Bible - Revision history

TheIslampill at 02:30, 30 May 2026

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@@ Line 178: / Line 178: @@
 <blockquote>
-individual sayings about Jesus and from Jesus →
+individual sayings about Jesus and from Jesus → sayings collections and sayings Gospels → narrative miracle literature → canonical and non-canonical Gospels.<ref>Ijaz Ahmad, “How Did We Get the Four Gospels?”, notes dated 25 November 2025, “Summary Roadmap of Gospel Development.”</ref>
 </blockquote>
-This means that Gospel literature developed through sayings, memories, traditions, narrative shaping, miracle stories, theological interpretation, and manuscript transmission before arriving in the later forms known today.
+This summary is not meant to claim that every stage can be reconstructed with certainty. Rather, it highlights that the canonical Gospels are not the starting point of the Jesus tradition. They are later literary compositions built from earlier sayings, oral reports, community memory, source materials, and theological interpretation.
 The earliest layers of Jesus tradition are often identified with sayings material. Sources such as the Gospel of Thomas and the hypothetical Q source do not center the crucifixion and resurrection in the way the later canonical Gospels do.<ref>Ijaz Ahmad, “How Did We Get the Four Gospels?”, FAQ section.</ref>
-The first canonical Gospel is usually identified as Mark. Later Gospels such as Matthew and Luke are commonly understood to have used Mark as one of their sources.<ref>Wilson, ''Searching for the Messiah''; Ehrman, ''How Jesus Became God'', section “Problems with the Gospels.”</ref>
+'''Mark → Matthew and Luke → John'''
 The Gospel of Mark is not a strict biography in the modern sense. It is closer to a structured theological narrative built around miracle material, conflict material, and proclamation. Some summaries of Gospel development compare Mark’s miracle-oriented narrative to ancient miracle-story literature or aretalogy rather than to modern biography.<ref>Ijaz Ahmad, “How Did We Get the Four Gospels?”, FAQ section.</ref>
-According to the same summary, Mark includes three miracle sets: water miracles, healing miracles, and feeding miracles. The other canonical Gospels build upon, reorder, expand, and theologically shape earlier material.<ref>Ijaz Ahmad, “How Did We Get the Four Gospels?”, FAQ section.</ref>
+According to the same summary, Mark includes three miracle sets: water miracles, healing miracles, and feeding miracles. The later canonical Gospels build upon, reorder, expand, and theologically shape earlier material.<ref>Ijaz Ahmad, “How Did We Get the Four Gospels?”, FAQ section.</ref>
-The New Testament Gospel narratives are therefore not raw transcripts of Jesus’ speech. They are literary works built out of inherited material, community memory, theological concerns, and earlier sources.
+The New Testament Gospel narratives are therefore not raw transcripts of Jesus’ speech. They are literary works built out of inherited material, community memory, theological concerns, and earlier sources. From an Islamic perspective, this supports the distinction between the Injīl revealed to Jesus and later Gospel literature written about Jesus.
 == Unknown sources and oral transmission ==

