Corrupting the Gospels
“There are some who corrupt the Gospel histories, and who introduce heresies opposed to the meaning of the doctrine of Jesus” (Origen)
“…only those persons who were concerned in the fraud should, in equity, be held answerable for it” (Origen)
…admit of various and almost indefinite readings … because “the original text of the Gospels” has been altered to coincide and substantiate the doctrines of the Gentile converts in an attempt to prove their tenets of belief.” (Celsus)
“They write down not what they find but what they think is the meaning; and while they attempt to rectify the errors of others, they merely expose their own” (St. Jerome)
“…their disciples have assiduously written the corrections, as they call them, that is the corruptions, of each of them.” (Eusebius)
“Marcion expressly and openly used the knife, not the pen, since he made such an excision of the scriptures as suits his own subject matter” (the scribe removed whole sections of scripture that he didn’t agree with) (Tertullian)
Lying and Deceit for the Church
Hermas, an early church father, wrote: “O Lord, I never spoke a true word in my life, I have always affirmed a lie as truth to all men, and no man contradicted me; instead, they all gave credit to my works.” Visions of Hermas, vol. 2, c.3.
Clement of Alexandria was one of the earliest of the Church Fathers to draw a distinction between “mere human truth” and the higher truth of faith:
“Not all true things are the truth, nor should that truth which merely seems true according to human opinions be preferred to the true truth, that according to the faith.” Clement of Alexandria
The famous church father Augustine never failed to subordinate reason to faith. He followed that maxim when he wrote:
I would never believe the Gospels to be true, unless the authority of the Catholic Church restrained me.”
Augustine, De Genesis.. Gregory of Nazanzius, a 4th century church father and bishop of Caesarea, wrote to St. Jerome:
“A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose on the people. The less they comprehend, the more they admire. Quoted by C. Volney, The Ruins, p. 177 (1872)
Angustine of Hippo, the greatest figure in Christian antiquity, wrote:
“It is lawful, then, to him that discusses, disputes and preaches of things eternal, or to him that narrates of things temporal pertaining to religion or piety, to conceal at fitting times whatever seems fit to be concealed.” Augustine, On Lying
Deceit
In letter LII To Nepotian, Jerome writes about his teacher, Gregory of Nazianzus when he asked him to explain a phrase in Luke, Nazianzus evaded his request by saying:
“I will tell you about it in church, and there, when all the people applaud me, you will be forced against your will to know what you do not know at all. For, if you alone remain silent, every one will put you down for a fool.”
Jerome responds with, “There is nothing so easy as by sheer volubility to deceive a common crowd or an uneducated congregation.” (Gregory of Nazianzus)
In the 5th century, John Chrysostom in his “Treatise on the Priesthood, Book 1,” wrote,
“And often it is necessary to deceive, and to do the greatest benefits by means of this device, whereas he who has gone by a straight course has done great mischief to the person whom he has not deceived.“
John Chrysostom, 5th century theologian and erstwhile bishop of Constantinople, is another:
“Do you see the advantage of deceit? …
For great is the value of deceit, provided it be not introduced with a mischievous intention. In fact action of this kind ought not to be called deceit, but rather a kind of good management, cleverness and skill, capable of finding out ways where resources fail, and making up for the defects of the mind …
And often it is necessary to deceive, and to do the greatest benefits by means of this device, whereas he who has gone by a straight course has done great mischief to the person whom he has not deceived. (Chrysostom, Treatise On The Priesthood, Book 1.)
Ignatius Loyola of the 16th century wrote in his Spiritual Exercises:
“To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it”
Altering the Sacred Scriptures of the Lord, Fables, Fiction, Lies, Fraud and Forgery
“As the brethren desired me to write epistles (letters), I did so, and these the apostles of the devil have filled with tares (changes), exchanging some things and adding others, for whom there is a woe reserved.
It is not therefore, a matter of wonder if some have also attempted to adulterate the sacred writings of the Lord, since they have attempted the same in other works that are not to be compared with these.” (Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth)
For we, brethren, receive both Peter and the rest of the apostles as Christ Himself. But those writings which are falsely inscribed with their name, we as experienced persons reject, knowing that no such writings have been handed down to us. (Serapion of Antioch)
“And yet these are veritable fables, which have led to the invention of such stories concerning a man whom they regarded as possessing greater wisdom and power than the multitude, and as having received the beginning of his corporeal substance from better and diviner elements than others, because they thought that this was appropriate to persons who were too great to be human beings. (Origen, 254 CE)
“It is clear to me that the writings of the Christians are a lie, and that your fables are not well-enough constructed to conceal this monstrous fiction:
I have even heard that some of your interpreters, as if they had just come out of a tavern, are onto the inconsistencies and, pen in hand, alter the originals writings, three, four and several more times over in order to be able to deny the contradictions in the face of criticism.“_ (Celsus 178 CE)
“Orthodox theologians were tempted, by the assurance of impunity, to compose fictions, which must be stigmatized with the epithets of fraud and forgery. They ascribed their own polemical works to the most venerable names of Christian antiquity.” (Edward Gibbon, History of Christianity, p. 598)
Metzger states,
“Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Eusebius and many other Church Fathers accused the heretics of corrupting the Scriptures in order to have support for their special views“. Burgon Says, Even the orthodox were capable of changing a reading for dogmatic reasons. Epiphanius states that the Orthodox deleted ‘he wept’ from Luke 19 : 41 out of jealousy for the Lord’s divinity.”
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