Biblical Corruption ?
Scripture Corruption
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An abundance of believers maintain the notion that the present Torah we have today represents the words of God as revealed through Moses at Mount Sinai. The people were entrusted with obeying and preserving the Torah of Moses. God commanded them not to corrupt His message as follows: “Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.” ( Deuteronomy 12:32 )
The Old Testament we have available today consists of a large collection of books in regards to the Law, stories of the Prophets and various other writings such as the Psalms. The Hebrew word ‘Torah’ literally means instruction or teaching. It is used by certain believers to refer to the first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). They believe these
books and laws were dictated to Moses by God.
The first problem one must deal with when discussing the Torah is the fact that there are many different versions being used today. Here are some examples of texts that contain different versions of the Torah. They are listed in order of oldest surviving manuscript evidence :
D. Sea Scrolls (D.S.S) – These are a collection of texts discovered between 1946 and 1956 inside caves near the Dead Sea. The texts are of great religious significance because they include the earliest known surviving manuscripts of the Old Testament but many are fragmentary. The scrolls date from approximately 150 BC – 70 CE.
Septuagint (L.X.X) – This is the primary Greek translation of the Old Testament. It was completed by scholars in the late 2nd century BC and the oldest manuscript evidence is the 2nd century BC. Relatively complete manuscripts of the L.X.X include the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus of the 4th century CE. These are the oldest surviving nearly-complete manuscripts of the Old Testament in any language.
Masoretic Text (MT) – This is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Old Testament. The oldest extant manuscripts date from around the 9th century CE. This version is favored by mainstream Judaism.
Samaritan Torah (ST) – This is the Samaritan version of the Torah written in the Samaritan alphabet which is derived from the paleo-Hebrew alphabet used by the Israelite community prior to the Babylonian captivity. The Samaritans represent a sect of Judaism that split off from the mainstream. There are still a few hundred Samaritans living in modern-day Israel. The oldest extant manuscripts date from around the 11th century CE. The reason why these are classified as different versions, as opposed to different translations, is because there are many thousands of variations that exist between these texts. So how can scholars identify the version of the Torah that is closest to the original Torah given to Moses? Unfortunately it’s not as simple as just taking the version that has the oldest surviving manuscripts. This would be the D. Sea Scrolls (D.S.S), but the problem is that the D.S.S are highly fragmentary and only contain small portions of the Torah. Nor can we take the version with the earliest complete manuscript tradition, which would be the Septuagint (L.X.X), as this contains verses that are different to the earlier D.S.S. The Masoretic Text (MT), which is very late in terms of manuscripts compared to the L.X.X, actually agrees with the D.S.S in some places where the L.X.X disagrees.
For example, Deuteronomy 32:8 from L.L.X + Deuteronomy 32:8 from M.T both disagree with the D.S.S. Also, Deuteronomy 32:8 from L.L.X and Deuteronomy 32:43 from M.T both disagree with each other. Unfortunately no one knows with certainty which version is the closest to the original Torah given to Moses. The proof of this is the way in which scholars of the Bible construct modern translations (which only leaves room for the fallacious nature of humans). Every modern translation of the Bible is essentially an eclectic translation because it combines from the different versions of the Torah. Sometimes scholars go with manuscripts of the M.T, sometimes the L.X.X and sometimes the ST. By borrowing from the different manuscripts they are essentially creating a new Torah that never existed before. Some examples of variations include: ( Genesis 5:31 )
L.X.X: All the days of Lamech were 753 years…M.T: All the days of Lamech were 777 years… S.T: All the days of Lamech were 653 years….. Furthermore, we have Exodus 12:40 which states L.X.X: Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt and Canaan was 430 years. M.T: Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt [only] was 430 years. S.T: (Same as LXX) and another critical chapter. Genesis 16:12 L.X.X: [Ishmael] shall be a wild man… M.T: [Ishmael] shall be a wild man… S.T: [Ishmael] shall be a fruitful man… In the verses above, it makes a big difference whether Ishmael is described as being wild (a possibly derogatory term) versus fruitful (which is a positive statement and would support the prophecy in Torah about Ishmael being made a great nation, see Genesis 17:20). Deuteronomy 32:8 L.X.X: …when He [God] separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. M.T: …when He [God] divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. S.T: (Same as MT) In the verses above, it appears that either the authors behind the Masoretic Text and Samaritan Torah changed the reference to “sons of Israel” to make the Torah more Israelite-centric, or the author of the Septuagint changed the reference to “angels of God” to make the Torah less Israelite-centric. Before anyone makes the claim that they have the original Torah, they must first deal with the problem of establishing which version of the Torah, if any, is authoritative.
There are no explicit claims of mosaic authorship. individuals still believe that the Torah we have today represents the original words of God as dictated to Moses, who wrote them down. What we find when we examine the different versions of the Torah is that there is no claim within the Torah itself that Moses wrote all 5 books. To the contrary, there are strong indications that they were written by someone other than Moses. For example, there is a consistent use of the third person narrative throughout the Book of Exodus: Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. [Exodus 3:6] God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” [Exodus 3:14] Clearly, a third person such as a scribe or chronicler wrote these accounts, and not Moses himself. If Moses had been the writer then we would see the first person narrative being used. Another issue is that of anachronisms. These are details that do not fit in with the supposed time of writing. For example, here the passing of Moses happens before the book of Deuteronomy ends: "Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he passed, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone." ( Deuteronomy 34:7 ) "Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." ( Deuteronomy 34:10 ). There is a 1,000 year missing link in the transmission of the Torah. The D. Sea Scrolls, the earliest manuscript evidence that we have for the Torah, date from around 150 BCE – 70 CE. The scrolls include fragments of all 5 books of the Torah. When we consider that Moses lived around 1300 BCE this means that we don’t have any manuscript evidence until around 1000 years after Moses.
The Old Testament paints a very noble and honorable concept of Prophet-hood: “…Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.” ( 2 Chronicles 20:20 ) “Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.” ( 2 Chronicles 24:19 )
Unfortunately, the Torah presents the Prophets in an extremely negative light. No bad deed is too great for them to commit, nor is any vice beyond their lowly desires (you can read more about this here). Therefore, believing that the modern Torah is not corrupted would mean that we accept that the great Prophets of God are corrupted. This is not a viable position given the noble profile of Prophet-hood as defined in the Old Testament itself.
Unfortunately, the Torah presents the Prophets in an extremely negative light. No bad deed is too great for them to commit, nor is any vice beyond their lowly desires (you can read more about this here). Therefore, believing that the modern Torah is not corrupted would mean that we accept that the great Prophets of God are corrupted. This is not a viable position given the noble profile of Prophet-hood as defined in the Old Testament itself.
In Conclusion : If God wanted us, and indeed the whole of mankind, to have the original Scripture, then why did he not preserve it? As has been demonstrated, textual variants, contradictions and unknown authorship are just some of the serious issues that plague the modern versions of the Torah. Therefore we can only conclude that the modern day scriptures are not the pure word of God as originally revealed to Moses, but rather has been tampered with by the corrupt hands of man.
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