TheIslampill at 02:25, 30 May 2026

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 As Muslims, we believe that Christians and Jews today do not possess the original Torah or the original Gospel in their pure revealed form.
 == Qur'anic criticism of textual corruption ==
@@ Line 26: / Line 50: @@
 “So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands, then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ in order to exchange it for a small price…” <ref>Qur’an 2:79.</ref>
 </blockquote>
 The Qur’an also states that some from the People of the Book altered words from their proper places:
@@ Line 51: / Line 74: @@
 This matters because the question of the Bible is not only academic. The Muslim evaluates the Bible under the higher issue of revelation, worship, and the right of Allah over His servants. The purpose is not merely to show that manuscripts differ, but to call people back to the worship of Allah alone and to the final revelation He sent.
 == Which Bible? ==
@@ Line 239: / Line 246: @@
 Marcion, in the first half of the second century, is identified as the first known Christian leader to produce something close to an authoritative list of accepted Christian writings.<ref>Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'', section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>
-Marcion selected a form of Luke and a collection of Pauline letters. He rejected the Old Testament and believed that other apostles had adulterated the pristine Gospel taught by Jesus by introducing “judaizing” tendencies.<ref>Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'', section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>
+Marcion selected a form of Luke and a collection of Pauline letters. He rejected the Old Testament and believed that other apostles had adulterated the pristine Gospel taught by Jesus by introducing “judaizing” tendencies.<ref>Dale B. Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>
 This is important because the first known attempt to identify a particular set of Christian writings as an authoritative scriptural list came not from Jesus, nor from the disciples, but from Marcion. Later Christians rejected Marcion, yet his project forced the broader question: which writings should count as Christian scripture? <ref>Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'', section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>
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 Other Christians handled Gospel plurality differently. Tatian’s ''Diatessaron'' wove Gospel material into one harmonized narrative instead of preserving four separate Gospel accounts. <ref>Sami Ameri, ''Hunting for the Word of God: The Quest for the Original Text of the New Testament and the Qur’an in Light of Textual and Historical Criticism'' (Minneapolis: Thoughts of Light Publishing, 2013), 53–54.</ref>
 The later 27-book New Testament canon also took time to stabilize. Athanasius’ Festal Letter 39 in 367 CE is commonly identified as the first surviving list matching the later 27-book New Testament canon. The Synod of Hippo in 393 CE is commonly identified as the first council to list the same 27 books.<ref>Athanasius, ''Festal Letter 39''; Synod of Hippo, 393 CE.</ref>
@@ Line 570: / Line 575: @@
 In sum, there is a serious difference between believing that scripture was originally revealed by God and claiming that the present Biblical text is a perfectly preserved copy of that original revelation.
-For this reason, Muslims affirm the original revelations given by Allah while judging the present Bible by the Qur’an, not judging the Qur’an by the present Bible.
+For this reason, Muslims affirm the original revelations given by Allah, while taking the Qur’an as the final preserved criterion over previous scripture. The present Bible is therefore assessed in light of the Qur’an, not the Qur’an in light of the present Bible.
 == References ==

TheIslampill at 02:13, 30 May 2026

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 This is not merely a Muslim claim asserted without evidence. The textual history of the Old and New Testaments shows that “the Bible” is not one simple, unchanged text that all Jews and Christians have always possessed in a single stable form.
 == Which Bible? ==
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 The New Testament canon did not appear all at once.
-Dale B. Martin identifies Marcion, in the first half of the second century, as the first known Christian leader to produce something close to an authoritative list of accepted Christian writings.<ref>Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'', section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>
+Marcion, in the first half of the second century, is identified as the first known Christian leader to produce something close to an authoritative list of accepted Christian writings.<ref>Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'', section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>
 Marcion selected a form of Luke and a collection of Pauline letters. He rejected the Old Testament and believed that other apostles had adulterated the pristine Gospel taught by Jesus by introducing “judaizing” tendencies.<ref>Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'', section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>
@@ Line 218: / Line 250: @@
 The first known canon-like list was not a preserved list from Jesus or the disciples. It appears in the second century with Marcion, whose own canon was later rejected by the same broader Christian tradition that was still debating which writings should count as scripture.<ref>Dale B. Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>
-The four-Gospel canon was therefore not simply handed down in complete form from Jesus. It emerged through later Christian disputes, preferences, exclusions, harmonizations, and attempts to identify which writings should count as Christian scripture.
 == Earliest Gospel manuscripts ==
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 == Muslim evaluation ==
 The Muslim position is not that Allah never revealed scripture to Jews and Christians. Rather, Islam affirms that Allah revealed the Tawrat and the Injīl, while denying that the present Bible is identical to those original revelations.

