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The Argument of Jeremiah 8:8 Still Standing!

By
Bassam Zawadi

If we read the Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 8, Verse 8 it says this 

    ⁸ " '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?

It is very clear from the text that the scribes have corrupted the Law (first 5 books of the Old Testament). How did they corrupt it? With their mouths by giving false interpretations? No! They did so with their "pens". Meaning they altered the text of the Law. How else could a pen corrupt something? 

Following are some arguments that Christians put forward to try to show that the verse does not say that the Law has not been corrupted.

The "lying pens of the scribes" means that the scribes wrote misinterpretations of the Law and not actually altered the text of the Law

If scribes wrote misinterpretations of the Law then why would people go and read them? Notice that in verse 7 is says that they don't know the requirements of the Law. If they wanted to know the requirements of the Law, why go and read what the scribes have written when they could easily go to the supposedly uncorrupted text of the Law when it was available. Everything is there. 

Notice how the verse says that they don't have the Law. If the Law was truly there in an uncorrupted form then that means that they had it. 

Some Christians tend to argue that "not having the Law" means that they don' truly abide by it. However, verse 7 states that they don't know the requirements because the lying pen of the scribes have handled the Law falsely (verse 8). People should have easily went to see what is written in the Law to know the requirements of God and not listen to the scribes. But they couldn't because the scribes corrupted the Law and therefore people could not have known the true requirements because they would not have been able to distinguish between the corrupted and uncorrupted verses of the Law. 

Jeremiah 26:4 says that God still commanded them to follow the Law. How could this be if the Law has been corrupted?

This does not necessarily have to be referring to the Law of Moses. It's possible it could be referring to the revelations that God had sent down to Jeremiah. e.g.. Jeremiah Chapter 7 and 36

In Nehemiah, chapter 8 we find that Ezra reads the Law to the people of Israel for a whole week, day after day. For example in verses 8, 13-14, and 18. This is in about 430 B.C. about 180 years after Jeremiah's temple address which took place in 609 or 608 B.C., the first year of the reign of king Jehoiakim (see Jeremiah 26:1). In Malachi 4:4, God tells the people to follow the Law. 

This is irrelevant because Christians are assuming that these books of Nehemiah and Malachi are truly from God. Maybe they were following the same corrupted Law that Christians are following today. This proves nothing.

Daniel Chapter 9 shows that Daniel read from the Book of Jeremiah and also believed in an uncorrupt Torah. This shows that Daniel did not understand Jeremiah 8:8 to mean that the text of the Law was corrupted

First of all the only evidence of what verses that Daniel read from the Book of Jeremiah are Jeremiah 25:11, 12 and 29:10 where God predicts that Israel would be taken into captivity to Babylon for 70 years. This does not prove that he read the whole book of Jeremiah. 

Even if there was proof that he read the whole book of Jeremiah that does not mean anything. Daniel could have easily misunderstood the passage just like how Christians are today. Maybe he twisted around its true meaning just like how Christians do today because he they don't want to admit that their scripture is corrupted.

God could have restored the Torah just like how he did with Jeremiah's own revelations in Jeremiah 36:1-7, 20-32, 27-32

Irrelevant, because Jeremiah 8:8 does not say that God restored the Law. Yes he could have done it. God could do anything. But the verse didn't say that. 

Jesus gave authority to the Law in the Gospels

How do you know that Jesus even read Jeremiah 8:8? How do you know that Jesus truly gave authority to the Law? Because your Gospel says so? How do you know that the Gospel writers truly quoted Jesus' true words? This will get into a discussion of the authority of the Gospels so lets not go there. However, you cannot use the Bible to prove the Bible has not been corrupted. This is just circular reasoning.

Even your own Quran says that Jesus came to confirm the Law

The Gospel was given to Prophet Jesus to confirm what remained intact from the Torah; and the Glorious Quran was given to Prophet Mohamed (saws) to confirm what remained intact from the Gospel and The Law!  

Is God not able to preserve the Torah?

He is able to but just because he allowed it to become corrupted does not undermine His power. It could have been God's divine plan for it to have been corrupted because the Law was probably only meant to be followed for a particular point in time unlike the Holy Quran which is the final revelation of God and has remained intact and preserved and is meant to be followed for all time since it has been revealed.

Conclusion

Jeremiah 8:8 is explicitly clear when it states that the Law has been corrupted. We are not even sure if Jeremiah is really the true author of this book. We don't have any evidence to confirm if he wrote the whole book. So even if Christians try to come up and show verses from the book of Jeremiah that give authority to the Law then that would just simply be contradicting Jeremiah 8:8. Maybe others added to the book to try and cover it up. Only God knows best. Maybe Christians might criticize me for saying that Jeremiah is not reliable yet I use Jeremiah 8:8 to prove that the Bible is corrupt. Well either Jeremiah 8:8 is a true verse and the Bible is corrupted or Jeremiah 8:8 is a corrupted verse but it is in your Bible so your Bible is still corrupted! However, do not expect a subjective Christian to believe the implications of Jeremiah 8:8, they would simply dismiss it. However, use it for those truth seeking and objective Christians.

Back to My Rebuttals, and exposing the lies of the Answering Islam team section.

Rebuttals by Bassam Zawadi.

Islam and the Noble Quran - Questions and Answers.

Answering Trinity.

Contradictions and History of Corruption in the Bible.

Questions about Jesus that trinitarian Christians don't have logical answers for.

What parts of the Bible do Muslims believe are closest to the Truth? and Why?

"Allah" was GOD Almighty's original Name in the Bible according to the Hebrew and Aramaic sources.

Scientific Miracles in Islam and the Noble Quran.

Most of the Bible's books and gospels were written by mysterious people!

Jesus mentioned Muhammad by the name in the Bible.

Did Isaiah 53 really prophesies about the crucifixion of Jesus? It supports Islam's claims about Jesus peace be upon him never died on the cross.  I also addressed John 19:36-37 from the Bible and proved that Jesus never got crucified, since GOD Almighty promised that he will protect Jesus' body and not let even a single bone be broken.    My question to all Christians is: How in the world is it possible for the feet to get nailed on the cross without any penetration to the bones by the nails, hence breaking part of the feet's bones?! I also added refutations to Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12, Zechariah 12:10 and Psalm 34:20, which supposedly prove the Christians' belief about Jesus crucifixion.  I proved that this dogma has no truth what so ever and exposed the wrong Trinitarian English translation of Zechariah 12:10.

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