Bible  

You may wonder, dear reader if you know that the quran was not one but there were seven different qurans , to them the title" the seven letterers" was given, the Caliph Othman Bin Affan had burned six of them , and retained only one quran, that's the one currently used by the Muslims , Othman paid his life for what he had done , he was assassinated and died murdered. By Father Zakria Boutros


In the beginning we want to give the listener a simple idea about the Holy Bible, as it includes:

 First: the Old Testament: it is the inspired holy book for the Jewish; it includes: the Taurât, the psalms (Zabour), and the book of prophets 

Second: the New Testament: (the bible) it includes:

 1) The gospels: they are the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

2) The act of the apostles: it is a documentation of the evangelism of the Christ' disciples (Haoarieen)

3) The epistles: those are the epistles of Apostle Paul and those of Apostle Peter, Apostle James,     Apostle John and Apostle Judas

4) The revelation: it is a prophetical book about the coming events throughout time till the end of the    World  The Holy Book in its two testaments is telling the history of mankind in a wonderful sequence and in an easy diction, discoursing about several subjects concerning the relation of God to man and that of man towards God and the relation of man to his brother in humanity, it includes all the believing doctrines, worshiping canons , and spiritual values , so from its texts we extract our doctrines , canons and values   

Chapter Two The inspiration of the Holy Bible  Christianity believes that the Holy Bible in its two testaments, the old and the new one, is God's inspiration; here are some proofs for that: 

First: the verses of the Holy Bible itself:  1)

2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for     Instruction which is in righteousness"So from that verse, it is obvious that God inspired the whole Holy Bible .

 2 Samuel 23:1:" David the son of Jesse says, The Spirit of the lord spoke by me. His word was on my tongue."  We understand from those verses that the psalms of David was God's inspiration uttered by Prophet David Apostle Peter confirmed that prophets and Apostles utterances are the God's inspiration he said: 

2 Peter 1:21:" For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit."    

Second: the noble quran  

The noble quran attested that the Holy bible {the Taurât, Zabour (psalms) and the Injeel (bible)} is God's inspiration; it mentioned so many quran verses about that, we will mention only some of them  

1)  The Taurât: + The Table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 44:" We did send down the Taurât therein was guidance and light, by which the Prophets" + The cow chapter (Surat Al-Baqarah) 87:"We gave Moses the Book and followed him up with a succession of messengers. And we gave 'Iesa (Jesus), the son of Maryam (Mary), clear signs and supported him with Rûh-ul-Qudus (Holy Spirit)." {See also the cattle chapter (Surat Al-An'am) 92, the night journey chapter (Surat Al-Isra') 2, the believers chapter (Surat Al-Mu'minun) 49, and others, all of them attested that the Taurât of Moses was God's inspiration} 

2)  Zabour (psalms):+ The night journey chapter (Surat Al-Isra') 55:" and to Dawûd (David) We gave the Zabour (Psalms)."{See also the women chapter (Surat An-Nisa') 163, the angels' chapter (Surat Fatir) 25}, they are attesting for the psalms of David as God's inspiration, now we will come to its following testimony:

3)  books of the prophets:+ The women chapter (Surat An-Nisa')163:" We have inspired you as We inspired Nûh (Noah) and the Prophets after him; We inspired Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail (Ishmael), Ishâque (Isaac), Ya'qûb (Jacob), and Al­Asbât [the twelve tribes], 'Iesa (Jesus), Ayub (Job), Yûnus (Jonah), Hârûn (Aaron), and Suleiman (Solomon), and to Dawûd (David) We gave the Zabour (Psalms)." {Also in the bee chapter (Surat An-Nahl) 43, the prophets chapter (Surat Al-Anbiya') 25} We have seen the testimony of the quran for the books of prophets as God's inspiration; we are left with the testimony of the quran for the bible as God's inspiration

4)  the bible:+ The Table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 46:"And in their footsteps, we sent 'Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), confirming the Taurât (Torah) that had come before him, and we gave him the Injeel (bible), in which was guidance and light " {See also The Table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 47, and Iron chapter (Surat Al-Hadid) 27}That's the quran's testimony for the bible as God's inspiration in its saying: we gave him meaning that God inspired the Injeel (bible), Here also the quran's testimony for the whole Holy bible as God's inspiration

