Muslims often make claims that the Bible is unreliable. They say that men have changed the Bible over the course of time. Of course, they can never give any proof. And do you know why they cannot give any proof? Because there is no proof, that is why. The text of the Bible can be traced back almost two thousand years. If we just look at the New Testament, we can see that it is much more reliable than the writings of Caesar, Plato and Aristotle. How can anyone believe the historical records of Caesar, Plato and Aristotle, but not those of the New Testament (See table below)?
The Bible Is the Unchanging Word of God
Christians believe that the Bible is God’s Word. And since it is the Word of God, very careful attention is given to preserve it. God’s Holy Spirit makes sure His Word remains in the form He wants it in. According to the Quran, the Bible is the Word of God. The Quran says, “…we bestowed on him (Isa) the Gospel wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah” (Qs 5:46). And the Quran says that the Word of God cannot be changed, “Perfected is the Word of thy Lord in truth and justice. There is naught that can change His words” (Qs 6:34). Yet Muslims still say the Word of God cannot be trusted. How can that be?
Testing the Bible
A document test is used to check the quality of ancient texts. The quality of text is determined by several factors. The first factor is the time interval between the original text and the texts that
now exist. The second test is the number of copies of the texts that now exist.
The New Testament is a unique ancient text. The time between the original manuscripts and the earliest fragments available today is very short. Jesus and his disciples lived during the first century. We have portions of their writings from the early second century. This was less than 100 years after they were first written. And we have complete manuscripts from the third and fourth centuries.
Compare the New Testament documents with other ancient documents:
|
Author |
Date written |
Earliest Copy |
Time Span |
Number of Copies |
|
Caesar |
100-44 B.C. |
A.D. 900 |
1,000 years |
10 |
|
Plato |
427-347 B.C. |
A.D. 900 |
1,200 years |
7 |
|
Aristotle |
384-322 B.C. |
A.D. 1100 |
1,400 years |
49 |
|
Pliny the Younger |
A.D. 61-133 |
A.D. 850 |
750 years |
7 |
|
Suetonius |
A.D. 75-160 |
A.D. 950 |
800 years |
8 |
|
New Testament |
A.D. 40-100 |
A.D. 125-130 (full manuscripts A.D. 350) |
25-310 years |
Over 24,000 |
Here are some examples:
100-125 A.D. P52 The earliest portion of the New Testament is from the Gospel of John
150-175 A.D. P4 Very early portions from the Gospel of Luke
150-175 A.D. P64 Very early portion from the Gospel of Matthew
150-173 A.D. P67 very early portion also from the Gospel of Matthew
250 A.D. Chester Beatty Papyri. This is nearly the entire New Testament.
325 A.D. Vaticanus, another nearly complete New Testament manuscript.
(In all of this it is important to note that there are no original manuscripts of the Al-Quran. Yet Muslims do not challenge its authenticity.)
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SOME QUESTIONS FOR THE COMMENT SECTION BELOW
We encourage our readers to comment on the article above. Comments that don’t directly relate to the topic will be removed. Please start a dialogue with us by focusing on one of the following questions:
1.) Why do Christians trust the Bible?
2.) Why should Muslims trust the Bible?
3.) What keeps Muslims from trusting the Bible?
If you have a question regarding this article, please contact us by clicking this link.
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All Muslims know that Bible is a true book, but we don’t accept this Bible because this Bible has some amendments. If you study Islam, you will InshAllah find Islam as the true religion. Because a non-Muslim can never go to Heaven.
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Qasim,
I don’t agree that the Bible was ammended. It has never been changed, before or after Muhammad lived. The Injil was originally written from 50–95 A.D. We still have fragments from within one generation of its original writing and whole books from about 100 years after the original manuscript. Existing copies of the complete Injil are from the year 325 A.D., which predates Muhammad by several hundred years. Examination has been done of the 24,000 ancient manuscripts in existence, and it proves that no changes were made to the Taurat, Zabur, or Injil. It would be impossible for someone to gather the thousands of manuscripts from around the world and make changes to all of them. For further information, please go to: https://www.isaandislam.com/the-bible/is-it-true-that-the-present-day-torah-and-gospel-old-and-new-testaments-are-not-pure.html
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The Bible is nothing but a book of illogical and unscientific errors, Semitic, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman stories. It is full of prostitution & degrades women.
There are many different versions of the Bible. We Muslims believe in the Injil, but not the Bible. There is a very big difference between them.
