NOTE: we should not judge our Jewish friends by Christian standards for editing the Septuagint. As the article points out the religious life of the Jewish people was around the temple mount and rituals, so divergences of texts were acceptable. But this changed after the destruction of JerusalemChapter 71. The Jews reject the interpretation of the Septuagint, from which, moreover, they have taken away some passages
Justin: But I am far from putting reliance in your teachers, who refuse to admit that the interpretation made by the seventy elders who were with Ptolemy [king] of the Egyptians is a correct one; and they attempt to frame another. And I wish you to observe, that they have altogether taken away many Scriptures from the translations effected by those seventy elders who were with Ptolemy, and by which this very man who was crucified is proved to have been set forth expressly as God, and man, and as being crucified, and as dying; but since I am aware that this is denied by all of your nation, I do not address myself to these points, but I proceed to carry on my discussions by means of those passages which are still admitted by you. For you assent to those which I have brought before your attention, except that you contradict the statement, 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive,' and say it ought to be read, 'Behold, the young woman shall conceive.' And I promised to prove that the prophecy referred, not, as you were taught, to Hezekiah, but to this Christ of mine: and now I shall go to the proof.
Trypho: We ask you first of all to tell us some of the Scriptures which you allege have been completely cancelled.
Chapter 72. Passages have been removed by the Jews from Esdras and Jeremiah
Justin: 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 from the sayings of Jeremiah they have cut out the following: '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.' Jeremiah 11:19 And since this passage from the sayings of Jeremiah is still written in some copies [of the Scriptures] in the synagogues of the Jews (for it is only a short time since they were cut out), and since from these words it is demonstrated that the Jews deliberated about the Christ Himself, to crucify and put Him to death, He Himself is both declared to be led as a sheep to the slaughter, as was predicted by Isaiah, and is here represented as a harmless lamb; but being in a difficulty about them, they give themselves over to blasphemy. 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.'
Chapter 73. [The words]
From the woodhave been cut out of Psalm 96Justin: 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 among the nations, the Lord has reigned from the wood,' they have left, 'Tell among the nations, the Lord has reigned.' Now no one of your people has ever been said to have reigned as God and Lord among the nations, with the exception of Him only who was crucified, of whom also the Holy Spirit affirms in the same Psalm that He was raised again, and freed from [the grave], declaring that there is none like Him among the gods of the nations: for they are idols of demons. But I shall repeat the whole Psalm to you, that you may perceive what has been said. It is thus: 'Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, and bless His name; show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: He is to be feared above all the gods. For all the gods of the nations are demons but the Lord made the heavens. Confession and beauty are in His presence; holiness and magnificence are in His sanctuary. Bring to the Lord, O you countries of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honour, bring to the Lord glory in His name. Take sacrifices, and go into His courts; worship the Lord in His holy temple. Let the whole earth be moved before Him: tell among the nations, the Lord has reigned. For He has established the world, which shall not be moved; He shall judge the nations with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, and the earth be glad; let the sea and its fullness shake. Let the fields and all therein be joyful. Let all the trees of the wood be glad before the Lord: for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.'
Trypho: Whether [or not] the rulers of the people have erased any portion of the Scriptures, as you affirm, God knows; but it seems incredible.
Justin: Assuredly, it does seem incredible. For it is more horrible than the calf which they made, when satisfied with manna on the earth; or than the sacrifice of children to demons; or than the slaying of the prophets. But you appear to me not to have heard the Scriptures which I said they had stolen away. For such as have been quoted are more than enough to prove the points in dispute, besides those which are retained by us, and shall yet be brought forward.
“NOTE: we should not judge our Jewish friends by Christian standards for editing the Septuagint. “
I’d say the Jews showed far greater reverence for accurately keeping the scriptures than the Catholic Church, at least from the time of their captivity on. It is certainly true that unlearned Jews like the Apostles still were able to quote scripture freely and accurately, while Christians who were not priests often have had their access to scripture severely restricted or completely denied by the Catholic Church.
There was debate at the time of Jesus about the extent of the scripture, with many restricting it to the Torah - but Jesus made it clear he did not. However, a good case can be made that Jesus did NOT extend it to the Apocrypha, and that the Septuagint had quite a bit of extraneous stuff added in.
Also, remember that when the Council of Trent defined scripture as the Vulgate, there then arose a question as to what was the text of the Vulgate...and the first attempt to put a standardized Vulgate out was horrible. And when they listed the books of the Vulgate, they left a few out...
“Until the mid-nineteenth century, most Protestants accepted the Deuterocanonical books as inspired in at least some limited sense. For example, the original version of the King James Bible, the most popular version of the Bible in English, included most of the Deuterocanonical books. And for many years in England, it was even illegal to publish a Bible without these books. ...
...Most evangelical Protestants in America are heirs of this missionary movement. Consequently, many Americans who take the Bible seriously hold a grave misunderstanding about the Old Testament. They sincerely but mistakenly believe that the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament are not a part of the Christian Bible. They are ignorant of the fact that most of the Deuterocanonical books are quoted or alluded to as Scripture by the Apostles, the Church Fathers, and even Jesus Christ Himself. “
Ummm....no. The Apocrypha, which included 3 small sections the Council of Trent did not list but which had been there, was included in the KJV. “Deuterocanonical books” is a term invented after the Council of Trent to describe the books in the Vulgate listed by Trent, although the list at Trent left a few out.
Second, most Protestants did NOT consider it scripture. (”most Protestants accepted the Deuterocanonical books as inspired in at least some limited sense.”) They were considered as good reading, but NOT scripture - a view backed by Jerome and many other Catholic scholars prior to the Council of Trent.
Third, Jesus & the Apostles NEVER used the Apocryphal books for authority. Jude quotes a book for illustration, but that book isn’t in anyone’s list of the canon. And Paul quotes a Cretan prophet, without suggesting the prophet’s writings were scripture. There were many prophets who made many prophecies that were not included in scripture.
“It is written...” appears many times in the NT, but never with the Apocryphal books following.
what our non-catholic FRiends don’t seem to understand is the Catholic Church has been contending with unbelievers for 2,000 years, whether we are talking about jews, arians, gnostics, muslims, etc etc. the fact that 16th century sects arose was just more error to contend with.