This section shall highlight some of the corruptions made by the Jews in the Old Testament and how early Christians accused the Jews of corruption.
Justin Martyr
The first example is Justin Martyr(an early church father who died at about 150 AD) says in his dialogue with Trypho, a Jew:
Chap. LXXII. — Passages Have Been Removed by the Jews from Esdras and Jeremiah.
And I said, “I shall do as you please. From the statements, then, which Esdras made in reference to the law of the passover, they have taken away the following: ‘And Esdras said to the people, This passover is our Saviour and our refuge. And if you have understood, and your heart has taken it in, that we shall humble Him on a standard, and….. thereafter hope in Him, then this place shall not be forsaken for ever, says the God of hosts. But if you will not believe Him, and will not listen to His declaration, you shall be a laughing-stock to the nations.’…… And again, from the sayings of the same Jeremiah these have been cut out: ‘The Lord God remembered His dead people of Israel who lay in the graves; and He descended to preach to them His own salvation.
So Justin Martyr here is explicitly accusing the Jews of corrupting the Old Testament by hiding some verses talking about salvation. But is it that easy that verses are removed from the Bible?
John Chrysostom
Let’s see what John Chrysostom (church father who lived in the fourth century) says in his Homilies on Gospel Matthew when he came to the verse quoting the Old Testament” which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.”:
And what manner of prophet said this? Be not curious, nor overbusy. For many of the prophetic writings have been lost; and this one may see from the history of the Chronicles. For being negligent, and continually falling into ungodliness, some they suffered to perish, others they themselves burnt up and cut to pieces. The latter fact Jeremiah relates; the former, he who composed the fourth book of Kings, saying, that after a long time the book of Deuteronomy was hardly found, buried somewhere and lost. But if, when there was no barbarian there, they so betrayed their books, much 56 more when the barbarians had overrun them. For as to the fact, that the prophet had foretold it, the apostles themselves in many places call Him a Nazarene. ”
So simply John Chrysostom is not just accusing the Jews of being negligent who are not caring for their books, but also of destroying their own books. If these are accusations made by Christians, who are supposed to share the Jews their belief in the Old Testament, how could Muslims trust the Jews and consider that they were really honest and followed God’s commandment to keep Hi s books, not to add or remove or replace?
Adam Clarke
Not only that, we can see another interesting account by Adam Clarke, a Christian commentator where he shows another intentional corruption made by the Jews against the Samaritans. He said in his commentary on Deu 27:4 –
“Set up these stones – in Mount Ebal – So the present Hebrew text , but the Samaritan has Mount Gerizim. Dr. Kennicott has largely defended the reading of the Samaritan in his second dissertation on the present state of the Hebrew text , and Dr. Parry has defended the Hebrew against the Samaritan. Many still think Dr. Kennicott’s arguments unanswerable, and have no doubt that the Jews have here corrupted the text through their enmity to the Samaritans. “
So here again Adam Clarke didn’t just accuse the Jews for corrupting the manuscripts due to their hostility with Christians only, but also they did the same with Samaritans, and with Muslims when they changed the name ofAbraham’s offered son to Isaac.
These may be just some examples of what I have seen from Christian writings, and for sure if we dug more through various books, we may find more issues showing other issues. Actually if we went through early and medieval Muslim writings, we may find many quotes from Jewish and Christian writings talking about Prophet Muhammad in a very explicit way which are not present in the Bible. But if the Jews are actually proven to behave the way described above, then I tend to believe Muslim scholars, especially that this is against both Christian and Jewish beliefs
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Justin Martyr affirms the Qur'anic claim that the Bible was corrupted
Much to the consternation of Christians, Muslims insist that the texts of their scripture, the Bible, have undergone changes, alterations, or in other words, corruption. The Muslims' insistence is based on several Qur'anic passages that seem to testify to the fact that they, the Jews (and Christians), have manhandled the scriptures that they were given:
"So woe to those who write the "scripture" with their own hands, then say, "This is from Allah," in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn." [Quran 2:79]
"Of those who are Jews (there are those who) alter words from their places and say: We have heard and we disobey and: Hear, may you not be made to hear! and: Raina, distorting (the word) with their tongues and taunting about religion; and if they had said (instead): We have heard and we obey, and hearken, and unzurna it would have been better for them and more upright; but Allah has cursed them on account of their unbelief, so they do not believe but a little." [4:46]
While the Qur'an's preservation is ensured by Allah, for He says that He Himself would see to its preservation, in 15:9 ("Indeed, it is We who sent down the Quran and indeed, We will be its guardian."), the preservation of previous scriptures were entrusted to the people that received them [Qur'an 5:44], but, unfortunately, they failed to live up to their responsibility:
"“But because of their breach of their covenant, We cursed them, and made their hearts grow hard; they change the words from their (right) places and forget a good part of the message that was sent them, nor wilt thou cease to find them- barring a few – ever bent on (new) deceits: but forgive them, and overlook (their misdeeds): for Allah loveth those who are kind.” [Qur'an 5, verse 13]
It is rather quite surprising that the Christians would be surprised by the Qur'anic charge since it is by no means a unique accusation. Hundreds of years before the revelation of the Qur'an, major Christian Church Fathers* actually testified to the Jewish corruption of scripture. One such Church Father or patristic personality was Justin Martyr, who, in his dialogue with Trypho, indicts the Jews of corrupting the Old Testament:
"from the ninety-fifth (ninety-sixth) Psalm they have taken away this short saying of the words of David: ‘From the wood.’ For when the passage said, ‘Tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned from the wood,’ they have left, ‘Tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned.'" [1]
In the book, i.e., Justin Martyr's 'The First Apology', the above quotation comes under the chapter "[THE WORDS] "FROM THE WOOD" HAVE BEEN CUT OUT OF PS [PSALM] XCVI." According to Justin Martyr, then, the Jews, driven by theological purposes, had tampered with the text of Psalm 96 and removed words from their original text. Writing on Justin Martyr's testimony concerning the corruption of the Bible at the hands of the Jews, professor emeritus and former chair of the Humanities Department at Wilbur Wright College, Dr. Sheldon W. Liebman writes:
"Justin Martyr went so far as to accuse the Jews of corrupting their Bible (i.e., rewriting it) "so as to obscure the scriptures' plain prophetic testimony to Jesus as the Christ." [2]
Lest we are accused of misreading Justin Martyr, the scholarly appraisal of Sheldon Liebman above reinforces our point.
