Chapter 2.3.
Is the Bible Corrupted?
1. How Muslims deal with the Bible
Most Muslims believe that the Bible is corrupt because that is what their teachers taught them according to their traditions. Therefor Muslims just accept it that this is also what the Quran say about the Bible.
In conversations with Muslims, many arguments go something like this:
The original message of the Bible has been corrupted by centuries of copying, translating, and passing down information. The result is a mishmash of contradictions and errors, the consequence of which is that the original gospel message is lost.
In contrast, the manuscripts of the Quran are uniform and unaltered. Their textual accuracy and word meanings are clear, and as a result, whereas God’s message in the Bible is unreliable, we can trust that God’s message has been faithfully transmitted in the Quran.
The claims are that the Bible has been corrupted and the original divine message lost. But the Quran has not been subject to “corruption,” as the Bible has, therefore God’s message has been faithfully preserved only in the Quran.
The following is part of an article that very responsibly examine these objections
2. Is the Bible Corrupted and the original divine message lost?
The basis of Muslim anti-Christian polemics against the Bible is the idea that Jewish and Christian communities received the true (Islamic) scripture but that the true message was suppressed and the text itself was physically altered.
The Quran mentions the Torah ("Tawrat"), the Zabur ("Psalms") and the Injil ("Gospel") as being revealed by God to the prophets Moses, David, and Jesus respectively in the same way the Quran was revealed to Muhammad, the final prophet and messenger of God according to Muslims.
Most Muslims view these books (i.e., the Bible, or parts of it) as having been corrupted, altered and interpolated over time, while maintaining that the Quran remains as the final, unchanged, and preserved word of God.
Some Muslims do read the Bible (not always with the same intention than Christians but to proof their claims about the corrupt Bible text, or to proof whatever they like against Christians to that Muhammad was foretold in the Bible. Therefore, most of the time they only refer to Bible texts that suit their claims.
Most Muslims will not easily accept a Bible from a Christian, or, as an Ex-Muslim friend told me, he took it and through it in the dustbin as soon as possible because of this “corrupt” book.
3. What the Quran really teach about the Bible.
- Some Quranic verses pertinent to the topic: Sura 3:78: And there is indeed a group among them who twist their tongues with the book, that you may suppose it to be from the book. But it is not from the book. And they say, “It is from God,” though it is not from God. And they knowingly speak a lie against God.
- Sura 3:78: And there is indeed a group among them who twist their tongues with the book, that you may suppose it to be from the book. But it is not from the book. And they say, “It is from God,” though it is not from God. And they knowingly speak a lie against God.
- Sura 4:46: Among those who are Jews are those who distort the meaning of the word, and say, “We hear and disobey,” and “Hear, as one who hears not!” and “Attend to us!” twisting their tongues and disparaging religion. And had they said, “We hear and obey” and “Listen” and “Regard us,” it would have been better for them and more proper. But God cursed them for their disbelief, so they believe not, save a few.
There is no direct criticism against the Christian or Jewish holy texts but rather against those who forget them or misinterpret them.
In support of Christian Scripture is Sura 5:47, which states, “Let the people of the gospel judge by what God has sent down therein. Whosoever judges not by that which God has sent down—it is they who are iniquitous.”
This verse assumes the reliability of the gospel (and thus Christian Scripture) and expects Christians to live by it.
Additionally, in Sura 3:55 God speaks to Jesus, saying, “[W]hen he said, “O Jesus, I shall take thee and raise thee unto me, and purify thee of those who disbelieved, and place those who followed thee above those who disbelieved, until the day of resurrection. Then unto me is your return, and I shall judge between you concerning that wherein you used to differ.”
This verse gives Christians (“those who followed thee”) an elevated position and does not depict them as followers of a false scripture.
The Quran assumes the Bible is a Good Book.
In all the above verses, the Quran assumes the reliability of the gospel, which is directly contrary to Muslim claims. It does not support the argument that the Bible was altered and thus corrupted by Christians and Jews.
Also read...The Quran affirms that the Bible is the word of God.
3.1.How the Quran deals with the Torah.
The basis of the Torah is the Ten Commandments from God to Moses; Three times mentioned in the Bible! (
Is that also the basis of the Quran? It was well known as part of the Jewish and Christian tradition and Bible during the time of Muhammed.
Why not so in the Quran? Although every follower of the true Jahwe still daily follows this as part of their life direction, the Quran just mention it as of little importance (or am I wrong)?