5)  The whole Holy bible + The spider chapter (Surat Al-Ankabut) 46:" And argue not with the people of the Scripture (Jewish and Christian), unless in a way that is better in manner  … and we believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you; our Allah (God) and your Allah (God) is One"So the quran advises the Muslims not to argue with the people of the Scripture (Jewish and Christian) unless in a way that is better in manner, and to believe that they believe in the holy bible inspiration, and in God who is one in whom they believe+ The cow chapter (Surat Al-Baqarah) 146:" Those to whom We gave the Scripture (Jews and Christians) recognize it as they recognize their sons"Here he explicate the extreme tenacity of the people of the Scripture (Jewish and Christian) with inspired the holy bible {See also The Table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 68, the cattle chapter (Surat Al-An'am) 156, and Yunus chapter (Surat Yunus) 94}Those are some noble quran verses testifying that the whole holy bible with all its contents is God's inspiration and came from himThe challenges against the holy bible 1) Is there one bible or four bibles?2) Was the bible falsified? 3) Did the quran abrogate the bible?4) What about Barnabas' bible?5) Didn't the bible foretell about Mohammed?  

Chapter one Is there one bible or four bibles?  

Those evoking that challenge are saying that it is supposed that the bible came down on Iesa peace upon him, based on the utterance of the noble quran in: The Table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 46:"And in their footsteps, we sent 'Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), confirming the Taurât (Torah) that had come before him, and we gave him the Injeel (bible), in which was guidance and light "   {See also The Table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 47, and Iron chapter (Surat Al-Hadid) 27} So why do Christians have four bibles they are: the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?To answer this challenge, we have to discuss it from different aspects:+ First aspect: the concept of the revelation in Islam and Christianity + Second aspect: How do they believe in Barnabas' bible, while they believe only in Iesa's bible?+Third aspect: the bible with its four gospels and the quran with its seven editions  

Chapter one The concept of the revelation in Islam and Christianity   The revelation in Islam is the quran written from the infinite time in the conserved tablet, as stated clearly in:+The Big Stars chapter (Surat Al-Burooj) 21, 22:"This is a Glorious Quran, in Al-Lauh Al-Mahfûz (The Preserved Tablet)"+ The Clot chapter (Surat Al-Alaq) 1:" Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created" While the concept of the revelation in the holy bible is different from that of Islam, as the revelation in Christianity is though the holy spirit who is  directing the apostles and prophets to express by their words the meanings God wants to convey to people, as it is mentioned in the holy book in:+2Peter 1:21:"For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit."  That's the first aspect, concerning the second aspect  

Chapter two How do they believe in Barnabas' bible,While they believe only in Iesa' s bible?   Surprisingly, beloved, those who are challenging the presence of four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and saying that there in no bibles in the name of persons except one bible which is the bible of Iesa'( Jesus) peace upon him, they are amazingly believe in a bible named after a person ,calling it Barnabas' bible!!! What a surprise!! how do they believe in Barnabas' bible and deny the four bibles (gospels)? Where is their belief in only one bible which is the bible of Iesa' peace upon him?? I am offering that question to the sane and understanding people to give answer for their simple fellows  {Concerning Barnabas' bible we will discuss in details later} That's another aspect; let us handle the matter from a third aspect  

Chapter three The bible with its four gospels and the quran with its seven versions {Or what is known in the Islamic terminology as the seven letters}   

First: The bible with its four gospels The holy bible is clarifying that there is only one bible in Christianity that's the sole Christian annunciation which is the salvation of the world, that's explained in the following verses: 1) Mark 1:14 Jesus is saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent, and believe in the gospel" 2) Matthew 4:23:"It was said about the Christ" he went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel      Of the kingdom"3) Romans 1:16:"our teacher Apostle Paul is saying:" For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto      Salvation to every one who believes." This only one bible was written by four of the Christ disciples, each one wrote the gospel for a specific category of people, as Matthew wrote the gospel to the Jewish announcing for them the Christ salvation , while Mark wrote to the Romans , Luke wrote the Greek and John wrote to all nations , if we wish to explain this fact in the correct Islamic terminology we can say the only one bible was written in four letters This saying may sound strange for some; they may ask what is meant by: it was written in four letters? Or what is the meaning of the expression letters?To understand that expression, we have to demonstrate first its basic use in the noble quran  

