Why did the early Christians write the Old Testament, and then claim it was the Jewish Bible?

Wow...you learn sumpin new everyday

Most of the early Christian writers used the Septuagint, a Greek translation produced in Alexandria a couple centuries before Christ.

Unfortunately, that translation had some flaws. And it is possible that the differences were increased as the Jews handed down traditions over the centuries; we don't have a version of the Hebrew with word breaks and vowel marks until quite a few centuries later--and some of those Massoretic texts clearly differ from the word breaks and vowel marks the Septuagint translators used.

Christians also developed a tendency to mine the Hebrew scripture for passages they could claim prophesied Jesus as the Christ. This centuries-old tradition colors some Christian translations.

But Christian attempts to go back to the Hebrew version used by the Jews are also very old. Jerome based his fourth-century Latin translation on the Hebrew--taking a risk that the church establishment, which was accustomed to the Septuagint, would reject it.

Christian attempts to get back to the original Hebrew continue. Most modern Christian translations use the same Massoretic sources as the Jewish ones, and continually attempt to correct old errors derived from the Septuagint. Over the past few decades, there have been several new translations which caused a stir, for example, by correcting the famed Isaiah 7:14 reading ("...a virgin shall conceive...") to read "a young woman," as the Hebrew does. I've used such a translation as my main source my whole life.

Until recently. My favorite Old Testament translation at present is a Jewish one.

Back in the day, non-Jews read Jewish texts and revered them for their antiquity - much like 'New Age' folks do today. Romans were especially syncretic in their approach to religion. They took elements from every culture they encountered and changed them around to suit their own beliefs.

A form of religion which was very popular amongst Romans in the last centuries BCE and the first centuries CE was something that's known as 'mysteries'. These were salvation religions which taught that salvation from an otherwise inevitable fate (eternal torment, death, etc) was possible through their secret knowledge (mysterion), their rituals and membership in their group. Christianity's rituals and theology look very much like these other Hellenic salvation religions. The details might be different, but that's the way religions work. It's the overlying themes that matter - the death and descent of the god into the underworld, salvation via the ritual consumption of his body in the form of baked wheat cakes and wine or ale, mastery over bread/grain, wine/grapes and fish, triadic groups of deities worshipped together, father-son pairings, human mothers and divine fathers, and so on.

Christianity didn't 'write' the 'Old Testament', that's far too strong a statement. But Christianity did misread Judaism's sacred texts and continues to do so. Some of it came from using the Septuagint, some of it is just traditions of conventional 'translation' that the Hebrew doesn't support.

Two distinct things are meant by the term 'Septuagint'. One is a translation of Torah (the first five books) into Greek. It's not a bad translation. Most ancient, positive Jewish references to a "Septuagint" are to that part and that part only. The first five books.

But the first five books carry little of the weight of 'proving' that Iesus = Messiah. Keep that in mind.

The far more common use of "Septuagint" refers to the collection of texts that one of the Ptolemys commissioned for his Great Library in Alexandria. He wanted a translation of every great work of every culture. A noble undertaking, but unfortunately some of the translations of the other sections of the Tanakh weren't very good. The Book of Isaiah is particularly bad. And that's the one which carries the most Christological weight.

"In the beginning, God created" is a convention of translation. The Hebrew is closer to 'In the beginning of G-d's creating...'. The difference is primarily due to differences in the way Hebrew and English are structured.

So there are three categories of error in translation. One is the difficulties of trying to render Hebrew in 'acceptable' English. Another is the history of convention and the resistance to letting go of the reading on which Iesus = Messiah equation is based. The third is the use of the often faulty Septuagint.

This tradition of misreading allows Christianity to come to very different conclusions than Judaism does. And those conclusions have much in common - both theology and ritually - with very non-Jewish religions, the Hellenic salvation cults.

It was the Jewish Bible.

Christianity came to be at approximately A. D. 1. Judaism was around for centuries before Christianity came to be. The Jews used the Old Testament, especially the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Thus, making the Old Testament the "Jewish Bible," as you say it was called.

Therefore, Jews wrote the Old Testament, not Christians. Christians DO believe the Old Testament, but there were no Christians at the time of the writing of the Old Testament, so Christians did NOT write the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is the History of the Jews from the beginning of time to which a Savior would born from the "House of David!" The New Testament begins with the "Coming of the Christ" foe which the Jews are still waiting for that coming. The early Christians were Jews that believe that Jesus was the one foretold by all the prophets. The High Priest, Rabbis did not believe that the Christ would come as a simple man of humble beginnings. The Jews follow the old Covenant made with God. Jesus came to make a New Covenant so that all mankind may enter Paradise through Him

The Qumran Scrolls, found in the near past preceded Christianity and appear to agree with Christian Scriptures, see for example, the prophecies of Isiah.. The Old Testament has a date attached to it which also preceded Christianity. There would be no need of Christianity as a separate body if the Christians had not been excommunicated from Judaism by the Council of Jamnia, c 53ad. Have you compared the Hebrew Scriptures with a Catholic version of the Scripture?

I have seen many bibles and Torah writings and met some Rabbis but never heard of anything close to what you are saying. Actually the earliest Christians were "Jews" The scrolls were translated in many languages but did not lose that much.

The Old Testament cones from the Masoretic Hebrew. The Masorets were Jewish.

The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament, and the latter books are the oral teachings of the Jews.

Additionally, ancient Aramaic had no definite articles. There was one indefinite article, and it is translated to "a" in English. It was put on the end of a word. To say "the beginning" or "a beginning," you would still be saying the same thing.

No Rabbi will say he believes in the Old Testament in its entirety. Most peoples don't like history that paints them in a bad light. But the books of Moses, Genesis to Deuteronomy ... otherwise known as the Pentateuch ... are also the Jewish Torah. They are one and the same.That would include the verse you mention.

I have never heard the claim you make.

The pentateuch is the same for the torah and the OT. You must be looking at some far reaching conspiracy theories or something, or maybe some differences in the various translations that exist out there.