Jumpstarter 6 of 10

Direct Answer Bercot’s account warns that “winning” by manipulation is spiritually dangerous because it can mislead the whole Church for centuries, replacing truth-seeking with pride, intimidation, and manufactured credibility.

Support from Transcript:

• Bercot says Jerome “switched to the Masoretic text” because he believed Jewish accusations and “lacked faith in God’s providential guidance,” acting “arrogantly.”
• He reports Jerome’s defense as a lie: Jerome claimed the apostles quoted Hebrew when Septuagint disagreed, and challenged critics: “ask the Hebrews… Consult their teachers,” and “let my critics show… anything… not found in the Hebrew.”
• Bercot comments bluntly: “Jerome was out and out lying,” since “every textual scholar today acknowledges that Jesus and the apostles nearly always quote from the Septuagint.”
• He explains Jerome’s “fudging”: if Jerome had integrity, “all the familiar prophecies… would have disappeared,” but instead Jerome “kept… ‘virgin’ in Isaiah 7,” kept Psalm language, used “God and Lord instead of Yahweh,” “Red Sea,” etc.
• He describes the long damage: Jerome’s falsehoods “penetrated every single nook and cranny of the Western Church,” and medieval theologians knew the Septuagint mostly through Jerome’s “myths.”