Can Muslims Trust the Bible

Dear Muslim Friend,

You have been taught that the Bible is corrupt. Let’s take an honest look at the Bible and determine if this accusation is true. First, the Qur’an says this about the Bible:

O believers, believe in God and His Messenger and the Book He has sent down on His Messenger and the Book which He sent down before. Surah 4:136

And in their footsteps We sent Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him; We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him. Surah 5:46

The Qur’an says you can trust the Bible. Would the Qur’an tell you to believe in the Bible if it was corrupt? Would it call the Bible a guidance and a light if you couldn’t trust it?

MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE SUPPORTING THE BIBLE

The Qur’an confirms the Bible was not corrupted during Muhammad’s life. Three hundred years before the Qur’an was revealed, the oldest full manuscript of the Bible was written. It’s called the codex Sinaiticus and can be viewed at codexsinaiticus.org. This is exactly same Bible we have today.

Furthermore, there are 230 manuscripts of the New Testament that existed before Muhammad’s birth. The New Testament has the most extensive and authoritative manuscript evidence in the world. No other religious or secular manuscript even compares. Scholar Josh McDowell states that the New Testament has “5,838 Greek manuscripts plus 18,524 manuscripts in 11 other languages.” 1 You can view thousands of original manuscripts at The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts at csntm.org.

[Tabular Comparison of ancient texts, when they were written, time span between being written and the earliest copy available, and the total number of ancient copies - Complete comparison: carm.org/manuscript-evidence]

If there was as much doubt and criticism given to other ancient manuscripts compared to the Bible, all of history would have to be rejected because none of them are as numerous or as early as the Bible. McDowell continues, “How high do you think the stack of New Testament manuscripts would be? Think about this – of just the 5,800+ Greek New Testament manuscripts – there are more than 2.6 million pages.”2 The New Testament manuscripts stack to one mile high, and the whole Bible to two and a half miles high. In comparison, writings from a prolific classical writer like those in the previous chart measure 4 feet.

“We have 18,524 translations of the New Testament in 11 different languages to date, with more currently being discovered and validated. 

For a Muslim to truthfully claim that the New Testament is corrupted means Christians would have gone back to all these translations across time and changed them without anyone knowing, but that is impossible. All these translations agree, proving that the Bible has not been corrupted.

Another reliable resource confirming the historical accuracy of the Bible are “lectionaries”. The church used to recite scripture verbatim in services, called the liturgy, and they would write them down. We have 2,135 lectionaries. All of these lectionaries are from before the Qur’an. When you compare the lectionaries and manuscript evidence, they are exactly parallel.

In the early church, leaders defended against false teaching by writing letters to churches reiterating Scripture to confront heresy. Sir David Dalrymple and Dr. Jean Burgon amalgamated all these early church fathers’ quotations and they found 86,000 quotations. 36,289 were before the fourth century, which is 300 years before the Qur’an came into existence.

“If you take these quotations and put them in chronological order you can reproduce all the New Testament except for 11 verses,” says Jay Smith, Christian apologist to Muslims. “If Muslims are to say the Bible is corrupted, they must go to over 24,000 manuscripts in 11 different languages, all 2,135 lectionaries and 36,289 church fathers’ pre-Mohammed quotations to show us where we corrupted it and how we could have corrupted consistently and how no one knows about this.” Because the Qur’an says the Bible is a guidance and light, we can trust the historical reliability of the New Testament. We can look at the Bible before the Qur’an existed and see for ourselves it is exactly the same as it is today.” 3

SUPERIORITY IN NUMEROUS MANUSCRIPTS

From a logical standpoint, you may say that all these manuscripts prove there are differences in the Bible. The Bible has many variants with existing manuscripts but more manuscripts means a better position to recover the wording. We can compare their readings, enabling us to have confidence that we have the original Bible. 99% of the variances in the Bible are trivial having no impact on meaning or doctrine. Please look at an example of what biblical variances could look like:

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, Ps 136:1

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, Ps 136:1

Give thanks the LORD, for He is good, Ps 136:1

By looking at these three variants, we can be absolutely certain we have the original meaning.