Christians should not be too surprised by the Qur'an when it disavows their scriptures for having been corrupted, because this allegation is by no means unique to the Qur'an. Around 400 years before the Qur'an even came to the scene, this charge was made by their own "Holy Spirit-inspired" Church Fathers, such as Justin Martyr.
Notes:
* According to Catholic.com, Church Fathers are "...so called because of their leadership in the early Church, especially in defending, expounding, and developing Catholic doctrines. For the first two centuries, most of these men were bishops, although in later years certain priests and deacons were also recognized as Fathers."
[1] Justin Martyr (2007). The First Apology. In Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson & Arthur Cleveland Coxe (eds), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1: The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. New York: CosmoClassics. p. 235
[2] Liebman, S. W. (2018). The Great Betrayal: Christians and Jews in the First Four Centuries. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock. p. 384
---------
Justin Martyr affirms the Qur'anic claim that the Bible was corrupted
Much to the consternation of Christians, Muslims insist that the texts of their scripture, the Bible, have undergone changes, alterations, or in other words, corruption. The Muslims' insistence is based on several Qur'anic passages that seem to testify to the fact that they, the Jews (and Christians), have manhandled the scriptures that they were given:
"So woe to those who write the "scripture" with their own hands, then say, "This is from Allah," in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn." [Quran 2:79]
"Of those who are Jews (there are those who) alter words from their places and say: We have heard and we disobey and: Hear, may you not be made to hear! and: Raina, distorting (the word) with their tongues and taunting about religion; and if they had said (instead): We have heard and we obey, and hearken, and unzurna it would have been better for them and more upright; but Allah has cursed them on account of their unbelief, so they do not believe but a little." [4:46]
While the Qur'an's preservation is ensured by Allah, for He says that He Himself would see to its preservation, in 15:9 ("Indeed, it is We who sent down the Quran and indeed, We will be its guardian."), the preservation of previous scriptures were entrusted to the people that received them [Qur'an 5:44], but, unfortunately, they failed to live up to their responsibility:
"“But because of their breach of their covenant, We cursed them, and made their hearts grow hard; they change the words from their (right) places and forget a good part of the message that was sent them, nor wilt thou cease to find them- barring a few – ever bent on (new) deceits: but forgive them, and overlook (their misdeeds): for Allah loveth those who are kind.” [Qur'an 5, verse 13]
It is rather quite surprising that the Christians would be surprised by the Qur'anic charge since it is by no means a unique accusation. Hundreds of years before the revelation of the Qur'an, major Christian Church Fathers* actually testified to the Jewish corruption of scripture. One such Church Father or patristic personality was Justin Martyr, who, in his dialogue with Trypho, indicts the Jews of corrupting the Old Testament:
"from the ninety-fifth (ninety-sixth) Psalm they have taken away this short saying of the words of David: ‘From the wood.’ For when the passage said, ‘Tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned from the wood,’ they have left, ‘Tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned.'" [1]
In the book, i.e., Justin Martyr's 'The First Apology', the above quotation comes under the chapter "[THE WORDS] "FROM THE WOOD" HAVE BEEN CUT OUT OF PS [PSALM] XCVI." According to Justin Martyr, then, the Jews, driven by theological purposes, had tampered with the text of Psalm 96 and removed words from their original text. Writing on Justin Martyr's testimony concerning the corruption of the Bible at the hands of the Jews, professor emeritus and former chair of the Humanities Department at Wilbur Wright College, Dr. Sheldon W. Liebman writes:
"Justin Martyr went so far as to accuse the Jews of corrupting their Bible (i.e., rewriting it) "so as to obscure the scriptures' plain prophetic testimony to Jesus as the Christ." [2]
Lest we are accused of misreading Justin Martyr, the scholarly appraisal of Sheldon Liebman above reinforces our point.
Christians should not be too surprised by the Qur'an when it disavows their scriptures for having been corrupted, because this allegation is by no means unique to the Qur'an. Around 400 years before the Qur'an even came to the scene, this charge was made by their own "Holy Spirit-inspired" Church Fathers, such as Justin Martyr.
Notes:
* According to Catholic.com, Church Fathers are "...so called because of their leadership in the early Church, especially in defending, expounding, and developing Catholic doctrines. For the first two centuries, most of these men were bishops, although in later years certain priests and deacons were also recognized as Fathers."
[1] Justin Martyr (2007). The First Apology. In Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson & Arthur Cleveland Coxe (eds), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1: The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. New York: CosmoClassics. p. 235
[2] Liebman, S. W. (2018). The Great Betrayal: Christians and Jews in the First Four Centuries. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock. p. 384
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