Islam does not accept the absolute authority of the Bible, teaching that it has become corrupted over the years, and therefore it does not accept the authority of the listing of the Ten Commandments that appears in the Bible. Islam does, however, accept the status of both Moses and Jesus as prophets, which means that the commandments are not completely ignored, either.
3.2. What is the Ten Commandments?
The Ten Commandments (known as the "Decalogue") are a central part of the Law, highly valuated by both Judaism and Christianity. According to the Torah these commandments were divinely revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai and engraved on two tablets of stone.
In effect, the Ten Commandments are a summary statement of the covenant between God and the Israelites, and they are the founding principles for those two religions, the tablets on which the faiths were erected.
But what does Islam think?
3.3. Islam and Authenticity
When Muhammed and the Islamic scholars carved out their piece of the Abrahamic religions, they argued that Islam was not a repudiation of Christianity or Judaism, but a reformation of those faiths. The Islamic reformation of the Abrahamic faith, they said, took it back to the authentic monotheism that both Christians and Jews had neglected over time.
The primary issue brought up by the meteoric rise of the Islamic faith in the 7th–8th centuries CE, that of the authenticity of the theology, had been a serious problem studied by Jewish and Christian scholars for generations before Muhammad.
Scholars felt that Paul's version of Christianity had strayed too far away from the original monotheism: an extreme view said that the Pauline theology was approaching paganism. The rise of Islam led to the reoccurrence of those discussions, and to the appearances of new sects, such as Karaism, an Arabic/Jewish sect that emerged in the second half of the 8th century CE.
One question that Islam provoked was how old were the 10 Commandments? Did the Patriarchs before Moses practice God's commandments and was the Torah of the Patriarchs different from the Torah of Moses?
3.4. The Ten Commandments in the Quran
The Quran refers to the Ten Commandments twice. Quran Book 7:142–5 describes how Moses received the divine tablets but doesn't describe what was on them.
- "And We ordained laws for him in the tablets in all matters, both commanding and explaining all things, (and said): 'Take and hold these with firmness and enjoin thy people to hold fast by the best in the precepts'..." (Quran 7:142–5)
- The other, in Book 2, says: "Remember when we made a covenant with the children of Israel: You shall not serve any save God, and to be good to parents, and the near kinsman, and to orphans, and the needy, and speak good to all people, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms." (Quran 2:83–4)
3.5. Comparisons of Islamic and Judaic Rules of Behaviour
Early and classic Muslim commentators discussed the belief that the Israelites broke the Covenant made at Sinai, and conjecture what the tablets were made of: but in the end, to Muslims, it doesn't matter what was written on those tablets, because the Quran is the perfect iteration of divine law. The Quran’s commandments are found in (Quran 6:151–153), and although they are not completely in concordance with the Jewish Ten Commandments, there are some parallels – not much, one must say, if one read the Quran’s version.
- "Remember when we made a covenant with the children of Israel: You shall not serve any save God, and to be good to parents, and the near kinsman, and to orphans, and the needy, and speak good to all people, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms." (Quran 2:83–4)
4. But Is the Bible Corrupted then?
A Muslim hadith (Sahih Muslim) - that came 200 years after the Quran texts was already finalised and is not excepted by all Muslims - states the following:
O community of Muslims, how is it that you seek wisdom from the people of the book? Your book, brought down upon his prophet—blessings and peace of God upon him—is the latest report about God. You read a book that has not been distorted, but the people of the book, as God related to you, exchanged that which God wrote, changing the book with their hands
Does this tradition proof that the Bible text was tampered later?
During the finalisation of the Bible Text, it went through a lot of Historical Critique.
What is the TRUTH found about what we have today as the Bible?
From the words of Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Since I have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught”. Luke 1:1-4 NIV
5. Quran about the reliability of the Bible
Many Muslims have never read the Bible because they think the Quran has replaced it. The Quran, however, never claims to annul the Bible.
One Muslim think that the Gospel (Injil) abrogated the law (Taurah); just so the Quran replaces the Gospel. However, the Gospel did not abrogate the law. The perfect Jesus came, not to abolish the law, but to fulfil the law.
Sura 3:55 God speaks to Jesus, saying, “[W]hen he said, “O Jesus, I shall take thee and raise thee unto me, and purify thee of those who disbelieved, and place those who followed thee above those who disbelieved, until the day of resurrection. Then unto me is your return, and I shall judge between you concerning that wherein you used to differ.”
This verse gives Christians (“those who followed thee”) an elevated position and does not depict them as followers of a false scripture. So where is it coming from that the Quran speaks against the Bible?
