return Letter of James: Cochin James MS Oo.1.32 contains some verses written in Mishnaic Hebrew with Aramaisms according to the First Century tradition. For it is believed that in the First Century of Judea, the talmidim (i.e. disciples) spoke rabbinic Hebrew – with a subset of rabbinic Hebrew represented in the Mishnah called "Mishnaic Hebrew."4 For in the First Century, after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem - and for the following couple of centuries, Mishnaic Hebrew was used and was also included in the Dead Sea Scrolls. 5,6 The grammar of Cochin James contains verses whose striking differences in writing style bring a deeper meaning, suggesting that he may have been one step closer to the original words of James (Yaakov) for the twelve tribes of Israel, scattered abroad for this day.