TheIslampill at 23:01, 29 May 2026

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TheIslampill at 22:53, 29 May 2026

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← Older revision		Revision as of 22:53, 29 May 2026
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	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	individual sayings about Jesus and from Jesus → sayings collections and sayings Gospels → narrative miracle literature → canonical and non-canonical Gospels.		individual sayings about Jesus and from Jesus →
			sayings collections and sayings Gospels →
			narrative miracle literature →
			canonical and non-canonical Gospels. <ref>Ijaz Ahmad, “How Did We Get the Four Gospels?”, notes dated 25 November 2025, “Summary Roadmap of Gospel Development.”</ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

	~~<ref>Ijaz Ahmad, “How Did We Get the Four Gospels?”, notes dated 25 November 2025, “Summary Roadmap of Gospel Development.”</ref>~~

	This means that Gospel literature developed through sayings, memories, traditions, narrative shaping, miracle stories, theological interpretation, and manuscript transmission before arriving in the later forms known today.		This means that Gospel literature developed through sayings, memories, traditions, narrative shaping, miracle stories, theological interpretation, and manuscript transmission before arriving in the later forms known today.

TheIslampill at 22:53, 29 May 2026

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TheIslampill at 22:31, 29 May 2026

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← Older revision		Revision as of 22:31, 29 May 2026
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	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	“Indeed, We revealed the Torah, containing guidance and light…”		“Indeed, We revealed the Torah, containing guidance and light…” <ref>Qur’an 5:44.</ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

	~~<ref>Qur’an 5:44.</ref>~~

	And:		And:

	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	“And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah. And We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light…”		“And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah. And We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light…” <ref>Qur’an 5:46.</ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

	~~<ref>Qur’an 5:46.</ref>~~

	The Qur’an presents the Injīl as a scripture given to the Messiah from God, just as the Tawrat was given to Moses from God. No Christian today believes that the New Testament was given by the Messiah to his disciples. The New Testament is therefore not identical to the Injīl.		The Qur’an presents the Injīl as a scripture given to the Messiah from God, just as the Tawrat was given to Moses from God. No Christian today believes that the New Testament was given by the Messiah to his disciples. The New Testament is therefore not identical to the Injīl.
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	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	“So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands, then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ in order to exchange it for a small price…”		“So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands, then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ in order to exchange it for a small price…” <ref>Qur’an 2:79.</ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

	~~<ref>Qur’an 2:79.</ref>~~

	The Qur’an also states that some from the People of the Book altered words from their proper places:		The Qur’an also states that some from the People of the Book altered words from their proper places:

	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	“So for their breaking of the covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They distort words from their proper usages…”		“So for their breaking of the covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They distort words from their proper usages…” <ref>Qur’an 5:13.</ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

	~~<ref>Qur’an 5:13.</ref>~~

	This is not merely a Muslim claim asserted without evidence. The textual history of the Old and New Testaments shows that “the Bible” is not one simple, unchanged text that all Jews and Christians have always possessed in a single stable form.		This is not merely a Muslim claim asserted without evidence. The textual history of the Old and New Testaments shows that “the Bible” is not one simple, unchanged text that all Jews and Christians have always possessed in a single stable form.

TheIslampill at 22:30, 29 May 2026

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TheIslampill at 22:25, 29 May 2026

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TheIslampill: Created page with "'''The Bible''' is the name commonly given to the collection of scriptures used by Jews and Christians. From an Islamic perspective, the Bible must be distinguished from the original revelation that Allah gave to His prophets. Islam acknowledges that scripture was given to the Christians and Jews; they are called '''Ahl al-Kitāb''' — the People of the Book. However, where Muslims disagree begins with the very understanding of what the Bible is. To the Muslim, the ''..."

2026-05-29T22:19:46Z

Created page with "'''The Bible''' is the name commonly given to the collection of scriptures used by Jews and Christians. From an Islamic perspective, the Bible must be distinguished from the original revelation that Allah gave to His prophets. Islam acknowledges that scripture was given to the Christians and Jews; they are called '''Ahl al-Kitāb''' — the People of the Book. However, where Muslims disagree begins with the very understanding of what the Bible is. To the Muslim, the ''..."

New page

'''The Bible''' is the name commonly given to the collection of scriptures used by Jews and Christians. From an Islamic perspective, the Bible must be distinguished from the original revelation that Allah gave to His prophets.

Islam acknowledges that scripture was given to the Christians and Jews; they are called '''Ahl al-Kitāb''' — the People of the Book. However, where Muslims disagree begins with the very understanding of what the Bible is.

