Introduction:
The Qur’an is believed by Muslims to have been dictated word-by-word in Arabic to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. On the other hand, the Bible was written by men, who were infallibly inspired by God to write, by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:19-21). Yet two books, supposedly written by the same God, are contradictory.
In the Bible, each prophet agreed with the one who came before him, and there are multiple prophesies concerning the Messiah. Muhammad came hundreds of years after Jesus and preached the opposite message. Moreover, Christ spoke by His own authority, while Muhammad spoke by the authority of a supposed angel. If both messages were given by the same God, it is obvious that the messages would not contradict each other. Yet they do.
The very fact that the supposedly ‘authentic’ Qur’an can only be in Arabic and cannot be translated, only interpreted, means that it is not a revelation to all mankind. This includes Muslims since most of them cannot read Arabic. Even among Arabs the illiteracy rate is high. Indeed, the Qur’an commands Muslims to ask the Christians about things they do not understand in their own Qur’an (S.21:7). If you would like to claim that the Bible has been corrupted, we invite you to provide evidence demonstrating when this occurred, why, and by whom. You will need to provide references.
Facts about the Qur’an:
How We Can Be Sure That The Bible Has Not Been Changed:
What is the Bible?
The Bible is of Greek origin. It was written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic between 1,500 B.C and A.D. 100 by about forty authors. It is the most widely circulated book of all time and it has now been translated into more than 2,000 languages, in whole or in part. The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books, divided into two major parts: the first part is referred to as the Old Testament (Tawrat, Zabur and the writings of other prophets) and the second part is referred to as the New Testament (Injil). Thirty-nine of the books are in the Old Testament and record God speaking in history, from when He created the universe up to about 450 B.C. The remaining twenty-seven books comprise the new Testament and record the life, death, burial, resurrection, and return to heaven of Jesus, and then proceed to instruct various churches about how to think and live in the light of Jesus and His work.
How did Jesus view the Old Testament?
Jesus had great respect for the extant Old Testament manuscripts as authoritative, and He appealed to them. He raised no doubts about the Scriptures, so in the first century we can be confident that the text was a faithful representation of the divine word originally given by God.
Who Wrote the Bible?
God spoke through His Holy Spirit to men, and they wrote as the Spirit breathed upon them (2 Tim. 3:16). So, “All Scripture is God-breathed”. When we speak, our breath is the words which enables us to give expression to our thoughts. In a similar way, the breath of God is in every word of the Bible (2 Pet. 1:19-21). When Christians say “the Bible is inspired”, we mean that the human writers of the Bible were guided and directed by God. This inspiration was not mechanical. God did not dictate word-for-word. Rather, God by His Holy Spirit moved men and so directed their thinking and understanding, so that what they wrote was a faithful expression of the mind of God (Jer. 1:9). We see this in how Jesus instructed His disciples before He returned to heaven (John 16:12-14). Every word of the Bible is God-breathed, expressed through different men with different styles and thought-forms. God used the personality of the writers rather than supressing it.
What is the Overall Message of the Bible?
The Bible begins by answering the question of where we come from and ends with where we are going, heaven or hell. Man was created perfect, but then sinned, bringing all of humanity under God’s judgement and out of fellowship with Him. However, God promised to send a Saviour to restore this broken relationship, and He called a special people through Abraham - the Israelites, from whom the Messiah would come. The Bible records God’s work in history, to bring about His prophetic declarations concerning Jesus Christ (Isa. 43; Luke 24:44-47).
God’s Severe Warning:
God warns in His Word that those who try to change His Word will be severely punished (Deut. 4:2; Prov. 30:5-6), even eternally (Rev. 22:18-19). Christians would never let anyone change Holy Scripture, and God would not permit it without intervening.
An Impossible Conspiracy:
Jews and Christians have major doctrinal differences. It is not rational to suppose that they could have collaborated and agreed on changes to the Scriptures. Indeed, if the Jews had corrupted their scriptures, wouldn’t they have edited out the disgraceful and embarrassing things we read about them in the Torah?
