Transcript The Qur’an & the Bible in light of modern research By

The Qur’an & the Bible
in light of modern research
By Hamza Andreas Tzortzis
Presentation for the “Proof of the truth: The
Qur’an or the Bible” discussion
10th September 2007
Introduction
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My background
www.theinimitablequran.com
hamzatzortzis.blogspot.com
Today’s discussion
– Frank, honest and open dialogue
– Friendly, sensitive and sincere
A Very Important Discussion
• Severe implications
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Way of life
Behaviour
Society
Spiritual consequences
Progress
Setting the Scene
• The Islamic perspective
– Searching for truth is based upon evidence
– There is no blind thinking or blind adoption
of the Islamic creed
– This search is done within the context of a
sincere, honest and compassionate approach
The Bible:
Its History &
Alteration
We Do Not Have a Reliable Source
• Martin Kahler notes “We do not possess any
sources for a ‘life of Jesus’ which a
historian can accept as reliable and
adequate…we have no sources for a
biography of Jesus of Nazareth which
measures up to the contemporary
standards of contemporary historical
science.”
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Ref: Martin Kahler, The So-called Historical Jesus and the Historical Biblical Christ
Uncertainty & Modification
• Similarly, Dr Von Tishendorf, one of the most
resolute conservative defenders of the trinity,
admitted that the New Testament had “…in
many passages undergone such serious
modification of meaning as to leave us in
painful uncertainty as to what the
Apostles had actually written.”
Ref: Kenneth Cragg, The Call of the Minaret, p. 277
Grave Defects & 50,000 Errors
• In the preface of the Revised Standard Version of the
bible, 1978, thirty-two Christian scholars “of the
highest eminence,” backed by fifty Christian
denominations, wrote of the authorized version, also
known as the King James Version, that : “The King
James Version has grave defects, so many and so
serious as to call for revision.”
• In 1957, the Jehovah’s Witnesses published the
headline “50,000 errors in the Bible” in their AWAKE
magazine writing: “There are probably 50,000 errors in
the bible, errors which have crept in the bible text.”
Nevertheless, they go on to say, “As a whole the bible
is still accurate.”?!
5366 Different Manuscripts
• Ehrman mentions: “In any event, none of the original
manuscripts of the books of the bible now survive.
What do survive, are copies made over the course of
the centuries, or more accurately, copies of the copies
of the copies, some 5366 of them in the Greek language
alone, that date from the second century down to the
sixteenth. Strikingly with the exception of the smallest
fragments, no two of these copies are exact. No one
knows how many different, or variant readings, occur
among the surviving witnesses, but they must number
in the hundreds of thousands.”
Ref: Bart Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, p 27
Biblical Changes & 82% False
• Peake’s Commentary on the Bible: “It is now generally
agreed that 9-20 are not an original part of Mark. They
are not found in the oldest manuscript, and indeed
were apparently not in the copies used by Matthew and
Luke. A 10th century Armenian Manuscript ascribes the
passage to Ariston...”
• The Jesus Seminar’s conclusion was: “82% of the words
ascribed to Jesus in the gospels were not actually
spoken by him.”
• “Biblical scholars and theologians alike have learned to
distinguish the Jesus of history from the Christ of faith.
It has been a painful lesson for both the church and
scholarship...”
Ref: Peake’s commentary on the Bible, p 633
Jesus Seminar, Robert W Funk and Roy W Hoover, The Five gospels (1993)
The Bible:
Irreconcilable
Contradictions
How Many Years of Famine?
• Contradictions can be explained with an in-depth
knowledge of the language, exegesis and context of the
text. However the bible suffers from irreconcilable
contradictions
• Examples include:
Years of famine
II SAMUEL 24:13: So God came to David, and told him, and said
unto him, shall SEVEN YEARS OF FAMINE come unto thee in thy
land? or will thou flee three months before thine enemies, while
they pursue. thee?
