The Scroll of Yeshua: Cochin Hebrew Matthew
Cambridge University Library MS Oo.1.32 English Translation
The Cochin Hebrew Book of Matthew is a richly detailed study edition of the Hebrew Matthew manuscript known as Cambridge MS Oo.1.32, preserved through the historic Cochin Israelite community of India. This remarkable work presents the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew transcription and English translation, together with manuscript images, interlinear word studies, grammar notes, commentary, and comparisons with Greek and Aramaic textual traditions.
Prepared by Janice F. Baca and the Living Scroll team, this collection invites readers to examine the Cochin Hebrew Matthew verse by verse and chapter by chapter. Each volume highlights the manuscript’s distinctive Hebrew and Aramaic features, including Mishnaic and late Second Temple-style grammar, Aramaisms, scribal patterns, name spellings, direct-object constructions, and linguistic details that help illuminate the text’s layered transmission history.
Designed for students of Hebrew, researchers, Bible teachers, manuscript enthusiasts, and readers interested in the Hebrew and Israelite context of Matthew, this series offers an accessible yet deeply researched resource for exploring one of the most intriguing Hebrew New Testament manuscript traditions. Through translation, transcription, commentary, and comparative study, The Cochin Hebrew Book of Matthew opens a window into a unique textual witness preserved across centuries and cultures.
Complete Book
the-scroll-of-yeshua-cochin-heberw-matthew-final-sept-23-2026.pdf (34.6 MB)
The Cochin Hebrew Matthew MS Oo.1.32 opens a remarkable window into a little-known Hebrew manuscript tradition preserved among the Cochin Jewish community of India. Far more than a curiosity from the margins of history, this manuscript invites readers into a global story of Scripture, language, exile, preservation, and transmission across the Jewish world of the Indian Ocean.
What makes the Cochin Hebrew Matthew so compelling is not one isolated word or spelling, but the pattern of evidence as a whole. Its Hebrew text contains repeated marks of a Hebrew-Aramaic linguistic environment: Aramaic-style particles and expressions, lamed object marking, verbal gapping in the genealogy, Mishnaic and late Second Temple-style forms, sacred Aramaic terminology such as Maryah, and scribal patterns that reflect a living manuscript tradition rather than a polished modern reconstruction. These features suggest that the manuscript may preserve echoes of an older Hebrew-Aramaic framework, while also carrying the imprint of later scribes and communities who copied, handled, and transmitted the text.
The manuscript is especially important because it forces the reader to think in layers. Some features appear ancient or deeply Semitic; others show a later transmission history. Foreign-looking forms such as Vangelo, Mateus, Horodos, and Archeleos may point to later scribal contact with Greek, Latin, Portuguese, Aramaic, or regional traditions. Yet other forms, such as Yeshu, may preserve an early spoken pronunciation of Yeshua connected with Galilean or Judean speech before the form became familiar in later rabbinic contexts.
One of the most exciting discoveries is that the manuscript does not behave like a simple translation copied mechanically from one source. Instead, it appears to preserve a layered textual world: Hebrew, Aramaic, Jewish scribal practice, Eastern preservation, and later community transmission all intersect in one manuscript. This makes MS Oo.1.32 a valuable witness for exploring how the Gospel of Matthew may have circulated, been remembered, and been studied in Hebrew-speaking or Hebrew-preserving communities far beyond the familiar centers of Europe and the Mediterranean.
Through manuscript images, Hebrew transcription, English translation, interlinear tables, and comparisons with Greek and Aramaic traditions, this project lets readers see the evidence directly. The Cochin Hebrew Matthew is not merely a manuscript to be read—it is a rediscovered witness to the movement of sacred text across languages, continents, and centuries.