To the Muslim, the '''Tawrat''' was given to Moses and the '''Injīl''' was given to the Messiah. This is as the Qur’an says:

<blockquote>
“Indeed, We revealed the Torah, containing guidance and light…”
</blockquote>

<ref>Qur’an 5:44.</ref>

And:

<blockquote>
“And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah. And We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light…”
</blockquote>

<ref>Qur’an 5:46.</ref>

The Qur’an explicitly states that the Injīl was a scripture given to the Messiah from God, just as the Tawrat was given to Moses from God. No Christian today believes that the New Testament was given by the Messiah to his disciples. These are therefore distinct books. The New Testament is not the Injīl.

As Muslims, we believe that Christians and Jews today do not have in their possession the original Torah or the original Gospel.

== Qur'anic criticism of textual corruption ==

The Qur’an criticizes those who wrote scripture with their own hands and then claimed it was from God:

<blockquote>
“So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands, then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ in order to exchange it for a small price…”
</blockquote>

<ref>Qur’an 2:79.</ref>

The Qur’an also states that some from the People of the Book altered words from their proper places:

<blockquote>
“So for their breaking of the covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They distort words from their proper usages…”
</blockquote>

<ref>Qur’an 5:13.</ref>

This is not merely a Muslim claim asserted without evidence. The textual history of the Old and New Testaments themselves shows that “the Bible” is not a single simple text that all Jews and Christians have always possessed in one stable form.

== Which Bible? ==

One of the first problems is the question: which Old Testament and which New Testament is meant?

Examples of Old Testament textual traditions and sources include:

* the Greek Septuagint;
* the Hebrew Vorlage behind the Septuagint;
* the Masoretic Text;
* the Samaritan Pentateuch;
* the Dead Sea Scrolls / Qumran scrolls;
* the sources behind the Greek Septuagint.

Examples of New Testament canons, manuscripts, or printed critical editions include:

* Marcion’s canon;
* Tatian’s ''Diatessaron'';
* Codex Sinaiticus;
* Codex Vaticanus;
* Codex Alexandrinus;
* Codex Bezae;
* Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus;
* Codex Washingtonianus;
* the Textus Receptus;
* Westcott and Hort’s Greek New Testament;
* Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament editions;
* United Bible Societies Greek New Testament editions.

The problem is that there is no one simple “Biblical text” that all Christians or Jews have agreed upon across history. What is called the Bible today is a collected and translated text based on multiple textual traditions and manuscript witnesses.

== The Old Testament text ==

The Old Testament text is not available today as the original autographs. Ernst Würthwein explains that, with ancient writings including the Old and New Testaments, the original documents have been lost, and the available texts exist only in copies separated from the originals by centuries and by an unknown number of intermediate copies.<ref>Ernst Würthwein, ''The Text of the Old Testament'', trans. Erroll F. Rhodes, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), xiii–xiv.</ref>

Würthwein also notes that the available witnesses to the Old Testament text must first be examined in order to reconstruct a text, and that textual witnesses are not all equally reliable, since each has its own character and history.<ref>Würthwein, ''The Text of the Old Testament'', xiv.</ref>

The Masoretic Text should also not be imagined as one perfect master copy of the original Old Testament. Roy E. Beacham argues that “the Masoretic text” is not one single perfect text, and that no single master copy of the entire Old Testament corpus exists today.<ref>Roy E. Beacham, “The Old Testament Text and the Version Debate,” in ''One Bible Only? Examining Exclusive Claims for the King James Bible'', ed. Roy E. Beacham and Kevin T. Bauder (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2001).</ref>

This means that the Old Testament, as possessed today, is transmitted through later textual families, recensions, manuscript traditions, and scholarly reconstruction.

== The New Testament and the Injīl ==

The New Testament is not the Injīl that Muslims believe was given to Jesus. The Qur’an describes the Injīl as revelation given to the Messiah. The New Testament, by contrast, is a later collection of writings about Jesus, his followers, and early Christian communities.