I CHRONICLES 21:11: SO God came to David, and said unto him,
Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee. Either THREE YEARS OF FAMINE
or three months to be destryed before thy foes, while that the
sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee;
What Really was Jesus' Lineage?
The GENEALOGY OF JESUS?
In two places in the New Testament the genealogy of
Jesus son of Mary is mentioned. Matthew 1:6-16 and
Luke 3:23-31. Each gives the ancestors of Joseph the
CLAIMED husband of Mary and Step father of Jesus. The
first one starts from Abraham (verse 2) all the way
down to Jesus. The second one from Jesus all the way
back to Adam. The only common name to these two
lists between David and Jesus is JOSEPH, How can this
be true? and also How can Jesus have a genealogy when
all Muslims and most Christians believe that Jesus
had/has no father.
The Qur’an:
Its History &
Preservation
Recurrent Reporting & Verification
• Recurrent reporting oral tradition
(mutawatir)
• The huffadh were dying, as a
result Zayd Ibn Thaabit was the
main scribe instructed to write
down the whole Qur’an
• Zayd referred to all those who had
memorised the Qur’an and to all
the written copies, verifying them
with other witnesses
• Others that were included in the
recurrent reporting were:
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Umar Ibn al- Khattab
Ali
Uthman
Abu Bakr
Ubay Ibn Kab
Abdullah Ibn Masood
Muadh ibn Jabal
Abu Musa al-Ashari
Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan
Uqba ibn Amir
Abdullah ibn Aqram
Khaleed ibn Saeed
And others
Refs: The history of the Qur’anic text from revelation to compilation – A comparative study with old
and new testaments, Dr M. M. al-Azami
Manuscript Evidence & No Variants
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Tashkent Manuscript (2nd Century after hijra)
Topkapi Manuscript (Uthmanic)
Husayn Mosque in Cairo (Ali’s manuscript)
There is no deviation in the manuscripts we
have today
• The Institute fur Koranforschung, University of
Munich, Germany, collected and collated some
42,000 complete or incomplete copies of the
Qur’an gathered from all over the world. After
some fifty years of study they reported that in
terms of differences there was no variants.
Western Scholarship
• Adrian Brockett “The transmission of the Qur’an after
the death of Muhammed was essentially static, rather
than organic. .. The efforts of those scholars who
attempt to reconstruct any other hypothetical original
versions of the (written) text are therefore shown to be
disregarding half the essence of the Muslim scripture.”
• Arthur J. Arberry “… the Qur’an as printed in the
twentieth century is identical with the Qur’an as
authorized by Uthman more than 1300 years ago.”
Ref: Approaches to the History of Interpretation of the Qur’an, p 44
Arberry’s translation of the Qur’an, Introduction
Preservation Confirmed
• John B. Taylor “Thus we feel confident that the
Qur’an which we have today is, as far as is
humanly possible, the text which was
established within a few years of the Prophet’s
death.”
• Laura Veccia Vaglieri “… But there is another
proof of the divinity of the Qur’an; it is the fact
that is has been preserved intact through the
ages since the time of its revelation to the
present ...”
Ref: Thinking about Islam
Apologie de I’Islamisme, p 57-59
The Qur’an:
Linguistic & Literary
Miracle
The Eternal Challenge
• Qur’an Chapter 2 Verse 23
“And if you are in doubt concerning that which
We have sent down to our servant (Muhammed
pbuh) then bring a chapter of the like thereof and
call your witnesses (supporters and helpers)
besides Allah if you are truthful”
• General Meaning
• Historical Scholarly Approach
• Four Main Arguments
Four Main Arguments
Rational Deduction
If the best of Arabic
speakers couldn’t
meet the challenge
then who wrote it?
