Hi Folks,

Matthew, the basics are fairly simple.

Justin Martyr and Origen especially, using the corrupt Greek OT (and sometimes early pre-Vulgate Latin which was from the Greek) accused the Jews of tampering the Hebrew Bible. e.g. Justin gave a well-known example from Psalm 96.

www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/...xxiii.html
Dialogue with Trypho

"And 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. "

Justin also accused the Jews of removing from Jeremiah:

'I[was] like a lamb that is brought to the slaughter: they devised a device against me, saying, Come, let us lay on wood on His bread, and let us blot Him out from the land of the living; and His name shall no more be remembered.'

Clearly you know that these are not scripture, and Justin was 100% wrong in these accusations.

Similarly Origen quotes all sorts of stuff from the Greek or Latin that is not scripture, yet he accuses the Jews of tampering.

www.earlychristianwriting...anus2.html
A Letter From Origen to Africanus

Ironically, afaik Origen does not mention the "reigned from the tree" claim of Justin.

As a rule these accusations are simply wrong, and they do not support in the DSS and other ancient sources.

And if they were true, the King James Bible would be wrong, since 100% God's word agrees with the Masoretic Text on these verses and does not have the Greek OT changes that are being trumpeted by some early church writers as original.

These blunders of Justin Martyr and Origen and others are the foundation of the Greek OT supremacy/'correction of Hebrew' position.

And those of us who know the King James Bible is the word of God should find it especially easy to see the corruption of the Greek and early Latin OT and the accuracy of the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible. As in line with Jerome's Latin translation at 400 AD (he strongly rejected these Greek OT errors, a fascinating additional study) and as preserved in the Masoretic Text and as preserved for us in the pure and perfect King James Bible.

The DSS and the Targumim and the early translation of the Peshitta OT are additional evidences, if any were needed, that the Greek and Latin OT at this time was corrupt and that the early church writers were working with corrupt texts in making these false accusations against the Hebrew Bible.

And anybody who has looked at and understood the incredible tampering of placing a section from Romans 3 into Psalm 14 of the Greek OT will not be surprised at any corruption in these Greek and pre-Vulgate-Latin based OT texts.

Understanding this history of false accusation against the Hebrew Bible and false claiming of Greek OT accuracy against the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible is a good starting point for looking at your attempts, Matthew, to similarly accuse the Hebrew Bible.

Shalom,
Steven