The New Testament did not exist during the lifetime of Jesus. The writings of Paul began after Jesus, and the canonical Gospels were written later still. Modern scholarship commonly dates the canonical Gospels to the latter part of the first century: Mark around 65–70 CE, Matthew and Luke later, and John around 90–95 CE.<ref>Bart D. Ehrman, ''How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee'' (New York: HarperOne, 2014), section “Problems with the Gospels.”</ref>

The Gospel writings are not transcripts or recordings made at the time of Jesus. Barrie Wilson warns against treating the four Gospel writings as if they were direct transcripts or student notebooks from Jesus’ ministry.<ref>Barrie A. Wilson, ''Searching for the Messiah: Unlocking the Psalms of Solomon and Humanity’s Quest for a Savior''.</ref>

Bart Ehrman similarly notes that the Gospels are not written by eyewitnesses, that the books are anonymous in the sense that their authors do not identify themselves in the texts, and that they circulated before later Christians attached the names Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to them.<ref>Ehrman, ''How Jesus Became God'', section “Problems with the Gospels.”</ref>

== Development of Gospel literature ==

A simplified roadmap of Gospel development can be summarized as follows:

<blockquote>
individual sayings about Jesus and from Jesus → sayings collections and sayings Gospels → narrative miracle literature → canonical and non-canonical Gospels.
</blockquote>

This means that the Gospel literature developed through sayings, traditions, narrative shaping, theological interpretation, and manuscript transmission before arriving in the later forms known today.

The first canonical Gospel to be written, Mark, is often treated by scholars as a foundation used by Matthew and Luke. The Gospel of Mark is not a strict biography in the modern sense, but contains structured miracle material and theological narrative.<ref>See the summary discussion in “How Did We Get the Four Gospels?” notes, citing Gospel development, Markan priority, and narrative miracle material.</ref>

Daniel Wallace distinguishes between the exact words of Jesus and the “voice” of Jesus, stating that only rarely can scholars claim to possess the very words of Jesus, though they may have more confidence in the general voice or message represented in the tradition.<ref>Daniel B. Wallace, “Five More Myths about Bible Translations and the Transmission of the Text,” 28 December 2012.</ref>

== Anonymous publication and later attribution ==

The four Gospels were published anonymously, meaning that the documents themselves do not name their authors. Later Christian tradition attached the names Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to them.

Dale B. Martin notes that the Gospels were written anonymously and that modern scholars doubt many of the later traditions about their authorship.<ref>Dale B. Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>

Ehrman also argues that the later attributions are difficult because the followers of Jesus were lower-class Aramaic-speaking Jews, whereas the Gospel authors were highly educated Greek-speaking Christians of a later generation, writing in a different language, in different places, and at a later time.<ref>Ehrman, ''How Jesus Became God'', section “Problems with the Gospels.”</ref>

== Canon formation ==

The New Testament canon did not appear all at once.

Dale B. Martin identifies Marcion, in the first half of the second century, as the first known Christian leader to come up with something close to an authoritative list of accepted Christian writings. Marcion selected a version of Luke and letters of Paul, while rejecting other texts.<ref>Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'', section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>

Martin also notes that the second century contained many different kinds of Christianity, and that the later boundaries between “orthodoxy” and “heresy” were not yet agreed upon in the way they would be in later centuries.<ref>Martin, ''New Testament History and Literature'', section “The Forming of Canon Lists.”</ref>

The four-Gospel canon was therefore not simply handed down in a complete form from Jesus. It emerged through later Christian disputes, preferences, arguments, and attempts to identify which writings should count as Christian scripture.

== Earliest Gospel manuscripts ==

There are no complete first-century manuscripts of the canonical Gospels. The earliest surviving fragments are small and fragmentary.

{| class="wikitable"
! Gospel
! Early manuscript witness
! Approximate date

| ! Contents |
| --------------------------------------------- |
| Matthew |
| 𝔓77 |
| 2nd–3rd century CE |
| Matthew 13:55–56 and 14:3–5 |
| - |
| Mark |
| 𝔓137 / 𝔓45 |
| 2nd–3rd century CE / 3rd century CE |
| Mark 1:7–9; or fragments from Mark 4:36–12:28 |
| - |
| Luke |
| 𝔓75 |
| 3rd–4th century CE |
| Luke 3:18–15:10 |
| - |
| John |
| 𝔓52 |
| 2nd–3rd century CE |
| John 18:31–33 and 18:37–38 |
| } |

