es
permitted the discovery of a new sense by minute changes within a word,
was a point of special importance.[121] Christian teachers went still
further in this direction, and, as can be proved, altered the text of
the Septuagint in order to make more definite what suggested itself to
them as the meaning of a passage, or in order to give a satisfactory
meaning to a sentence which appeared to them unmeaning or
offensive.[122] Nay, attempts were not wanting among Christians in the
second century--they were aided by the uncertainty that existed about
the extent of the Septuagint, and by the want of plain predictions about
the death upon the cross--to determine the Old Testament canon in
accordance with new principles; that is, to alter the text on the plea
that the Jews had corrupted it, and to insert new books into the Old
Testament, above all, Jewish Apocalypses revised in a Christian sense.
Tertullian (de cultu fem. I. 3,) furnishes a good example of the latter.
"Scio scipturam Enoch, quae hunc ordinem angelis dedit, non recipi a
quibusdam, quia nee in armorium Judaicum admittitur ... sed cum Enoch
eadem scriptura etiam de domino praedicarit, a nobis quidem nihil omnino
reiciendum est quod pertinet ad nos. Et legimus omnem scripturam
aedificationi habilem divinitus inspirari. A Judaeis potest jam videri
propterea reiecta, sicut et cetera fere quae Christum sonant.... Eo
accedit quod Enoch apud Judam apostolum testimonium possidet." Compare
also the history of the Apocalypse of Ezra in the Latin Bible (Old
Testament). Not only the genuine Greek portions of the Septuagint, but
also many Apocalypses were quoted by Christians in the second century as
of equal value with the Old Testament. It was the New Testament that
slowly put an end to these tendencies towards the formation of a
Christian Old Testament.

To find the spiritual meaning of the sacred text, partly beside the
literal, partly by excluding it, became the watchword for the
"scientific" Christian theology which was possible only on this basis,
as it endeavoured to reduce the immense and dissimilar material of the
Old Testament to unity with the Gospel, and both with the religious and
scientific culture of the Greeks,--yet without knowing a relative
standard, the application of which would alone have rendered possible in
a loyal way the solution of the task. Here, Philo was the master; for he
first to a great extent poured the new wine into old bottles. Such a
pr