Jacob Ben Chayyim

On Whether the Masoretic Text

Was Corrupted During the Babylonian Captivity

We must turn this subject toward the testimonies of certain rabbinic scholars and fathers. Rabbi Benchaiim Tunetanus distinctly disapproves of the opinion of those who claim that the copies of the Bible were corrupted during the Babylonian captivity. He says:

Their opinion is far removed from me, for I cannot be persuaded to believe and confess with my lips that the scribe Ezra found the book of the Law and the books of the prophets dubious, corrupt, and confused. In fact, my opinion is rather this: that Ezra and his colleagues found the sacred books whole and unharmed and that Ezra knew, according to his own judgment, which books were written by that excellent wisdom and why certain letters were written but not others and even why some foreign words were written. These he put into the actual text just as they had been written, adding something like a gloss in the margin to explain the nature of the foreign word.

Source: Johann Gerhard, On the Nature of Theology and on Scripture, ed. Benjamin T. G. Mayes, trans. Richard J. Dinda, Theological Commonplaces (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 290.

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