Yeshua’s immersion is one of the most recognized events in the records regarding his life. The account is included in all four of the traditional Gospels of the New Testament. But these aren’t the only sources. Other ancient, Hebrew sources also recount the event, including specific details and wording not found in the New Testament. The Stick of Joseph account of the event also includes certain, specific details not found in the New Testament, and unknown at the time of Yosef ben Yosef. This is a profound testimony to the authenticity of the Stick of Joseph as an ancient Jewish document.

The Traditional Text

The immersion of Yeshua is recorded in the King James Version of all four canonical Gospels as follows:

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: (Matt. 3:16 KJV)

And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: (Mark 1:10 KJV)

And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22 KJV)

And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. (John 1:32 KJV)

These accounts all agree in basic details. But when we consider the Hebrew and Aramaic versions of Matthew, and the Gospel according to the Hebrews, we gain insight from additional, unique accounts of this event.

Du Tillet Hebrew Matthew

The Du Tillet version is a Hebrew manuscript of Matthew that was confiscated from Jews in Rome, in 1553. On August 12th, 1553, at the petition of Pietro, Cardinal Caraffa (the Inquisitor General), Pope Julius III signed a decree banning the Talmud in Rome. The decree was executed on September 9th (Rosh HaShanna) and anything that looked like the Talmud, that is, anything written in Hebrew characters was confiscated as Jewish homes and synagogues were ransacked. Jean Du Tillet, Bishop of Brieu, France was visiting Rome at the time. Du Tillet was astounded to take notice of a Hebrew manuscript of Matthew among the other Hebrew manuscripts. Du Tillet acquired the manuscript and returned to France, depositing it in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. It remains there to this day as Hebrew Ms. No. 132.

This Hebrew text of Matthew was first published in an English translation by Hugh Schonfield in 1927, who wrote of this version:

….certain linguistic proofs … seem to show that the Hebrew text [Du Tillet] underlies the Greek, and that certain renderings in the Greek, may be due to a misread Hebrew original. (An Old Hebrew Text of St. Matthew’s Gospel; 1927, p. 17)

The Du Tillet Hebrew version of Matthew reads in Matthew 3:16:

ןאחר שנטבל ישוע ועלה מן המים והנה נפתחו השמים עליו והנה רוח אלהים יורדת מן השמים כדמות יונה ובאה עליו

And after Yeshua was immersed and gone up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and behold, the Spirit of Elohim descending from the heavens as the form of a dove, and coming upon him. (DuTillet Hebrew Matthew 3:16)

The Shem Tob Hebrew Matthew

The Shem Tob Hebrew version of Matthew was transcribed by Shem Tob Ben Yitzach Ben Shaprut, into his apologetic work Even Bohan, sometime around 1380 C.E. It was first published in an English translation by Dr. George Howard in 1987. George Howard writes of Shem Tob’s Hebrew Matthew:

…an old substratum to the Hebrew in Shem Tob is a prior composition, not a translation. The old substratum, however, has been exposed to a series of revisions so that the present text of Shem-Tob represents the original only in an impure form. (The Gospel of Matthew according to a Primitive Hebrew Text; 1987; p. 223)

It may appear from the linguistic and sociological background to early Christianity, and the nature of some theological tendencies in Shem-Tob’s Matthew, that the Hebrew text served as a model for the Greek. The present writer is, in fact, inclined to that position. (ibid p. 225)

Shem-Tob’s Matthew… does not preserve the original in a pure form. It reflects contamination by Jewish scribes, during the Middle Ages. Considerable parts of the original, however, appear to remain…. (Hebrew Gospel of Matthew; 1995; p. 178)

The Shem Tob Hebrew version of Matthew has in Matthew 3:16:

ומיד שעלה מן המים נפתחו לו השמים וירא רוח אלקים יורדת כיונה ושרתה עליו

And immediately when he came up from the water, the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of Elohim coming down like a dove and it abode upon him. (Shem Tob Hebrew Matthew 3:16)

The Old Syriac Aramaic Matthew

The Old Syriac Aramaic version of the Gospels is testified to by two ancient Aramaic manuscripts of the Four Gospels dating back to the Fourth century. The first was discovered by Dr. William Cureton in 1842. It was found in a monastery at the Naton Lakes Valley in Egypt and is known as Codex Syrus Curetonianus. The second manuscript was discovered by Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis in 1892. It was found at St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of traditional Mount Sinai in Egypt. This manuscript is known as Codex Syrus Sinaiticus or the Syriac Siniatic. After making his profound discovery Dr. Cureton studied this Aramaic version of the manuscript in detail. He concluded that at least the version of Matthew found in the Old Syriac has its basis in the original Aramaic (or Hebrew) and was not just a translation from the Greek or Latin. He published his findings saying:

    …this Gospel of St. Matthew appears at least to be built upon the original Aramaic text which was the work of the Apostle himself. (Remains of a Very Ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac; 1858; p. vi)

The Siniatic Old Syriac manuscript has in Matthew 3:16:

וכד עמד וסלק ישוע מן מיא והא אתפתחו שמיא וחזא רוחא דאלהא דנחתת בדמותא דיונא וקוית עלוהי

And when he was immersed, and Yeshua came up from the water, lo, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of Elohim that came down in the form of a dove and rested upon him. (Old Syriac Sinaitic Aramaic Matthew 3:16)

The Gospel According to the Hebrews

The Gospel according to the Hebrews (GH) was an ancient, lost, apocryphal gospel that was used by the ancient Nazarenes (the ancient Jewish followers of Yeshua as the Messiah) and the Ebionites (a group of Jewish believers in Messiah who split off from the Nazarenes over doctrinal issues around 70 C.E.)

