6. This passage is not found in any extant Bible manuscript. Irenaeus quotes

st. justin martyr c h a p t e r 72 I replied, "I will do as you wish. They have deleted the following passage in which Esdras expounded the law of the Passover:

And Esdras said to the people: This Passover is our Savior and refuge.

And if you have understood, and it has entered into your hearts, that we are about to humiliate him on a cross,3 and afterwards hope in him, then this place will never be forsaken, said the Lord of hosts. But if you will not believe him, nor listen to his teaching, you shall be a laughingstock of the Gentiles.4

2. "They have also expunged these words from Jeremiah: I was as a meek lamb that is carried to be a sacriﬁcial victim; they devised counsels against me, saying: Come, let us put wood on his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more.5

3. "And since this pericope from the words of Jeremiah is still found in some copies of Scripture in the Jewish synagogues

(for it was deleted only a short time ago), and since it is also proved from these words that the Jews planned to crucify Christ himself and to slay him, and since he is shown, as was likewise prophesied by Isaiah, as led like a lamb to slaughter, and in accordance with this passage he is marked as an innocent lamb, they are so confused by such words that they resort to blasphemy.

4. Similarly have they removed the following words from the writings of the same Jeremiah: The Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, remembered his dead that slept in their graves, and he descended to preach to them his salvation.6

3. Literally, "a sign." Justin refers to the cross as sign by metonymy in many places, e.g., 1 Apol. 60; Dial. 94, 111. See Otto's notes to these passages in his edition.

4. Cited also in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.18.8 and Lactantius, Divine Institutes 4.18 (but with variants). See Daniélou, 101–2, who identiﬁes it as a Jewish-Christian midrash on II Esdras which is, as p. 101 n 42 explains, "the LXX

'Esdraq B', corresponding to the MT Ezra, not the apocalyptic II Esdras of the Apocrypha, referred to throughout as II (4) Esdras." See also Skarsaune, 40–42,

452, and, most recently, Fédou, 107–8.

5. Jer 11.19. See Daniélou, 102–5; Skarsaune, 40, 178, 301, 452.

6. This passage is not found in any extant Bible manuscript. Irenaeus quotes it in Against Heresies 3.20, attributing it to Isaiah, but in Against Heresies 4.22 and Justin, Martyr, Saint. Dialogue with Trypho (Selections from the Fathers of the Church, Volume 3), edited by Michael Slusser, Catholic University of America Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/de

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Corrections to the text of Scripture

c h a p t e r 73 "Furthermore, from a verse of the Ninety-ﬁfth Psalm of David they have left out the short phrase, from the tree. For they have changed the verse, Say you to the Gentiles: The Lord has reigned from the tree,7 to Say you to the Gentiles: The Lord has reigned.

2. "Now, no one of your people was ever said to have reigned as God and king over the Gentiles, except the cruciﬁed one, who, as the Holy Spirit testiﬁes in the same psalm, was freed from death by his resurrection, and thus showed that he is not like the gods of the Gentiles, for they are but the idols of demons.

3. "To clarify this point, I will repeat the entire psalm for you. It is as follows: Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name; announce his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the Gentiles; his wonders among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised; he is awesome beyond all gods. For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils; but the Lord made the heavens; acknowledgment and beauty are before him; holiness and majesty in his sanctuary. Bring to the Lord, O you families of the Gentiles, bring to the Lord glory and honor.

4. "Bring to the Lord glory unto his name; bring up sacriﬁces, and come unto his courts. Adore the Lord in his holy court. Let all the earth be moved at his presence. Say among the Gentiles, the Lord has reigned

[from the tree].8 For he has established the world, which shall not be moved; he will judge the people with justice. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad. Let the sea be moved, and the fullness thereof. The ﬁelds and all things that are in them shall be joyful. Then all the trees of the woods rejoice before the face of the Lord, because he comes; because

7. Ps 95 (96).10. Marcovich, 195, notes two Greek manuscripts and the main Coptic versions of the LXX, all of which have the phrase that Justin claims has been left out. See also Daniélou, 96–97, 101; Skarsaune, 38–39, 213, 361;

J. D. M. Derrett, "O KURIOS EBASILEUSEN APO TOU XULOU," VigChr 43 (1989): 378–92.

8. The hypothesis (see Otto, 253 n 7), that to prove his point, St. Justin must have inserted the words from the tree, but the copyists probably omitted them, is rejected by Skarsaune, 39. Marcovich, 196, omits the phrase.

Justin, Martyr, Saint. Dialogue with Trypho (Selections from the Fathers of the Church, Volume 3), edited by Michael Slusser, Catholic University of America Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/de

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st. justin martyr he comes to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with justice, and the people with his truth." 9

5. "Only God knows," remarked Trypho, "whether or not our leaders have deleted portions of the Scriptures as you say.

But such an assertion seems incredible."

6. "Yes," I agreed, "it does seem incredible. For it is more dreadful than the erecting of the golden calf (which they made while still satiated with the manna that fell to earth),10 and more revolting than the sacriﬁce of their children to demons,11 or the slaughter of the prophets.12 You, indeed, appear not to have even heard of the Scriptures which I said they had mutilated. But the many passages which I have already cited, together with those which you have preserved, and which are still to be quoted are more than enough to prove the points at issue." c h a p t e r 74 "We are aware," said Trypho, "that it is at our request that you have quoted those passages for us. But the psalm of David which you just cited seems to me to have been spoken of nobody other than the Father, who created the heavens and earth.

You, however, claim that it refers to him who suffered, and who you are anxious to prove is the Christ."

2. "Please reﬂect," I pleaded, "as I repeat the words uttered by the Holy Spirit in this psalm, and you shall understand that I have not spoken maliciously, nor have you in truth been deceived. Besides, you will thus, when you are by yourselves, be able to grasp many other statements of the Holy Spirit. Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name; announce his salvation from day to day, his wonders among all the peoples.13

3. "With these words he commands all those inhabitants of 9. Ps 95 (96).1–13.

10. See Ex 32.4–6. Curiously, the Babylonian Talmud, Sopherim 1.7, says that translating the Law into Greek in the ﬁrst place was as bad as making the golden calf. See Marcovich, 197; W. A. Shotwell, The Biblical Exegesis of Justin Martyr

(London: SPCK, 1965), 77.

11. See Ps 105 (106).37.

12. See 1 Kgs 19.10.

13. Ps 95 (96).1–3. See Skarsaune, 36–40.

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