Most of the Jews hated Jesus; they were waiting for a political leader, forgetting that their own Scriptures promised a Messiah who would save them from the power of sin. Why would they allow anyone to add prophecies about a coming Saviour who would do the very things that they did not want?
The Number of Ancient Manuscripts:
Manuscripts of the Tawrat, Zabur and Injil (the Old and New Testaments) dating to several hundred years before the rise of Islam are displayed in well-known museums across the world. Early scribes took great care to ensure that their copying was accurate. They even counted every letter of each book. Indeed, the Hebrew word for ‘scribe’ originally meant ‘to count’! Can the same be said of the Qur’an, which came much later and should be easier to prove? Muslims claim that the original Qur’an is completely unchanged. In that case, we would gently challenge you to please signpost us to anywhere in the world where we can find a single unchanged, complete Qur’anic manuscript from as recent as the Uthmanic recension. This should be easy, you would think. However, the result will surprise you.
The Dead Sea Scrolls:
In 1947, scrolls were discovered in a series of caves in Qumran, on the northwest corner of the Dead Sea. These had been placed in clay jars and hidden in the caves in about 70 A.D. by a Jewish group, the Essenes. Scientific scrutiny (and not all the experts were Christian) determined that the scrolls had been written at least 220 years before being placed in the caves, dating the documents to about 150 B.C. The parchments contain almost every book of the Old Testament. Significantly, their judgement was that the copying was done with remarkable accuracy.
The New Testament (Injil):
Three types of evidence are used to evaluate the text: the Greek manuscripts, the versions in which the New Testament is translated, and the Early Church Fathers’ writings. For the sake of brevity, we will examine two of them:
The Greek Manuscripts:
The New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek. And before the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century, the manuscripts were copied by hand. Today there are about 5,500 copies in existence from an early date, containing all or part of the Greek New Testament. The New Testament was written from about A.D. 50 to A.D. 90. The earliest fragments date to about A.D. 120, with about fifty other fragments dating within 150-200 years from the time of composition. Two major manuscripts, the Vaticanus (A.D. 325) and the Sinaiticus (A.D. 350) are complete copies. This time frame is very minimal compared to most ancient works.
The Writings of the Early Church Fathers:
Even if we did not possess the 5,500 Greek manuscripts, all but eleven verses of the entire text of the New Testament could be reproduced within 250 years from its composition by the writings of these early Christians. The Romans burned both Christians and their manuscripts. However, the manuscripts were faithfully copied and translated, and they were widely distributed throughout the empire. Historians have recovered about 86,000 quotations of the New Testament from the writings of the Early Church Fathers, all written 150-200 years from the time of Christ.
Archaeology:
Many discoveries in the Middle East have confirmed the historical details in the Bible. For example, figures such as King Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor and Caiaphas, the high priest, have all been found to be real people alive and in office at the time recorded in the Bible. There is also evidence concerning the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings in the diggings in eighth century B.C. Nineveh. This confirms, in astonishing detail, attacks on various Israelite kings, including naming the kings and the amounts of gold and silver exacted from the Israelites, as recorded in the Old Testament.
The Unity of the Message:
The Bible was written over a period of about 1,600 years by forty authors. They came from a variety of educational and cultural backgrounds, lived on three different continents, and wrote in three different languages. Yet the Bible is harmonious throughout. It is completely without contradictions and inconsistencies, having one central plan of salvation. Every prophet talked about the Messiah – the Saviour who would come to earth and offer Himself to save sinners. And the New Testament reveals that Jesus the promised Saviour has come. We can be sure that the Bible has not been changed because there is unity of thought and purpose between all sections of the Bible. With sincere study you too can be sure that any claims to contradictions are false.
Conclusion:
We can trust the Bible to be what it says it is, the Word of God, because we can trust God to guard His Word. Indeed, there are questions we can ask of any accuser to the contrary:
God who created all things created the Bible. He will always protect His Word from corruption and alteration (Psalm 119:89; Isa. 40:8; cf. Matt. 24:35).
Further reading on the gospel and how to have assurance of salvation.
Has the Bible Been Changed? | Part 1
Has the Bible Been Changed? | Part 2