The Third Century “Church Father” Eusebius wrote of this lost book:

And among them [doubted books] some have placed the Gospel according to the Hebrews which is the especial delight of those of the Hebrews who have accepted Messiah. (Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 3:25:5)

When speaking of the Ebionites, Epiphanius calls GH “their Gospel” (Pan. 30:16:4-5) and Jerome refers to is as “the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use” (On Mat. 12:13). The actual document has been lost to history, but about 50 quotations and citations of it are preserved in quotations and citations from the so-called “Church Fathers” and other documents.

The twentieth Century biblical Scholar Hugh Schonfield wrote of this lost Gospel:

The Gospel according to the Hebrews is a literary outlaw with a price on its head; but in spite of the scholarly hue and cry it still evades capture. Neither monastic libraries nor Egyptian rubbish heaps have so far yielded up a single leaf of this important document….

For behind Hebrews lies the unknown potentialities of the Nazarene tradition, which may confirm or contradict some of the most cherished beliefs of Orthodox Christianity. It is useless for certain theologians to designate Hebrews as “secondary” on the evidence of the present fragmentary remains preserved in quotation. …

Judged by ancient testimony alone it is indisputable that Hebrews has the best right of any Gospel to be considered a genuine apostolic production;…

Here is obviously a most valuable witness, perhaps the most valuable witness to the truth about [Yeshua]… whom even a jury composed entirely of orthodox Christians could not despise, and who ought to be brought into court. But the witness is missing, and all that we have is a few reported statements of his taken long ago…

…it may be argued that there has been dependence not of ‘Hebrews’ on the Synoptics but vice versa– that ‘Hebrews’ was one of the sources on which one or more of them drew.” (Hugh Schonfield; According to the Hebrews; 13-18)

The “Church Father” Jerome references the account of the immersion of Yeshua as it appeared in the Nazarene version of the Gospel according to the Hebrews as follows:

According to the Gospel written in the Hebrew speech, which the Nazarenes read, the whole fount of the Holy Spirit shall descend upon him… Further in the Gospel which we have just mentioned we find the following written:

When the Lord ascended from the water, the whole fount of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and said to him, “My Son, in all the prophets I was waiting for you, that you might come, and that I might rest in you. For you are my rest; and you are my firstborn son, who reigns forever. (Jerome; Commentary on Is. 11:2)

Another first century “Church Father” of the fourth century, states that the Ebionites used a version of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which “was not wholly complete but falsified and mutilated” (Epiphanius; Panarion 30:13:2). He quotes this Ebionite version as saying:

When the people were baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John. And as he came up from the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove that descended and entered into him. And a voice sounded from Heaven that said: “You are My beloved Son, in you I am well pleased.” And again: “I have this day begotten you.” And immediately a great light shone round about the place. When John saw this, it is said, he said unto him: “Who are you Lord?” And again a voice from Heaven rang out to him: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And then, it is said, John fell down before him and said:

“I beseech you Lord, baptize me.” But he prevented him and said: “Allow it; for thus it is fitting that everything should be fulfilled.” (Epiphanius; Panarion 30:13:7-8)

Each of these citations of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, may represent abridged quotations and the original may have contained elements of each. There is evidence to support this idea. An early second century “Church Father” Justin Martyr, makes statements that imply he is familiar with material in both accounts. Concerning Isaiah 11:2 he writes:

The Scripture says that these enumerated powers of the Spirit have come upon him… because they would rest in him… So that there would be no more prophets after the ancient custom. (Justin Martyr; Dialog with Trypho 87)

And:

And when Yeshua had come to the river Jordan where John was baptizing, when Yeshua had gone down to the water both a fire was kindled, and when he had gone up from the water the Holy Spirit is recorded… to have lighted upon him as a dove. (Justin Martyr; Dialog with Trypho 88)

The Stick of Joseph

So now, having considered the available ancient accounts of the event of Yeshua’s immersion, let’s look at the prophetic account of this event, as recorded in the Stick of Joseph:

…And the Lamb of Elohim went forth and was immersed of him; and after he was washed by immersion, I beheld the Heavens open, and the Ruach HaKodesh came down out of Heaven and abode upon him in the form of a dove…. (1 Nefi 3:11)

Notice that the account given in the Stick of Joseph follows three unique elements of the Hebrew and Aramaic accounts and the Gospel according to the Hebrews. 

1. The Stick of Joseph account has “in the form of a dove” which is not found in the King James Version of any of the canonical Gospel accounts, but is found in the Du Tillet Hebrew text, the Old Syriac Aramaic and in the Gospel according to the Hebrews.

2. The Stick of Joseph account has Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Ghost) as found in the Gospel according the to the Hebrews, which appears only in Luke’s account.

3. Finally the Stick of Joseph states that the Ruach HaKodesh “abode” upon Yeshua. This agrees with the Shem Tob Hebrew version of Matthew, as well as close agreement with the Old Syriac and Gospel according to the Hebrews which have “rested upon him.” This does not appear in any of the synoptic Gospels, but only appears in John.

How could Yosef ben Yosef have managed to pick and choose the precise phrases from the four Gospel accounts that best agree with the ancient Hebrew and Aramaic of Matthew and the Gospel according to the Hebrews, including the phrase “form of a dove” found only in those sources, and not found in the King James Version Gospels at all? 

Yet none of these sources could have been available to Yosef ben Yosef in 1830. The fact that Yosef Ben Yosef’s translation of The Stick of Joseph agrees with these ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Jewish sources is a testimony not only to the Jewishness of this record and its Hebrew original, but also to its authenticity as an ancient Jewish record.