George Eulan Howard (June 3, 1935November 21, 2018) was an American Hebraist, noted for his publication of an old Hebrew edition of Matthew. He was a full Professor Emeritus and Head of the Department of Religion and Hebrew (Ret.) at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA. Howard also was a former President of the Society of Biblical Literature, Southeastern Region.
Life
Howard was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma.
Education
Howard received a bachelor's degree from David Lipscomb College (Nashville) in 1957, a master's degree in theology from Harding School of Theology (Memphis) in 1961, and a PhD from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1964. He also studied at Vanderbilt and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Academic work
Teaching
He first taught at David Lipscomb College (from 1964 as Assistant Professor for Religion, 1967 Associate Professor) before moving to the University of Georgia in 1968 as Assistant Professor of Classics. There he was appointed Associate Professor for Religion in 1972 and (Full) Professor in 1978.
Organizations
Howard was Treasurer of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) from 1972 to 1974. Due to Sidney Jellicoe's illness, Howard was temporarily editor of the Bulletin of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, and from 1973 to 1979 (Bulletin 6 through 12) Howard was editor of BIOSCS. In the Society of Biblical Literature Howard was chairman from 1977 to 1979, a member of the editorial board from 1979 to 1981, president of the Southeastern region from 1980 to 1981 and vice president of the Southeastern region from 1982 to 1984.
Works
Theses
Books
p xvi "Book twelve of the treatise contains the entire Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew along with polemical comments by Shem-Tob ... A comparison of this old substratum with the canonical Greek text suggests that the Hebrew reflects a Jewish."
In "Hebrew Matthew," found in the 14th-century Hebrew work The Touchstone of Ibn Shaprut, Howard argues that parts of an original Hebrew text of the Gospel may be found. Some scholars, such as William Horbury (1999), reject this thesis and consider Ibn Shaprut's text to be a translation of a medieval Latin version into Hebrew.Horbury Hebrew study from Ezra to Ben-Yehuda p128 "the Hebrew Matthew, mentioned above. 5 John Mill, in the Prolegomena to his 1707 edition of the New Testament, ... in the last few years, by George Howard. 8 Both concentrated on the du Tillet-Mercier text, but Howard also,"Horbury W., Jews and Christians 2006 p40Horbury review Journal of Jewish Studies 47 (1996)Horbury Appendix in Matthew 19-28 ed. William David Davies, Dale C. AllisonMaurice Casey Aramaic Sources of Mark's Gospel 1998 Page 61 "Hebrew found in the Evan Bohan, a fourteenth-century Jewish anti-Christian treatise by Shem-Tob ben-Isaac ben-Shaprut.208 Howard's only points of substance are that some of the translation is older than the treatise of Shem-Tob, and that"
Articles
References