Was the New Testament Originally Written in Hebrew?

In the last week we’ve had two calls from customers looking for a copy of the New Testament documents in Hebrew. They didn’t want the New Testament in modern Hebrew. They had heard that the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew and it was these documents that they wanted. One of my coworkers had fielded one of these calls. He attempted to explain that not only did we not have these documents they in fact did not exist. The customer was insistent that they did exist. Needless to say the customer was unsatisfied with our answer. This question is addressed by Michael L. Brown in his book 60 Questions Christians Ask About Jewish Beliefs and Practices. He writes,

“There is absolutely no evidence that the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew, despite many extravagant claims to the contrary. In fact, while there are more than five thousand ancient manuscripts containing all or part of the New Testament in Greek, there are no ancient manuscripts with even a single line from the New Testament in Hebrew.” (169-70)

Brown interacts with the theory that Matthew may have been originally penned in Hebrew (a view he favors) and acknowledges that there is a medieval copy of Matthew in Hebrew. He also addresses the efforts of some scholars to translate the Greek New Testament back into Hebrew (called ‘Ruckübersetzung’ in German). This last enterprise is fraught with problems. A Jewish Semitic scholar named D. S. Margoliouth attempted to translate the Greek text of Ecclesiasticus back into Hebrew. He had not only the Greek text but also Syriac and Latin translations of the book at his disposal. Oddly enough when sizable portions of the Hebrew text were eventually discovered it was found “that he did not correctly translate even one single verse!” (171) Brown notes, “To attempt to reconstruct the entire (alleged) original Hebrew Gospel—without access to even the supposed primary Greek sources—is nothing more than a counsel of despair.” (172)