Unique Literary
Form
It has its own
unique form of
Arabic
Eloquence
Four Main
Arguments
It has the best
choice of words,
word order, choice
of prepositions etc
Unique Genre
It has a unique way
of using various
aspects of language
Rational Deduction
• Historical fact that the Arabs at the time of revelation
were masters in the use of Arabic (Margoliouth, Muir, Zammit
etc)
• They were articulate users of the language but also
held those skilled in the arts of linguistic composition in
high esteem.
Ref: Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, London, 1967, pp. 87 ff.
“It should be known that Arabs thought highly of poetry
as a form of speech. Therefore, they made it the
archives of their history, the evidence for what they
considered right and wrong, and the principal basis of
reference for most of their sciences and wisdom.”
Ref: Ibn Khaldun, Al-Muqaddima, 1406. vol. 3, 375.
If the Best Couldn’t do it, then
who did?
• Some of the challengers:
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Musaylamah
The Quraish
Ibn Al-Mukaffa‘
Abu'l-'Ala Al-Marri
Yahya b. Al-Hakam al-Ghazal
Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad
Ibn al-Rawandi
Bassar bin Burd
Sahib Ibn 'Abbad
Abu'l - 'Atahiya
A Complete Failure
“The elephant. What is the elephant? And who shall tell
you what is the elephant? He has a ropy tail and a long
trunk. this is a [mere] trifle of our Lord's creations.”
(Musaylamah)
Ref: Al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah 6:320 and Al-Isabah 3:225
• Concerning the style of his speech; he followed the
kahin style of rhymed prose, and of the pronouncing of
oaths.
Ref: A F L Beeston, et al (Ed.), Arabic Literature To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, 1983,
CUP, p. 212
• If the Arabs at that time failed, who is the author?
Using Rational Deduction, it can not be a Arab, a nonArab or even the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh).
Unique Literary Form
Arabic
Language
Qur’an
Poetry
Prose
Rhythmical
Patters
Unique
Saj’
Mursal
Why is it Unique?
• The Qur’an can not fit into any of the known forms
(Arberry, Nicholson, Lawrence, Kasis, Gibb, Qutb, Haleem etc)
Ref: Bruce Lawrence. Journal of Qur’anic Studies. Vol VII, Issue I 2005. Approximating Saj’ in
English Renditions of the Qur’an, p. 64
• This is achieved by not adhering to the rules of poetry
and prose, by intermingling metrical and non-metrical
speech and stylistic differences such as semantically
orientated assonance.
Ref: A Literary Approach to the Hymnic Surahs of the Qur'an: Spirit, Gender and Aural
Intertextuality. Curzon Press, p. 3-25; Mitwalli al-Sharawi, The Miracles of the Qur’an. Dar ul
Taqwa. See Qur’an 15:45-52 & 12:31-35 for examples of the unique fusion of metrical and nonmetrical speech.
Eloquence
“Eloquence consists in expressing an appropriate meaning
with a noble, apt and clear phrase, indicating what is
to be without superfluous additions.”
Ref: Guide to Conclusive Proofs for the Principles of Belief, Imam al Haramayn al Juwayni
“…humans cannot imitate the Qur'an because their
knowledge does not encompass all the words of Arabic,
all the ideas in them, and all the varieties of structure.”
Ref: Rhetorical Aspect of the Qur’an, Issa Boulata
Word Order
• Example:
‘You shall not kill your children because you cannot
support them. We provide for you and for them.’
Qur’an 80:151
‘You shall not kill your children for fear of want. We
will provide for them and for you.’
Qur’an 17:31
Meticulous Accuracy
• In the second verse when the killing is from want due
to the poverty of the family, the Qur’an emphasizes
Allah’s provision over the parent thus they are
mentioned first.
• However if the killing of such innocent children is
conceded by the fear of the future possibility of
poverty, Allah assures one not do so by emphasizing the
children before the family and how they will receive
this provision.
• The words are meticulously chosen even the letters are
meaningfully used. No addition, elision, advancing, or
retarding occurs but by careful design. This approach is
unequalled in any human composition. It is only found
in the Qur’an.