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Tanveer,
If one was to look at the history, he would see that everything in the Bible lines up with it. The Bible helps prove things in the history books are true, and vice versa.
There are different translations of the Bible, but not versions. Read the article: https://www.isaandislam.com/the-bible/why-are-there-so-many-translations-of-the-bible.html to understand the difference.
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My dear Muslim brother Tanveer,
How can you write this quote in light of the Holy Quran? “The Bible is nothing but a book of illogical & unscientific errors, Semitic, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman stories. It is full of prostitution & degrades women.”
Qs 3:3: [b]”He has revealed to you, Mohammed the Qur’an in truth and in agreement with reality, corroborating and authoratively validating the authentic books previously revealed, the Tawrat, Injil, (the books revealed to Musa (Moses) and Isa (Jesus) respectively)”[/b]
The Holy Quran is very clear in its text and meaning concerning the validity, authenticity of the Holy Injil (all of parts of the Bible).
This is a very dangerous statement, as you are accusing Almighty Allah of not being able to preserve His words.
Of course, your claim is baseless. None of the books have been altered in their original texts throughout history. All are available today in their original forms as displayed in the British Museum in London.
The earliest manuscripts predate the Holy Quran by 250 years (Codex Siniaticus 350AD, en.wikipedia.org/…/… & Codex Vaticanus 300AD, en.wikipedia.org/…/…). These are the oldest two complete Bibles in the original Greek language.
They have been translated carefully in any modern language and are available everywhere today at the time of the internet.
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Stefan,
Thank you for your comment. You are right that the original copies of the manuscripts are still kept. More importantly, they have been tested for originality and quality, therefore Muslims should trust the Bible.
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The reader is encouraged to obtain a copy of the NRSV and to compare it to the KJV. Notice that the following 17 verses have been omitted outright in the newer translations: Matthew 17:21;18:11;23:14; Mark 7:16;9:44;9:46;11:26; 15:28;17:36;23:17; John 5:4; Acts 8:37;15:34;24:7; 28:29; Romans 16:24;and 1 John 5:7.
C.S.C. Williams observed, if this omission were correct, “there is no reference at all to the Ascension in the original text of the Gospel.” Further, in the NRSV Mark 16:9-20 and John 7:53 – 8:11 are also marked as highly questionable since they do not appear in the most ancient copies of the Bible. This Bible also questions four other verses with footnotes– Matthew 12:47; 21:44; Luke 22:43; 22:44. This makes a total of 45 entire verses which are removed entirely or seriously questioned. In addition there are 147 other verses with significant portions missing (eg. Rev 1:11 etc.). Matthew 27:35 according to Rev. Merrill is not found in any manuscript dating before the ninth century. Corruption galore!
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Muhammad didn’t believe that the Bible was corrupted (Surah 10:94). There were also many great Muslim teachers don’t believe the Bible has been corrupted and accepted the authenticity of the Present new Testament texts, such as Ali Al-Tabari, Amr Al-Ghakiz, Bukhari, Al-Ghazalli, etc. Were they wrong?
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Wow, Aila, I’m really disappointed at your response. Since you did not comment on the drastic changes that have been made and is still being made, apparently, to your Bible. I would assume you secretly realize that the bible is in serious trouble.
Muhammad(p) did believe that the previous revelations still contained partial truths in them, however, they had been partially corrupted as well (read Surah 5:13)
Also, where is the proof that these muslim scholars considered your bible to be uncorrupted? Surely, they would have believed there was still much truth in your bible, however; in light of 5:13, obvious contradictions between the Bible and the Quran, and the changes which you failed to comment on, anyone with the least bit of common sense, would realize that your bible has been the subject of foul play.
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Muslims,
What do you mean by specific drastic changes? We know from manuscripts that we had the entire Injil by the time of the Quran. And when we read the Quran, it’s obvious that Muhammad didn’t think that the Injil was corrupted; instead he told his followers to read it.
There have been no changes to the Injil’s manuscripts since the Quran either. We know this because we have so many manuscripts, and if one manuscript had been drastically altered, then it would stand out from the others.
When the Bible is translated, it is translated from a group of manuscripts, not just one, and all of those manuscripts are compared, then the Bible is translated based on what they say collectively. This is how we know the Bible has not been changed.
About Surah 5:13, contextually, it doesn’t say that the Bible had been corrupted. The covenant doesn’t refer to the corrupted Bible. Yet, it refers to their misdeeds in their relationship with God.