Second The quran and its seven editions  You may wonder, dear reader if you know that the quran was not one but there were seven different qurans , to them the title" the seven letterers" was given, the Caliph Othman Bin Affan had burned six of them , and retained only one quran, that's the one currently used by the Muslims , Othman paid his life for what he had done , he was assassinated and died murdered

 1) The proofs for the existence of the seven qurans: 1) Abu Gaffer Al-Nahass wrote in his book (the abrogator and abrogated)" it is understood from the nation ancestors and the best      Imams the meaning of: "the quran came down on seven letters" as it came on seven accents and it was commanded to recite it    In seven tongues (recitations) with difference in the words and accordance in the meanings,    From the affirmed narrations by Omer Bin Al-Khatab, Abdullah Bin Masoud and Obi Bin Kaeb, they differ with each other in the        recitation of the same suffixes with difference in the meaning, and they adjudged the prophet for that , he approved all of their    Different recitations, they got suspicious for his approval of their different recitation, and then the prophet of God PUH said to    Those who were suspicious for his approval of them all: "God commanded me to read the quran in seven letters"  2) This expression was also mentioned in an honorable holy converse for the prophet PUH, narrated by Sheikh     Galal El-Din Abdul Rahman Al- Syouty in his book (the perfection in the quran sciences, part 1, and page 46, 51) as he said: from    The narration of a group of companions …. Twenty one companions… That Othman said on the platform: the prophet peace      Upon him said: the quran came down on seven letters, all of them are sufficient, so all of them attested on that …." 

2) The meaning of the seven letters:       Al- Syouty commented on that converse saying "there was a disagreement about that converse, there were about forty        Different opinions concerning it, of them:      1) It means seven aspects of similar meanings, expressed in different verbalism (as the Arabic verbalism of: Naho, akbal, Taa'l,       Haloma, aj'el, and Asre': all with the meaning of hurry up)  2) Ibn Abdel-barr said that the different letters in which the quran came are expressions with concordant meanings and different      Hearings  3)  Al- Syouty concluded his research saying: lot of lay people thought that (the seven letters) were the     Seven recitations of Ottoman's quran, that's an ugly ignorance" 4) Sheikh Abu-Gaefar Mohammed Ibn jarir Al-Tabry explained that honorable converse in his book (Gamee Al-Bayan in quran's    Exegesis (tafsir), part 1, page 48) saying:     A- the difference in the seven letters is a difference in verbalism, with accordance in the meaning (from that, it is obvious that          The quran had seven letters, i.e. seven texts or seven different editions)               B- Al-Tabry continues saying; if someone says: why do the other six letters not exist now? Although the prophet approved all          The seven letters, and commanded to conserve them? That's a waste of what they were commanded to do"   

3) Burning of the six qurans: 1) Sheikh Abu-Gaefar Al-Tabry is asking: what was the story on that?He is replied saying; the other six other letters or editions were dropped by Othman who banned their recitations (Gamee Al-Bayan in quran's exegesis (tafsir), part 1, and page 66)   2) It was mentioned in the Arabic encyclopedia known as (the simplified Arabic encyclopedia, page 1187) under the title" Othman     Bin Affan" there was a strong dissent against him ended by a revolution and his assassination, the causes of that revolution     Were many among them, his infringement of the religion by burning all the qurans except the quran that he ordered to     Generalize 3) Imam Al-Tabry explained in his book (Gamee Al-Bayan in quran's exegesis (tafsir), part 1, page 66) the reason for which Othman     Bin Affan burned the six qurans; it was the discordance of Muslims and their fighting for the preference of those different quran     Editions, every party of them was tenacious about the edition he had.   