Surah 10, Jonah, verse 94 “And if thou (Muhammad) art in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto thee, then question those who read the Scripture (that) was before thee...”
Those who have been reading the book from before thee" are Jews and Christians who read the Torah and the Injil (Gospel)!
If they were reading corrupted holy books, many misconceptions would have influenced their minds.
It would therefore make no sense for Allah to command those who are in doubt to ask Jews and Christians who allegedly were misled by changed Scriptures!
To follow the mandate in this verse it is necessary to believe that the Scriptures before Islam are uncorrupted!
So, Muslims, it seems that the Quran say you should read the Bible?
Quran 5:68 (Yusuf Ali) Say: "O People of the Book! ye have no ground to stand upon unless ye stand fast by the Law, the Gospel, and all the revelation that has come to you from your Lord."
It is the revelation that cometh to thee from thy Lord, that increased in most of them their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy. But sorrow thou not over (these) people without Faith.”
Sura 5:47 “Let the people of the gospel judge by what God has sent down therein. Whosoever judges not by that which God has sent down—it is they who are iniquitous.”
Discussion between a Muslim and a Christian about Bible Corruption:
*Muslim: Christian and Jews have changed their books and now there is no truth in it.
*Christian: Well, how much Bible was changed? Full, half, some part or?
*Muslim: whatever verses are not according to the Quranic teaching are changed.
*Christian: would you please give me one verse from the Quran that teaches Bible has changed? (Read more)
Lastly, my personal experienced was that all so called "mistakes" that people referred to can most of the time be explained easy and realistically, considering that the various books in the Bible were written over 2500 years by more than 40 authors of diverse cultures and original languages like Hebrew and Greek as well as others.
Did you know that Jesus alone fulfilled 351 OT prophesies excluding Jesus’s prophesies which was fulfilled in his time and those being fulfilled today and those that are still in the future?
As a conclusion: The different versions of the Bible strengthened the unity of the scriptures and not weaken it. Any of this Bible Translations or Version has the capacity to lead any sincere seeker to Christ for the salvation of the soul. Jesus is the central message that cut across all the books of the Bible.
6.What earliest Muslims believed about the Bible
One may be surprised to learn that contrary to widely held belief, the Quran says nothing about the corruption of the Bible.
Earliest Muslims also don't think the Bible is corrupted. It may also surprise Muslims that historically the trash of the Bible was firsts done in 1064 AD.
Why this claim and what was the arguments to proof it?
7. Where did this Myth of the Corrupted Bible originate from?
In 1064, Ibn-Khazem, FIRST charged that the Bible had been corrupted and the Bible falsified.
Why? This charge was to defend Islam against Christianity because Ibn-Khazem come upon differences and contradiction between the Bible and the Quran. Believing, by faith that the Quran was true, the Bible must then be false. He said, "Since the Quran must be true it must be the conflicting Gospel texts that are false. But Muhammad tells us to respect the Gospel. Therefore, the present text must have been falsified by the Christians after the time of Muhammad." His argument was not based on any evidence or historical facts but only on his personal faith, reasoning and desire to safeguard the Quran. This led him to teach that, "The Christians lost the revealed Gospel except for a few traces which God has left intact as argument against them."
Many great MUSLIM teachers DO NOT believe the Bible has been corrupted and ACCEPT the authenticity of our PRESENT New Testament texts.
Just look to the following lists:
- Ali al-Tabari (died 855) accepted the Gospel texts
- Amr al-Ghakhiz (869)
- BUKHARI (810-870) (he gathered some of the earliest tradition of Islam quoted the Quran itself to support his belief in the text of the Bible Sura 3:72,78)
- Al-Mas'udi (956)
- Abu Ali Husain Bin Sina (1037)
- AL-GHAZZALI (1111) (probably the greatest Muslim scholar he lived after Ibn-Khazem but did not accept his teachings)
- Ibn-Khaldun (1406) (he lived after Ibn-Khazem but did not accept his teachings but rather believed the earlier Islamic teachers.)
- Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, founder of the Aligarh College "In the opinion of us Mohammedans it is not proved that corruption (tahrif-i-lafzi)...was practiced."
- Fakhruddin Razi, on the authority of Ibn Abbas, a nephew of Muhammed, "The Jews and early Christians were suspected of altering the text of the Taurat and Injil; but in the opinion of eminent doctors and theologians it was not practicable thus to corrupt the text, because those Scriptures were generally known and widely circulated, having been handed down from generation to generation."
For more about this subject: The Koran and the earliest Muslims did not believe the Bible was corrupted.
