First, not by the malice of the Jews.
First, not by the malice of the Jews.
§ 319. According to Jerome (on Isaiah 6, vol. 5, f. 14), Origen proves (on Isaiah, bk. 8) that the malice of the Jews did not corrupt the sources. Origen draws his argument from a consideration of time that goes as follows: If the Jews corrupted the Scriptures, they did this either before or after Christ’s coming. If they did it before, why did Christ and the apostles never rebuke so great a crime when they did not keep silent about lesser crimes? If they did it after Christ’s coming, how are the testimonies that Christ and the apostles quote from the Old Testament found in Moses and the prophets in the very form in which they are cited? Jerome’s words read: “But if someone would say that the Jews falsified the Hebrew books, let them listen to Origen and what he responds in the eighth volume of his explanations of Isaiah to the little question, that the Lord and His apostles, who rebuke other sins, would never have kept quiet against the scribes and Pharisees about this sin, which was great. But if they say that the Hebrew books were corrupted after the coming of the Lord and Savior and after the preaching of the apostles, I shall not be able to keep from laughing that the Savior and the apostles would have offered testimonies in such a way that the Jews later were going to falsify them.”
§ 320. We can draw out that argument of Origen more broadly in this way: One cannot say that before the coming of Christ and the ministry of the apostles the Jews corrupted Holy Scripture: (1) Because Christ and the apostles would have rebuked this great sacrilege of the Jews severely because they censure the faulty interpretation of Scripture in them. (2) Christ sends His hearers back to search Moses and the prophetic Scripture carefully (John 5:39), and He wanted His hearers to listen to Moses and the prophets in their writings (Luke 16:29). But who would believe that Christ sent His hearers to corrupted and falsified Scriptures? (3) He wanted people to listen to the scribes and Pharisees who sat in the seat of Moses and who read Moses every Sabbath in the synagogues (Matt. 23:2; Acts 15:21). Yet if the Mosaic writings had been corrupted, Christ by no means would have sent His people to hear and read them. (4) The eagerness of the Ethiopian eunuch to read the prophetic writings is commended and is honored by the sending of Philip, who supplies him the necessary explanation (Acts 8:30). Yet if the prophetic writings had been corrupted, the reading of them certainly would have been forbidden rather than commended. (5) With laudable eagerness the Thessalonians compare the teaching of Paul with Mosaic and prophetic Scripture (Acts 17:11). Yet how could they have passed judgment on the teaching of Paul from Mosaic and prophetic Scripture as a definite and fixed norm if that norm had not been whole and pure but falsified and corrupted in many places? (6) Paul commends Timothy with this reputation, that he knew the sacred writings from childhood (2 Tim. 3:15), and he encourages him to “attend to reading” (1 Tim. 4:13). Yet if the sacred writings had been corrupted by the wickedness of the Jews, Paul could not and should not have encouraged Timothy to read them. (7) Christ and the apostles everywhere prove their teaching from the Mosaic and prophetic books, and Paul expressly says that he “believes everything that is written in Moses and the prophets” (Acts 26:22). Yet if the books of Moses and the prophets had been corrupted, Christ and His apostles would never appeal to them without a necessary forewarning. (8) Paul says, “The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God” (Rom. 3:2). Therefore he commends their zeal in protecting the books of the Old Testament from destruction and corruption. Yet if they had corrupted them intentionally, he could not have commended their zeal in protecting the treasury of sacred books nor would the apostle have ignored this terrible sin of theirs.
It is far less probable that the Jews corrupted the Old Testament Scriptures after Christ’s coming and the apostles’ ministry, because the testimonies that Christ and the apostles adduce from the Old Testament are still read today in the same way as they quoted them.
§ 321. To the argument of Origen, we must add the other point that Augustine emphasizes in De civit. Dei, bk. 15, c. 13:
If I asked which is more believable: that the Jewish nation, scattered far and wide, could have conspired unanimously to write this lie and, while refusing authority to others, have deprived themselves of the truth; or that seventy men who were also Jews themselves, placed in one location, could have refused that same truth to foreign nations and could have done this by common consent? Who does not see which of these is more natural and easy to believe? God forbid, however, that any prudent person believe either that the Jews—however perverse and wicked—could have tampered with so many and such widely scattered codices or that those renowned seventy men could have taken this one common counsel about refusing the truth to the nations.
This argument of Augustine can be described more broadly in this way: The Jews did not want to corrupt nor could have corrupted the Hebrew sources. Therefore the notion that the sources were corrupted by the wickedness of the Jews is false.
The fact that they did not want to do this is proved: (1) By their reverence toward the sacred books. Philo (De egressu filiorum Israel ex Aegypto), Josephus (Contra Apionem, bk. 1), and Eusebius (Eccles. hist., bk. 3, c. 10; Depraepar. evang., bk. 8, c. 2) give the following witness about them: “For a period of more than two thousand years up to their time, not even a word was ever changed in the Law of the Hebrews, and any Jew would rather die a hundred times than permit the Law to be changed in any way.” The Talmudists note on the last verse of Leviticus 27 and other places that “not even a prophet was allowed to change nor alter the least thing in the Law.” Johan. Isaacus, Contra Lindan., testifies that they still today observe the Hebrew codex so reverently that they declare a fast if it should fall on the ground. They write in the Talmud: “He commits an unforgivable sin who changes anything in the Bible; and there is the danger that the whole world may perish if anyone changes a single word in the Hebrew text because God has created this world because of Scripture alone.” (2) By the integrity of the chief prophecies about Christ. If the Jews had wanted to corrupt the divine Scripture to incur the hatred of Christians, they would either have removed the principal prophecies about Christ or changed them. So far are they from having done that that one can draw stronger arguments against them from the Hebrew text than from the Latin versions, as some of the Papists themselves acknowledge.
The fact that the Jews could not have corrupted the Hebrew sources is proved: (1) By their dispersion throughout the entire world. After the fall of Jerusalem, the Jews were scattered throughout the world. How could they, by common consent, have corrupted the Holy Scriptures to support their errors? (2) By the diligent caution of Christians. After the preaching of the Gospel in the New Testament, the Hebrew books were in the hands not only of the Jews but also of the Christians. There were always some in the Christian Church who could have both read and understood the books of the Old Testament in the original text because some are constantly converted from Judaism to Christ. These surely would not have kept this deceit quiet, had they noticed that the Jews, the enemies of Christ, were falsifying the Scriptures. (3) By the multitude of copies of the Bible. Among the Jews it was established by the laws “that no father of a family lack a Bible.” But even if a few had conspired to corrupt the Bible, they still could not have introduced this corruption immediately into every copy. Augustine, loc. cit., says, “God forbid, however, that any prudent person believe either that the Jews—however perverse and wicked—could have tampered with so many and such widely scattered codices.” (4) By the variety of translations. The Hebrew Bible was translated into Chaldaic and Greek before the birth of Christ. Therefore if the Jews had wanted to corrupt the Hebrew text, their malicious deceit would have been brought to light immediately by targumic paraphrases and the versions of the Septuagint translators.