In contrast Islam’s most authoritative source, the Qur’an, admits to have burned all Quranic variances:

‘Uthman then ordered Zaid bin Thabit ... to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. ‘Uthman said to the three Quraishi men, “In case you disagree with Zaid bin Thabit on any point in the Qur’an, then write it in the dialect of Quraish, the Qur’an was revealed in their tongue.” They did so, and when they had written many copies, ‘Uthman returned the original manuscripts to Hafsa. ‘Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur’anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol.6, Book 61, Num 510)

Why did they rewrite the Qur’an if it is perfect? And burn manuscripts if all Qur’ans were exactly the same? Now we will never know what the differences were between the manuscripts and never be certain if it is accurate; they are lost forever.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

Hundreds upon hundreds of discoveries have confirmed the veracity of the Bible. One particularly relevant example to this discussion is the Beni Hasan Tomb.4 The tomb depicts a caravan coming from Syro-Palestine where the Bible places Abraham and his descendants. The painting shows the Canaanites journeying to Egypt to escape famine, which corresponds with the Biblical account in Genesis 42. This is how the descendants of Abraham--that is, Jacob and his sons, the tribes of Israel--ended up in slavery in Egypt. Moses then led Israel out through the Red Sea as recorded in the Bible and the Qur’an.

In contrast, no archeological or manuscript evidence outside of the Qur’an confirms Abraham was ever close to Mecca. This is problematic as Islamic history states he was responsible for building the Ka’aba. “In the book of Acts, Luke mentions 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 Mediterranean islands. He also lists 95 people by name, 62 of whom are not named elsewhere in the New Testament (Metzger, 171). In addition, Luke is intimately familiar with the constantly-changing political conditions of the Roman world. References to Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Quirinius, the Herods, Felix, and Festus are recorded. In not one of these citations is there a mistake... Sir William Ramsey, who initially doubted Luke’s reliability, did many years of ‘on site’ study of these matters; he eventually classified ‘the beloved physician’ (Col. 4:14) as one of ‘the very greatest of historians’ who ever lived (222).” 5

MIRACULOUS NATURE

The Bible was written over a 1,600 year span by more than 40 authors. Among these authors were: kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, a herdsman, a general, a cupbearer, a doctor, a tax collector, and a rabbi. It was written in many places including dungeons, wilderness, on a hillside, in a palace, while travelling, on an island, in prison, during wars and peace, over three continents--Asia, Africa, and Europe. It was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The Bible addresses controversial subjects, yet it does not contradict itself and is in complete harmony as it unfolds the story of salvation for humanity.

The Qur’an says it is impossible to corrupt God’s word:

There is no changing the words of God; Surah 10:64

No man can change the words of God; Surah 6:34

Is God lying? Is God not powerful enough to protect the Taurat and the Injil? Why should I believe the Qur’an is perfect if God can’t keep the Bible from corruption? Why does the Qur’an contradict itself and say to trust the Bible and not to trust the Bible which one is it?

F.F. Bruce, former professor of Biblical Criticism at University of Manchester, says “There is no evidence from any period of Christian history that indicates the text of the Bible was any different from what we have today. Many of these pre-Islamic texts of the Bible, in the original language, are on display in various museums around the world.

“If you will persist in your allegations that Christians and Jews have corrupted the text, both the Old and the New Testaments, then the burden of proof is on you:

a) Bring forth an uncorrupted authentic original.

b) Through reputable scholarship, show us who corrupted the original texts.

c) Demonstrate historically when the tampering occurred.

d) Show exactly what the corruptions were as distinguished from the original.

e) Construct a historical perspective of Jesus from the early documents (pre-Muhammad, 570-631 A.D.) consistent with the Muslim view of Jesus.”6 

Muslim friend, we care for your soul; where you place your faith determines your eternity. We pray that you would pick up the Bible and give it a fair opportunity. Search and discover if it is true!

1, 2 McDowell, Josh, and Sean McDowell. “The Bibliographical Test.” Josh McDowell Ministry. https://www.josh.org/wp-content/uploads/Bibliographical-Test-Update-08.13.14.pdf (accessed March 9, 2019).

3 Smith, Jay. The Bible: a Christian Apologetic, MMWU course video. 13:23, https://www.mmwu.org/courses/take/radical-evangelism-to-muslims/lessons/3602127-the-bible-a-christian-apologetic-video

4 Byers, Gary. “The Beni Hasan Asiatics and the Biblical Patriarchs.” Associates for Biblical Research. http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2009/09/09/The-Beni-Hasan-Asiatics-and-the-Biblical-Patriarchs.aspx#Article (accessed March 13, 2019).

5 Jackson, Wayne. “Bible Accuracy.” Christian Courier. https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/575-bible-accuracy (accessed March 13, 2019)

6 Bruce, F.F., Mission Muslim World University, Radical Evangelism to Muslims Course Book, Pg. 289