Sources:
Christians Answer Muslims, Gerhard Nehls, 1992 Can We Trust the Bible?
J Wijngaard Quran, A. Yusuf Ali Kitab al-Asnam, Ibn al-Kalbi, 1952 Sahih al Bukhari, 6th ed. 1986 The Islamic Christian Controversy, LCA 1996
8. Christians agree with the Quran that the Bible is reliable.
Christians quite regularly receive certain typical Questions from Muslims about our faith and that is our answers:
Yes, we believe, according to the Bible, that…
šJesus was a human being on earth, but also the Son of God, even self-God (as the Bible reveals it)
šThere is ONLY ONE God but revealed in the Bible as a TRINITY - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
šNo, Muhammad is not found in our Bible; he is also not connected to any Abrahamic tradition; And our Bible says Isaac was the son of the promise.
Friends, it’s more serious than just arguing who are right of wrong about trivial stuff…
Most important… We can only be saved by God’s way.
- Jesus said… “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Joh. 14:6)
- Acts 4:12 spell it out… “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Read the bigger context here… Acts 4:10-11 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’)
9. Christians believe the Bible is God’s Word.
We even believe that it is a sin to reject God’s Word by continue saying that the Bible where He shares His Love to us, is not the truth or is corrupt! One can say it in ignorance, but everybody needs to make sure about what he or she say or believe.
It can even become an unforgiveable sin if one continually rejects the message of the Bible that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is our only Saviour God; if one rejects the Holy Spirit that testify this truth about Jesus and the need to be Born Again in the Spirit – and if one does not repent this sin and ask God’s forgiveness, If one not accept Him by faith as Lord and Saviour. The result is to be condemned by God (John 3:18); will not receiving eternal life and God’s wrath remains on them (John 3:36).
(Welcome if you want to study the Bible to see if this above statement is sound theology… Read the Gospel of John Chapter 1-3; 1:12.18,29; John 3:3-8; 13-21; 36. Also read Matthew 12:31 about the unpardonable sin)
Jesus Himself said in Matthew 12:31, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.”
If a person truly listens to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and asks for pardon and forgiveness that person is not guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
But the second part of the verse says…Yes, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is any sin that a person clings to by continually resisting the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.
Don’t reject the Gospel of Jesus; that which the Holy Spirit bring under your attention today. Pray to God, asking Him to reveal the truth to you today.
10. A invitation to our Muslim friends...
Dear Muslim Friends, why not read the Bible yourself?
The Taurah, the Zabur and the Injil. The whole Bible, not only the few verses that you use to debate with Christians.
A few Notes:
1) You will find the Bible version of the Taurah, the Zabur and the Injil is much different than how your Quran present it to you; Question is why there are so many differences; why are so many messages of prophets left out, or presented differently. Just compare the stories of Abraham, Enoch, Joseph, Moses, David and Gabriel... Jesus (Yeshua in original Hebrew)
Why am I not using the Quranic ways of printing those names? IbrÄhÄ«m, IdrÄ«s, YÅ«sif and JibrÄ«l... Isa (Is Isa the same as Jesus from the Bible?) ... Just think and decide for yourself: Which book is the oldest; which names were the original?
The Question is not which version is correct, but... if both originated from the same God (or Allah), why so many differences in some of the stories; Is the origin of the stories (God!) not the same? Did He change the content of the stories through time, or why is it different?
2) You can find the many differences mentioned in this Book in Chapter 4.Bible-Quran...
The Quran contains references to more than fifty people and events also found in the Bible. While the stories told in each book are sometimes comparable, there are mostly notable differences. Knowing that versions written in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament predate the Qur'Än's versions, Christians reason the QurÄn's versions as being derived directly or indirectly from the earlier materials. (Where else? Even the tradition that the Angel gave it to Muhammad should at least gives a record that is more similar...or am I wrong?
Muslims believe the Qur'Än's versions to be knowledge from an omnipotent God. As such, Muslims believe -according to their Standard Islamic Narrative (SIN) that the earlier versions are distorted through flawed processes of transmission and interpretation over time (without any reasonable proof of it). Muslims claim that the Qur'Än's version are more accurate (only because their scholars teach them that, but without any research done to compare and decide for themselves).
Dear Muslim friend in search for the truth, at least rethink the valid of your Standard Islamic Narrative (SIN).
Why not read the Bible?
OR... ARE MUSLIMS AFRAID OF THE BIBLE? WONDER WHY? AFRAID FOR THE TRUTH?
Is it because you are afraid for the truth of what you can find? (Many ex-Muslims told me this was what happened with them)
Or are you afraid to differ with what your scholars taught you?
