charge would in that case have resembled the one which follows in Art. CX.,
where by "twisting their tongues," or by a deceptive mode of
recitation, passages were made to appear to belong to the Scriptures, which did
not in reality. But such imputation, like the present, is altogether a different
charge from that of corrupting the Manuscripts of the Old Testament.
NOTE, first; the accusation is addressed to the Jews of Medîna alone.
Whatever else may be its scope, it does not extend beyond them. For instance, no
such imputation is, in any verse of the Corân, ever hinted against the
Christians, or their Scriptures.
NOTE, second; the accusation, whatever it was, did not affect the
confidence of Mahomet in the genuineness and purity of the Old Testament as then
in the hands of, and current amongst, the Jews of Medîna. This is evident from
the tenor of all the subsequent passages in which the value and authority of the
Scriptures are spoken of in as high, unqualified, and unsuspecting terms as
before.