A Timeless Miracle
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Linguistic and Literary Miracle is timeless
Based upon finite set of “tools”
Science is evolving and not static
The future may see scientific conclusions change
Natural factual phenomena is different from scientific
investigations
• Classical Arabic: 28 letters, finite grammatical rules
God’s Word, No Other Explanation!
• Rational deduction
• Is it from an Arab, Non-Arab, the Prophet (pbuh) or the
Creator?
• The Prophet and Hadith – Linguistic differences
• The pre-requisite – Creator
• No other rational explanation!
Non-Muslim Scholarship
• Consensus opinion on the superior nature of the
Qur’an’s language.
"The Koran [sic] admittedly occupies an important
position among the great religious books of the world….
it yields to hardly any in the wonderful effect which it
has produced on large masses of men. It has created an
all but new phase of human thought and a fresh type of
character. It first transformed a number of
heterogeneous desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula
into a nation of heroes…."
Ref: G. Margoliouth. 1977. Introduction to J.M.Rodwell’s, The Koran. Everyman’s Library, p. vii
Miracle After Miracle
• My favourite…..
“As tangible signs Qur’anic verses are expressive of an
inexhaustible truth. They signify meaning layered
within meaning, light upon light, miracle after
miracle.”
Ref: Bruce Lawrence, p. 18. The Qur’an: A Biography. 2006.
“…and that though several attempts have been made to
produce a work equal to it as far as elegant writing is
concerned, none has as yet succeeded.”
Ref: F. F. Arbuthnot. 1885. The Construction of the Bible and the Koran. London, p 5
Conclusion: A Miracle Indeed it is!
• Martin Zammit concludes in his book “A comparative Lexical Study
of Qur’anic Arabic”:
“Notwithstanding the literary excellence of some of the long preIslamic poems…the Qur'an is definitely on a level of its own as the
most eminent written manifestation of the Arabic language.”
• Rev. R Bosworth Smith concludes that the Qur'an, in his book
"Muhammad and Muhammadanism", is:
"…It is the one miracle claimed by Muhammad, his standing
miracle, and a miracle indeed it is."
Refs: Martin Zammit. 2002. A comparative Lexical Study of Qur'anic Arabic. Brill Academic
Publishers & R. Bosworth Smith. 2004. Muhammad and Muhammadanism. Kessinger Publishing.
To Conclude…
• There is a corpus of material available concerning
today’s topic
• The Bible in light of modern research affirms the
Qur’anic view that it has been changed and corrupted
• The Qur’an is the final testament that doesn’t claim a
monopoly on the truth, but claims it is divine and has
an unbroken chain
• The Qur’ans claim has been proven and affirmed by
western scholarship
• It shouldn’t stop here the search for truth and the path
of knowledge requires effort
Final Words: The Words of God
When it is said to them: "Come to what God has
revealed; come to the Messenger": They say: "Enough
for us are the ways we found our fathers following."
what! even though their fathers had no knowledge and
guidance?
Qur’an 5:104
Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair
exhortation, and reason with them in the better way.
Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His
way, and He is Best Aware of those who go aright.
Qur’an 16:125
Thank you!
• Email: [email protected]
• Mobile: 07988850946
• www.theinimitablequran.com
• hamzatzortzis.blogspot.com
Alhamdulillahir Rabbil’Alameen
[All Praises & Thanks Due to the Lord of the Worlds]
Further Readings
hamzatzortzis.blogspot.com
www.theinimitablequran.com
www.islamic-awareness.org
B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary On The New Testament: A
Companion Voume To The United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament,
1971, United Bible Societies, London & New York
Before Nicea : The Early Followers of Prophet Jesus (upon him be peace)
(Abdulhaq al-Ashanti, Abdur-Rahmaan Bowes). Jamiah Media (2005)
H. Abdul-Raof. 2003. Exploring the Qur'an. Al-Maktoum Institute Academic
Press.