If you really believe that the Bible is not the Word of God anymore today, how will you know without reading (studying) it and see for yourself?
3) To use for your study, May I introduce a few remarkably interesting websites here...
o Webkitab Website: Welcome to visit this Website, “an Online Course about the Holy Scriptures” There you can... Study all the Holy Books, the Quran together with the Taurat, Zabur and Injil, all in one place!
o Knowing God: This website is really an inspiring place to experience personal faith.
o Download your own Bible in your own language:
“And We gave him the Gospel containing guidance and light and confirming what was revealed in the Torah—a guide and a lesson to the God-fearing." (Quran 5.46)
MUSLIMS, WHY ARE YOU NOT READING THE GOSPEL?
11. Do the Muslim's claim that only the Bible was corrupted? What about the Quranic text?
Let us look to the Standard Islamic Narrative (SIN) about the compilation of the Quran.
According to Islam’s tradition the followers of the Prophet Muhammad (ad 570-632) recorded his words on a variety of materials or otherwise faithfully memorized them. Twenty years later, Caliph Uthman ordered the formation of a final, authorised text which was then successfully distributed, and all erroneous copies destroyed (burned!)
Since then, there has been complete uniformity of the Quranic text. Or so claim Muslim theologians.
Historical and archaeological evidence about the Quranic manuscripts:
Stephen J. Shoemaker argues in The Death of a Prophet - The End of Muhammad's Life and the Beginnings of Islam (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion), that the problem with above’s narrative is that the historical evidence suggests otherwise. What is written on the Dome of the Rock—built in Jerusalem in ad 691, 40 years after the uniform text was created— is different from a Quranic inscription with a corresponding verse in the Quran. Moreover, there are thousands of variant readings of Quranic verses preserved in the writings of early Islamic authors and recorded on coinage.
Shoemaker also points out that there is archaeological evidence that points to Caliph Abd al-Malik (ad 646-705) working to codify the Quran seventy-five years after the death of Muhammad.
Confusion that leads to the Hafs Quranic version:
The edition codified by Uthman (or Abd al-Malik?) was written with only the skeletal form of consonants and long vowels, something known by specialists as a “defective script” that allows for many ways of reading the text, and in fact, later manuscripts and Islamic literature show great disagreement about how to do so.
The result of this confusion has turned into several different “readings” of the text, of which as little as seven and as many as fourteen have been accepted as authorised variant readings of the Quranic text.
According to Notre Dame professor Gabriel Reynolds, the variety of readings provided enough chaos for the Egyptian government to attempt to clear out all but one version. In 1924, the government-appointed committee in Cairo selected one of these accepted readings—the Hafs ‘an ‘Asim version (which was claimed to date back to ad 745) —to use across the Egyptian religious educational system. This translation was soon adopted throughout the rest of the world. Many the competing readings were then destroyed by sinking them in the Nile River (The Qur'an and its Biblical Subtext - Routledge Studies in the Qur'an, 1st Edition by Gabriel Said Reynolds).
The question was... Is the Quran superior to the Bible because it is corruption and error free?
Unfortunately, not proven. This action explained above did not eliminate the problems with the Quranic variants as the Hafs ‘an ‘Asim reading has four different lines of transmission and there are many discrepancies within various texts. Moreover, the text itself is not a critical edition, meaning that it does not rely on the evidence of early Quran manuscripts, but only on traditional ideas about the text. In other words, the Egyptians essentially canonized one text among many, and not identify or recreate the original and most accurate text.
Thus, such claims to uniformity were forced on the Quran externally by the destruction of large numbers of competing texts, not by a single text emerging from the beginning, which Reynolds points out.
In conclusion, no text can be traced back to Muhammed.
The claim that the Quranic text as we have it today can be traced back directly to Muhammad’s own day without corruption does not reflect the historical evidence for the transmission of the text. While the evidence shows that the consonantal structure of the modern Quran has remained mostly consistent with ancient versions, it was still created and selected by human beings among disagreeing versions.
Comparison with historical and archaeological evidence about the Bible Text:
Contemporary Bibles are based upon the best manuscript evidence available — which has been the result of textual criticism and the production of a critical edition—
Quranic manuscripts are not anywhere near the same level of scrutiny, and as a result, any attempts at fair comparison between the two are not possible.
Therefore, the Quran is not superior to the Bible because it is supposed to be corruption and error free.
The Original Question was: Is the Bible Corrupted?
Also: Is the Quran without any errors or contradictions; never changed?
š The answer for both questions is No!
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