Recapitulation   From all of these we can see:

 First; concerning the quran: 1) From the time of the prophet till Othman Bin Affan's time, there were seven qurans concordant in meaning but different in    Verbalism 2) Othman Bin Affan had burned six qurans and retained one quran, which is the one existing with people nowadays3) Why were those six quran burned? Their existence now wasn't better than all those exegesis written by the annotators which are contradicting and conflicting with the verbalism of the remaining editions, that was the reason behind which the rebels shed     Othman's blood as he burned the other editions, so we are wondering what were in those editions to push him for burning them?He would rather leave them considering them like different exegesis, or he should burn all quran's exegesis as well  

Second: Concerning the Holy Bible 1) Thanks God, all the four gospels are preserved and handy to anyone to read them, study them, and to find out how they are Concordant and integral with each other, so we consolidate our belief in the oneness of the Holy Bible in spite of different  books in it 2) So the presence of four gospels in not a demerit in Christianity, but on the contrary it is a positivism in the Holy Bible, having it as singularity character   

Chapter two Nihility of Falsification of the Holy Bible    The quran verses that point to falsification Some say that the holy bible available in our hand now is a falsified book, depending on the utterance of the noble quran in:+Cow chapter( Surat Al-Baqarah) 75:" Do you covet that they will believe in you ,while a party of them used to hear the word of Allah , then falsify it after they understood it, and they know that "+ Women chapter (Surat An-Nisa') 46:" Among those who are Jews, there are some who displace words from their right places"+The Table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 13." They change the words from their right places and have abandoned a good part of the Message that was sent to them.+The Table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 41:"And of the Jews are men who listen eagerly to lies…They displace some words from their right places" To rebut that, we will clarify the following:First: what was meant by those noble verses?Second: the testimony of the holy bible itself on it's non- FalsificationThird: the testimony of the quran on Nihility of the Holy Bible FalsificationFourth: the testimony of Logic on Nihility of the Holy Bible FalsificationFifth: the testimony of respectable Islamic scholars on Nihility of the Holy Bible FalsificationSixth: the testimony of archeology and history on Nihility of the Holy Bible Falsification     

Chapter one The concept behind the verses pointing to falsification  The grave question here: the meaning of those verses, is it really falsification of the Holy Bible? Or it has another intention? We can reformat that question as follows:Are those noble quran verses definitely pointing to falsification of the holy bible texts? Or they meant other form of falsification?? So we have to understand the meaning of the words of those noble verses then discuss what was meant by that falsification accusation?   

First: The first verse speaking about the falsification +Cow chapter( Surat Al-Baqarah) 75:" Do you covet that they will believe in you ,while a party of them used to hear the word of Allah , then falsify it after they understood it, and they know that "1) What was meant by that noble verse?

Imam Al-Bidawy said: "Do you covet that they will believe in you (meaning the Jews) as a party of their ancestors used to hear the word of God, i.e. the Taurât then falsify it….meaning to misinterpret it and construe it as they wish …" after they understood it" meaning that they understood it by their mind and clarify each doubt in it"So from the exegesis of Imam Al-Bidawy, it is obvious that the falsification accusation was not in the texts of Holy Bible but in the interpretation and exegesis

2) There is another remark, that's:That verse clarifies that only one party of Jews were performing that falsification of the interpretation, and not all of the Jews that proves that the falsification was not in the text of the verses as in such case all the Jews would commit that misdeed and not group of them  

3) There is a third remark that's:In the utterance of the noble verse:" hear the word of Allah, then falsify it" meaning that the word of God was existing without falsification, and they are still hearing it as evidenced by his saying" to hear the word of Allah , then falsify it" notice here the suffix" then" and all the linguistics know well that " then" means ordering the events in succession , meaning that they hear the word of God then after hearing it they falsify its meaning "

4) A fourth remark:In the utterance of the noble verse" after they understood it" meaning that such party of Jews were understanding and well reasoning the word of God itself then they performed a falsification of its meaning

5) Also a last remark concerning the utterance of the noble verse" and they know that "isn't it understood from those words

that such party of Jews knew the true text of God's word in spite of that they changed its exegesis ?So that noble quran verse doesn't mean falling in falsification of God's words text, but in its interpretation and exegesis, as attested by Imam Al-Bidawy and other respectable annotators

Second:The second verse speaking about the falsification + Women chapter (Surat An-Nisa') 46:" Among those who are Jews, there are some who displace words from their right places and say: "We hear and disobey," and "Hear and let you hear nothing." And Râ'na (listen to us) with a twist of their tongues and as a mockery of the religion and if only they had said: "We hear and obey", and "Do make us understand," it would have been better for them, and more proper, but Allah has cursed them for their disbelief, so they believe not except a few."In that noble verse we have several remarks:

1) in the saying" Among those who are Jews" it is noticed that he didn't say the Christians , on that occasion I am saying that : there is no single verse in the whole noble quran attributes any falsification accusation of the Holy bible to the Christians whether in the text or meanings

2) in that saying he attributes the falsification to only a group of Jews not all of them as he said" Among those who are Jews" so the rest of the Jews are tenacious to the book and never falsified it3) In the saying of that verse" who displace words from their right places" notice its saying from their right places, what does that mean?