M. Abdullah Draz. 2001. The Qur'an an Eternal Challenge (al-Naba' al'Azim).The Islamic Foundation.
M. Sells. 2000. A Literary Approach to the Hymnic Surahs of the Qur'an.
Curzon Press.
Muhammed Abdel Haleem. 2004. The Qur'an: A New Translation. Oxford
University Press.
Muhammed Abdel Haleem. 1999. Understanding the Qur’an: Themes &
Styles. I. B.Tauris Publishers
Kurt Aland & Barbara Aland, The Text Of The New Testament: An
Introduction To The Critical Editions & To The Theory & Practice Of
Modern Text Criticism, 1995, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Q & A: The Early Church Fathers
• It is often claimed that the text of the New Testament can be
reconstructed from the citations of the New Testament by the
early Church Fathers.
• Let us look at one example - Matthew 19.17 /Mark 10.18/Luke
18.19
• One very early Church Father is Justin. In his Dialogue 101.2
(probably from the 140s or 150s) , we read "One is good, my Father
in the heavens." This very early quotation is not what we read in
the Bible today.
Perhaps he was just working from memory, or did he have a
manuscript which differed from today's Bibles?
• EPHREM: Commentary on the Diatessaron, XV.9, in both the
original Syriac and the Armenian (2 manuscripts) reads: "One is
good, the/my Father who [is] in the heaven."
manuscripts of this Gospel verse differ from what is read today.
• I wonder why this verse was changed. Bibles of today read that no
one is good except God alone. This is fine for Christians who
believe that Jesus is God. But if the manuscripts read that no one
is good except the Father, then there would be trouble for
Trinitarians, who believe Jesus is God, but not God the Father. So
it was changed.
Q & A: Jesus the Son of God?
• John 1:34
• The NIV says here 'And I have seen and borne witness that this is
the Son of God'. But is 'Son of God' the original reading?
• A new manuscript has recently been found called p106. It is an
early third century manuscript and it says , not Son of God, but the
'Elect of God'. This is also the reading of the very early manuscripts
, p5, and Codex Sinaiticus - the only Greek manuscript before AD
800 which has all 27 New Testament books. The reading of 'Elect' is
also present in Old Syriac and Old Latin manuscripts. This seems to
be a place where later scribes altered the original Gospel to read
that Jesus was the 'Son of God'.
• Mark 1:1
• Mark 1:1 says 'The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of
God'. However, important witnesses, including Origen, and Codex
Sinaiticus, the only Great Codex to contain the entire New
Testament, omit the phrase, Son of God. Did a scribe add this
phrase or did a scribe drop it? In any case, it is clear that the idea
that Jesus was the Son of God is an important point of Christian
doctrine about which manuscripts differ.
Q & A: Scientific Miracles
• THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE
• In the Qur'an, which was revealed fourteen centuries ago at a time when
the science of astronomy was still primitive, the expansion of the universe
was described in the following terms:
• And it is We Who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily,
it is We Who are steadily expanding it. (Qur'an, 51:47)
• THE SUN'S TRAJECTORY
• It is stressed in the Qur'an that the Sun and Moon follow specific
trajectories:
• It is He Who created night and day and the sun and moon, each one
swimming in a sphere. (Qur'an, 21:33)
• The word "swim" in the above verse is expressed in Arabic by the word
"sabaha" and is used to describe the movement of the Sun in space. The
word means that the Sun does not move randomly through space but that
it rotates around its axis and follows a course as it does so. The fact that
the Sun is not fixed in position but rather follows a specific trajectory is
also stated in another verse:
• And the sun runs to its resting place. That is the decree of the
Almighty, the All-Knowing. (Qur'an, 36:38)
• According to astronomers' calculations, the Sun moves along a path known
as the Solar Apex in the path of the star Vega at an incredible speed of
720,000 kmph. In rough terms, this shows that the Sun traverses some
17.28 million km a day.