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Bibliothek Der Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden

Leaf from Shem-Tob’s Even Bohan. This 15th- or 16th-century manuscript of Shem-Tob’s 14th-century treatise includes Matthew 10:41b–11:15. The marginal words indicate sections 47 and 48 of the text.

A wordplay based upon the similarity of “kings” (hamelachim) and “my messenger” (malachi) appears on line six from the bottom, word two from the right, and on line five from the bottom, word eight from the right, respectively. This wordplay is one of many puns, word-connections and alliterations in the Hebrew text of Matthew. These literary devices “work” in Hebrew but not in Greek or Latin, suggesting that the Hebrew Matthew embedded in Even Bohan was originally written in Hebrew, and was not a translation from the Greek or Latin.