Does Jeremiah 8:8 Teach

The Bible Has Been Corrupted?

 

Muslims often appeal to Jeremiah 8:8 as proof that the Torah has been corrupted:

“How can you say, ‘We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD,’ when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?” (Jeremiah 8:8)

 

There are many points that can be made about this passage. First, it is assumed based on a presupposition of the Muslim that this means that the Law itself was corrupted by these scribes, and not what is said in verse 9:

“The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have.” (Jeremiah 8:9)

 

They have falsely handled it by rejecting the word of the Lord.  In the context of Jeremiah 7-10, we see that the Jews, who were rebelling against God, were trusting in the presence of the Temple and the Torah to be a safeguard for them from God’s judgment. In this passage, they were claiming to be wise because they have the law, but God says that they have handled it falsely by rejecting it.

 

Second, there were also other men of God who had the Law before them after Jeremiah, so this shows that it was not corrupted at the time of Jeremiah. For instance, in approximately 430 B.C., nearly 180 years after Jeremiah’s temple address, which took place in 609 or 608 B.C, we have written in the book of Nehemiah:
 

“They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read … On the second day … they gathered around Ezra the scribe to give attention to the words of the Law. They found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to … Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God …” Nehemiah 8:13-14,18
 

In order for Ezra the scribe to be able to both read from the Law of Moses and expound it presupposes that a true, uncorrupted copy of the Torah was available at that time.

Third, the Lord Jesus and his followers quoted from the Torah as we know it today and never assumed that it was corrupt (see Matthew 4:4,7,10; 22:31-32; 1 Timothy 5:18).
 

Finally, there are many passages within the Bible which show that the word of God could not be corrupted:

• Jesus says that scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). This shows that there cannot be any contradictions within it.

• He said that not one jot or tittle would disappear from the law (Matthew 5:18). It’s teachings would remain in tact.

• Over 700 years before Christ, Isaiah the prophet wrote, “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). Peter also quotes this passage in the New Testament, showing that it still was authoritative and true in the first century (1 Peter 1:24-25).
   

In light of the preceding things, the only plausible contextual meaning is that the scribes were misleading the people either through their oral traditions and/or the writing down of erroneous interpretations of the Law. A similar situation existed in the time of the Lord Jesus Christ:
 

“Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!’ Jesus replied, ‘And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? … Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”’” Matthew 15:1-3,6b-9
 

It is therefore quite plausible that Jeremiah was rebuking the scribes for their traditions that led people astray from the word of God. They were manipulating the law to try to get it to fit their lifestyles and to make justifications for their sin. They were, through their traditions and teachings “corrupting the law”, not by corrupting the text itself, but by corrupted it’s teachings with their teachings and lives. This is something that happens today. Many popular teachers and preachers corrupt the teachings of the Bible in their writings, saying that the Bible teaches things that it does not. They do not corrupt the text itself, but in their lives and teachings. They water down the requirements in the word of God and ignore the parts that they do not want to follow.

 

- See more at: http://www.evangelismhelp.com/does-jeremiah-88-teach-the-bible-has-been-corrupted-2/#sthash.dBjsHVSD.dpuf