Note how this book has an author? This means he wrote it. It is a translation from Greek into Hebrew. There is no evidence extant today that Matthew was written in Hebrew except for some statements made by some early church fathers. Origen claims it is a "tradition".
Not a single shred of manuscript evidence has ever been found in Hebrew.
Sorry, but no...Nehemia Gordon did not write Hebrew Matthew from Greek to Hebrew. He is a scholar who has done actual work in translating the Dead Sea Scrolls and his book is about the Hebrew Matthew that has survived 28 manuscripts copied by Jewish scribes of which there is one that has been preserved in the British Library Manuscripts, that is of most significance.
An early Christian author named Papias wrote around the year 100: "Matthew composed his history in the Hebrew dialect, and everyone translated it as he was able."
Quote from Nehemia Gordon's book: "The original Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew was widely disseminated and read among Jesus' Jewish followers known as the Nazarenes. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Nazarenes were forced underground and the Hebrew version of Matthew slipped into obscurity.
Hebrew Matthew resurfaced a thousand years later when a Spanish rabbi named Shem Tov Ibn Shaprut copied it as an appendix to his book
Even Bockan. Shem Tov's version of Hebrew Matthew has been known in the Western world for over a hundred years but it had been generally assumed to be a translation from Latin to Greek. In 1987, Professor George Howard of Macon University wrote a monumental book proving that Hebrew Matthew was not a translation at all but an original work written in Hebrew.
The surviving version of Hebrew Matthew is not an exact replica of the original gospel written in the First Century. It has gone through a long and complicated process of transmission just as the Greek version has. The profound importance of Hebrew Matthew is that it serves as a witness to the original Hebrew gospel and preserves much of the flavor and character of the Hebrew message preached by Jesus of Nazareth some two thousand years ago.
Hebrew Matthew was survived in twenty-eight manuscripts copied by Jewish scribes in the Middle Ages. One of the most important of these manuscripts is preserved in the British Library and designated "Add. 26964."
As you can see, he, a scholar, does not say that the original manuscript has survived, but he points to the handwritten scribed copies, of which there is known 28 of them. The scribes were meticulous in "copying". As a Hebrew scholar (he worked in translating the Dead Sea Scrolls and is proficient in Hebrew) he knows about the small intricacies that each scribe would have utilized in the copying of the Hebrew Matthew. Hebrew is somewhat "poetic". The idea that in Hebrew that Jesus would have a name that means "God saves" and "God's salvation", is very poetic that God's son would have a name meaning that is MEANINGFUL and includes the Father's name.
