The Bible and the Quran are without doubt among the most widely read and studied texts in human history. Their influence on human civilization is immense and far-reaching. Both texts are regarded by their ardent followers as divine revelation, free of error and preserved for all time.
However, just because something may be widely believed by a large number of people does not mean it is necessarily true.
Hence, in order to arrive at the truth behind the Bible and the Quran, we must delve into the respective histories of these texts.
In doing so, we can attempt to determine whether these two books (which combined are followed by almost one-half of mankind) can really be described as divine revelation which have been protected from human corruption.
In this article, we will discuss the respective histories, using historical and academic sources, and determine whether Jews, Christians and Muslims are right to claim that their respective texts are truly the word of God and not the word of man.
History of the Bible and the Quran
The History of the Bible
The history of the Bible is long and complicated. Whether we are talking about the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) or the New Testament, delving into the history requires an intensive study which is outside the scope of this article.
The subject is so vast that entire volumes have been written on it. For the purposes of this article, we will briefly discuss several facets of the Biblical text which best illustrate the true history of the Bible, and which demonstrate the proof of its evolution through multiple authors.
Given that the Tanakh is separate from and older than the New Testament, it behooves us to study them separately as well.
The Holy Quran, Surah Al-Hijr, 15:9
The Bible (the Tanakh and the New Testament) and the Quran are without doubt among the most widely read and studied texts in human history. Their influence on human civilization is immense and far-reaching.
Both texts are regarded by their ardent followers as divine revelation, free of error and preserved for all time. However, just because something may be widely believed by a large number of people does not mean it is necessarily true.
Hence, in order to arrive at the truth behind the Bible and the Quran, we must delve into the respective histories of these texts.
In doing so, we can attempt to determine whether these two books (which combined are followed by almost one-half of mankind) can really be described as divine revelation which have been protected from human corruption.
In this article, we will discuss the respective histories, using historical and academic sources, and determine whether Jews, Christians and Muslims are right to claim that their respective texts are truly the word of God and not the word of man.
The Tanakh has traditionally been divided into three sections: the Torah (also known as the “Pentateuch” or the “Five Books of Moses”), the Nevi’im (books of the Prophets) and the K’tuvim (Scriptures or “Writings”).
The total of number of books in the Jewish canon is thirty-nine.
However, in the Catholic canon, the “Old Testament” consists of 46 books, due to the Catholic view that such “apocryphal” works as Tobit and 1 & 2 Maccabees are divinely inspired.
Meanwhile, the Syriac Orthodox Church considers the Apocalypse of Ezra as canonical and the Ethiopian Church includes the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees in its canon.
Moreover, the Bible itself mentions some books which do not exist any longer and which were certainly not included in the official canons of each church.[6] For example, Numbers 21:14 mentions a book known as the “Book of the Wars of the Lord”:
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“The Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. That is why the Book of the Wars of the Lord says…”
The exact nature of this book is not known, as even believers in the Bible will admit. In the well-known Christian commentary “Barnes’ Notes on the Bible”, it is stated:
“Of “the book of the wars of the Lord” nothing is known except what may be gathered from the passage before us. It was apparently a collection of sacred odes commemorative of that triumphant progress of God’s people which this chapter records.”
This difference in the composition of the canon of the Tanakh naturally raises some questions, but when we study the history of the development of the canon, it actually becomes understandable as to why these differences exist. For example, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has revealed evidence of a canon that was in flux even 2,000 years ago. As the late Biblical scholar Geza Vermes observed:
“…at Qumran the concept ‘Bible’ was still hazy, and the ‘canon’ open-ended, which would account for the remarkable freedom in the treatment of the text of Scripture by a community whose life was nevertheless wholly centered on the Bible.”