1) Imam Al-Bidawy said in the exegesis of that verse: among the Jews, a group of them were displacing it from the right places in which God had put  ….by interpreting it as they wish so displacing its meaning meant by God when he sent it "

2)The noble quran called that" twisting of their tongues" meaning that changing the pronunciation of the verbalisms according to their Hebrew language, and the quran gave an example of that in the same verse as it said: (Râ'na) with a twist of their tongues so changing the pronunciation of (Râ'na) meaning (listen to us) and pronounce it (Râ'nna) meaning "O madcap" which is an insult in Hebrew { the quran exegesis( tafsir) book by Imam Abdullah Yousef Ali , page 200} 

3) So by falsification in that verse, it was not meant falsification in the Taurât text but in Jews talking with the prophet Muhammad as evidenced by the verse saying" as a mockery of the religion"  

4) Imam Al-Razy said: as the book which was conveyed by succession doesn't permit change of verbalisms (the forenoon (Doha) of Islam page 346,358 by Mr. Ahmed Amin) this means that Imam Al-Razy negates the accusation of the Holy Bible text falsification 

    5)Sahih Al-Bokhary said:" displace words from their right places" means remove it and no one could remove any word from the books of Al-mighty God but they misinterpret its meaning"  From that it is obvious that Women chapter (Surat An-Nisa') verse didn't mean a falsification of the Holy Bible text but its interpretation of the meaning by twisting the tongue and pronouncing the inspired words in a different way according to their Hebrew language verbalisms  

Fourth: The fourth verse speaking about the falsification +The Table chapter (Surat Al-M

a'idah') 41:"… And of the Jews are men who listen eagerly to lies, listen to others who have not come to you…They displace some words from their right places, they say, "If you are given this, take it, but if you are not given this, then beware!"

1) Imam Abdullah Yousef Ali said in his exegesis (tafsir), page 260:"lot of Jews were eager to catch the prophet in laying so their ears were widely open for those tales about him even from those people who never came to him"  

2) He construed the phrase" They displace some words from their right places" saying that: the Jews were not honest with their writers as they were falsifying the meanings"  

3) Imam Al-Zamakhshary said:" it was narrated that an honorable man from Khaiber committed adultery with an honorable woman , and both of them were married , and their sentence according to the Taurât was stoning , but they refused to stone them for their honorable position , they sent a delegation of them to ask the prophet of God , peace upon him, about that, they said if Muhammad orders scourging you accept but if he orders stoning don't accept and they sent the two adulterous  with them , then the prophet ordered to stone them ,but they refused to accept his judgment, so he consulted the Jewish Rabi  Ibn Soria to judge between him and them .. He confirmed the stoning sentence, they said at the end of the story that the prophet after the judgment of the Jewish Rabi Ibn Soria, had ordered to stone them , so they stoned them by the mosque door to execute the sentence of the Taurât on them , so the annotators had agreed that the reason for the descend of  that verse in the table chapter  was that story, so the falsification intended was the interpretation of the Taurât sentence for them and not changing of the Holy Bible text   

4) It was mentioned in Al-Galaleen" this verse came as two Jews committed adultery, then adjudged the prophet , so he adjudged to stone them , and they brought the Taurât to him and he found the stoning sentence in it , and they got angry" 5) The prophet Muhammad reference to the adjudgment of the Taurât is a confirming proof for his convincement with nihility of the holy bible falsification So dignified listeners, as we have seen, the word falsification mentioned in the noble quran was intending the attitude of a party of Jews towards two famous incidents, they are; 1) The Jewish misinterpretation of the stoning sentence as being scourging2) Their negation of the prophet's recitation of " the coming prophet (Al-Ati) "as being" the illiterate prophet (Al-Omi)" 

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