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Dear Muslim,
Let’s analyze your claim of Surah 5:13. [b]”So, for their breaking their compact, We cursed them and We made their hearts hard. They pervert the Wordings from their contexts, (i.e. original meanings) and they have forgotten a portion of what they were reminded…”[/b] (Dr. Ghali)
Allah cursed some of the people of the book and hardened their hearts because:
1.They broke their covenant/contract with Allah, agreed in the Tawrat/Injil .
2. They orally pervert/change the words from their original meaning and context (not written text itself)
3, They forgot, neglected what they knew from the books, they were supposed to remember.
Allah did not say in this verse that:
– the text of the Bible had been changed!
– some text had gone lost
– the manuscripts were no longer trustworthy
No where does the Quran speak against the Bible.
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Everyone should trust the Bible. It was written by 40 different men inspired by the Holy Spirit God. They came from different backgrounds in different years. The Bible hasn’t been changed. Yet, it has been translated into different languages. Likewise, if the Quran is translated, does it mean that it’s changed too? For more explanation on why Muslims should trust the Bible, go to this link: https://www.isaandislam.com/The-Bible/should-muslims-trust-the-bible.html.
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I fully agree with what Muslim has quoted. If Aila and Stefan are clued up enough, they won’t have any credible reply to defend the Bible. Unless they are either fanatic or they hate Islam that much or are too blind to see the splendor of the Quran, there shouldn’t be an old and a new testament in the first place. And we can’t disregard the hundreds of contradictions in the Bible. It’s through blind faith and favoritism and prejudice that any educated human being would follow the Bible. If Muslims were to ask you true word of Jesus, you are going to present us with according to Mark, according to Luke etc. And we don’t have much faith in them because when the Jews and the Romans came for Jesus pbuh. They forsook him and fled so we won’t take their words as accurate. The other thing is that, so many of my christian friends rejected the Bible after studying it without favor. You must really be ignorant not to see the truth. Allah speaks about those who have eyes but don’t perceive.
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Dear Mouti,
Thank you for your comment. Your accusation is ignorant and baseless. You should know why there are Old Testament and New Testament. Have you ever learned about these? These testaments contain of God’s revelation progressively through so many years. It started in the first creation until Isa Al-Masih came and fulfilled God’s plan. It was years before Muhamamd claimed that He had an encounter with the angel of Gabriel.
First of all, we all should remember that our faith is based on God, through our relationship with God. The Bible says that Isa Al-Masih (Jesus) is the Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning of all things and will be at close. Isa, as second person of the Trinity, was brought about the creation. [b]“God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him”[/b] (Injil, John 1:3). So we believe that God involves in giving directions to human beings. We shouldn’t doubt it.
Through the Old Testament, if you read the Bible, you would know that men fell into sin. Through this Testament, God shows His anger against sin. Here, we can see that He built His plan over years in order to save us from this sin.
This old testament also contains of prophecies that point to the coming of Isa Al-Masih. Why? It’s because Isa would fulfill God’s plan for sin’s salvation, as revealed in the New Testament. That’s why in the New Testament, you read more about who Isa is, His teaching, and His promises.
Also, we only acknowledge there is one Gospel. Gospel was written by four different witnesses yet they are not contradictory. They supplement one on another. So I don’t agree with your claim that there are four different Gospels.
Also, I believe in the power of prayer. I’d like to pray so that the Holy Spirit may open your heart and lead you and your converted friends to the truth. Amen.
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Dear Friends: We highly value all comments on our website. Yet we do have some guidelines:
1. No one may enter more than one comment at a time. Thus you may not fill multiple comment boxes.
2. Your comment should be directly related to the theme of the lead article.
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We believe in the Injil, not the Bible that Christians have changed. God never changes His words. Human being manipulated His words.
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Shuvo,
We appreciate your comment. Yet, we have proven that the Bible has never been changed. We still keep the original copy of the manuscripts. Read the article above for better explanation.
Blessings.
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My Muslim brothers,
We have so many brands of TV sets in the market yet they are same. I am just emphasizing that the Word of God is the same at any point in time. I can see that you are making references to some verses by taking them from the Bible, yet wrongly interpret them. When you condemn anything before going into it, you will end up satisfying your heart desire and not find the truth. You should stop doing it. Isa loves you and is ready to forgive your sin.
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Dear Paul,
Thanks for your comment. You are right that anyone shouldn’t take out some Bible’s verses without studying the context. Otherwise, he will end up satisfying himself, yet will not find the truth.
Blessings.