<ref>H. A. G. Houghton, ''A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament'' (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2025), xiii–xiv.</ref>

The names of the Gospel authors were not necessarily circulated with the earliest manuscripts. The earliest Gospel fragment with a title may be associated with Matthew, and authorial names were added to some manuscripts by later correctors.<ref>Houghton, ''A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament'', xiii–xiv.</ref>

== Critical editions and reconstruction ==

The modern printed Greek New Testament is a critical reconstruction. Textual critics compare manuscript variants and choose readings according to scholarly criteria. This means that the printed Greek New Testament is not identical to any one surviving ancient manuscript.

William L. Petersen observed that modern critical editions do not give us the text current in 150, 120, or 100 CE, much less 80 CE.<ref>William Lawrence Petersen and Jan Krans, ''Patristic and Text-Critical Studies: The Collected Essays of William L. Petersen'' (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 410.</ref>

The United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament apparatus also shows the extent of uncertainty in textual decisions. E. J. Edwards noted that, in UBS3 and UBS4, a large percentage of rated variant units were classified as doubtful or extremely doubtful.<ref>E. J. Edwards, “On Using the Textual Apparatus of the UBS Greek New Testament,” ''The Bible Translator'' 28, 122.</ref>

The result is that the New Testament used today is not a simple photocopy of an original apostolic document. It is an edited text reconstructed from variant manuscripts.

== Textual variants and theology ==

Some textual variants affect Christian theology and belief. Examples include:

* John 1:18, where manuscripts differ between readings such as “only Son,” “only God,” and related forms;
* John 1:3b–4a, where punctuation and wording affect whether life is described as coming through what was made;
* the Transfiguration accounts, where the voice from heaven is expressed differently across Matthew, Mark, and Luke;
* Luke 3:22, where some witnesses read, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.”

<ref>See Houghton, ''A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament'', xiii–xiv; Philip W. Comfort, ''New Testament Text and Translation Commentary''.</ref>

These examples show why textual criticism is not a minor issue. Variant readings can affect how passages are understood doctrinally.

== The Gospels as shaped tradition ==

Origen recognized that the Gospel writers sometimes arranged or changed material for theological purposes. In his commentary on John, he says that the writers sometimes dealt freely with things that happened differently, changing place, time, and sequence for spiritual aims.<ref>Origen, ''Commentary on the Gospel of John'', Book X.</ref>

David C. Parker likewise argues that the Gospel tradition should not be imagined as fixed in one final shape from the beginning. He writes that the concept of a Gospel as “fixed in shape, authoritative, and final” has to be abandoned.<ref>David C. Parker, ''The Living Text of the Gospels'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).</ref>

This does not mean the Gospels are useless as historical documents. It means they must be read as transmitted, interpreted, edited, and theologically shaped writings rather than as verbatim transcripts from Jesus.

== Muslim conclusion ==

The Muslim position is not that Allah never revealed scripture to Jews and Christians. Rather, Islam affirms that Allah revealed the Tawrat and the Injīl, while denying that the present Bible is identical to those original revelations.

The Bible today is a collection of later textual traditions, translations, manuscript families, canon decisions, and critical reconstructions. The Old Testament is preserved through later witnesses such as the Masoretic tradition, Septuagint, Samaritan Pentateuch, and Dead Sea Scrolls. The New Testament is preserved through later manuscripts, variants, and critical editions.

Therefore, Muslims do not accept the Bible as a perfectly preserved scripture in the way Muslims accept the Qur’an. The Bible may contain truth, remnants of revelation, historical material, wisdom, and reports about prophets, but it is not the original Tawrat or the original Injīl in pure form.

In sum, there is a serious difference between believing that scripture was originally revealed by God and claiming that the present Biblical text is a perfectly preserved copy of that original revelation.

== References ==

<references />

[[Category:Bible]]
[[Category:Christianity]]
[[Category:Judaism]]
[[Category:Islam and Christianity]]
[[Category:People of the Book]]
[[Category:Scripture]]
[[Category:Textual criticism]]