Islam
Père Zakaria Boutros

Was the Holy Bible falsified ?
 

The author      : Father Zakaria Boutros
The publisher:  www.fatherzakaria.com
 

Defining the Holy Bible

The Holy Bible is the words of God to mankind throughout history

The Holy Bible is divided into:

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

2) New Testament: it includes: The four gospels: the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the act of the apostles, the epistles and the book of revelation

The Jewish believe in the old Testament and also the Christians believe in it, as it paved the way for the coming of the Christ

The Holy Bible is the living words of God, it is a personal message for everyone, as God’s love was declared in it, and it is the God’s salvation for mankind
 
It shows God’s love for mankind from the very beginning, His love in the creation, His love in looking after them, in the redemption, in paving the way for the kingdom of heaven
 

The Holy Bible is the inspired words of God
 

By the testimony of the Holy Bible itself:

1) 2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God”

2) 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 that verse that the psalms of David was God's inspiration uttered by Prophet David

3) 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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The testimony of the quran for the Holy Bible as the inspired words of God:

1) The Taurât:

The quran attested for the Taurât as the inspired words of God

- The Table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 44:" We did send down the Taurât therein was guidance and light, by which the Prophets judged”

-The cow chapter (Surat Al-Baqarah) 87:"We gave Moses the Book and followed him up with a succession of messengers"

{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 quran attested for the psalms (Zabour) as the words of God
- the night journey chapter (Surat Al-Isra') 55:" and to Dawûd we gave Zabour (Psalms)."
{See also the women chapter (Surat An-Nisa') 163, the angels' chapter (Surat Fatir) 25},
3) books of the prophets:
The quran attested for the books of the prophets as the words of God
- the women chapter (Surat An-Nisa') 163:" We have revealed to you as we revealed to Nûh, and the prophets after him, and we revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Ishak and Ya’qûb and the tribes, and Iesa and Ayub and Yunus and Hârûn and Suleiman and to Dawûd we gave Zabour (Psalms)”
 {Also in the bee chapter (Surat An-Nahl) 43, the prophets chapter (Surat Al-Anbiya') 25}
The testimony of the quran for the Bible as God's inspiration
-  The Table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 46:"And in their footsteps, we sent 'Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), confirming the Taurât 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}
 
 

The whole Holy Bible
The quran attested for the whole Holy Bible as God's inspiration
- 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"
- 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 the inspired words of God
{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 quran verses testifying that the whole Holy bible with all its contents is God's inspiration and came from Him
The concept of inspiration in Christianity and Islam
The inspiration in Christianity is different from that in Islam

In Islam, it was said to him, read then he read what was present in the conserved tablet, and for every occasion a special verse came down to him
- 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 revelation in Christianity is though the Holy Spirit who is directing the apostles and prophets to express by their words the meanings that God wanted to convey to people,
- 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."

Is there one bible or four bibles?

We believe in one bible only

1) in Mark 1:14 Jesus said:” The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent, and believe in the gospel"
 
 
 
 

2) In Matthew 4:23:"It was said about the Christ" he went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom"

3) on Romans 1:16:"our teacher Apostle Paul said:" For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto Salvation to every one who believes."

The Bible is one joyful message for all mankind telling that God had loved you and set forth the salvation for you, He opened the door of Heaven for you

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 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 quran

The quran and its seven editions
 

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 be recited 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 a holy converse said by the prophet PUH, narrated by Sheikh Jalal El-Din Al- Syouty 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” (1)

 - 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 in Arabic
 
 
 
 

2) Ibn Abdul-barr said that the different letters in which the quran came are expressions with concordant meanings and different hearings

- Al- Syouty concluded his research saying:” lot of lay people thought that the seven letters were seven recitations of Ottoman's quran, that's an ugly ignorance"

- Sheikh Abu-Gaffer Al-Tabry explained that saying: 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” (2)
 
Al-Tabry continues saying; if someone says: why the other six letters do 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"

Sheikh Al-Tabry is asking: what was the story on that?
He replied saying; the other six other letters or editions were dropped by Othman who banned their recitations (3)

-It was mentioned in the Arabic encyclopedia known as the simplified Arabic encyclopedia, 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” (4)

-Imam Al-Tabry explained 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, so he collected them, and burned them all except one only (3)

Why did he burned them, if they were left they would be as references instead of the exegesis books

So it is obvious that there were seven different qurans, and they are telling us that we have four gospels of our Bible, we didn’t burn them as they did with the qurans , but we are keeping them as they are the inspired words of God in the only Bible
 
 

(1) The perfection in the quran sciences, part 1, and page 46, 51

(2) “Gamee Al-Bayan in quran's Exegesis (Tafsir), part 1, page 48

(3) “Gamee Al-Bayan in quran's Exegesis (Tafsir), part 1, page 66

(4)  The simplified Arabic encyclopedia, page 1187