Could a Muslim please tell me why it is that Islam believes the bible has been changed?

Question

I have been told by followers of Islam, that they believe the Holy Bible has been changed? I would like to know the evidence that supports this theory. Also how can Islam call for their followers to "believe in the Holy books" yet insist that the Bible is not true. The statement that the Bible has been changed seems to go against Islam supposed belief in the Books. And how does Islam argue against the Dead Sea scrolls that were found in the 1950's in which original manuscripts of the Bible were found which confirmed the accuracy of the bible. Also the fact that there are still 5000 manuscripts of the Bible today, more than any English novel taught in school today in which for some there are only 1 or 2 manuscripts.

To answer some of the questions below, the Bible was not written after Jesus death, at least not the majority of it. The bible began in creation and was written by 40 different authors over a span of 3000-4000 years. The men who wrote account of Jesus life lived and witnessed Jesus's life. The bible is written in the same exact way the Qu'ran is said to be written. So how can it not be written by God??? All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. And by the way for the commenter that the bible is on Hebrew and we cannot understand. My pastor along with pretty much any onle esle who wants to be a pastor must be taught Hebrew. I ahve come across so many Muslims who don't understand their Qu'ran because they don't know Arabic. Maybe there should be more translations so that followers of Islam actually know what they follow, or maybe thats the point.

Answer 1

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, our earliest Hebrew copy of the Old Testament was the Masoretic text, dating around 800 A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls date to the time of Jesus and were copied by the Qumran community, a Jewish sect living around the Dead Sea. We also have the Septuagint which is a Greek translation of the Old Testament dating in the second century B.C. When we compare these texts which have an 800 to 1000 years gap between them we are amazed that 95% of the texts are identical with only minor variations and a few discrepancies.

New Testament manuscripts agree in 99.5% of the text (compared to only 95% for the Iliad). Most of the discrepancies are in spelling and word order. A few words have been changed or added. There are two passages that are disputed but no discrepancy is of any doctrinal significance (i.e., none would alter basic Christian doctrine). Most Bibles include the options as footnotes when there are discrepancies. How could there be such accuracy over a period of 1,400 years of copying? Two reasons: The scribes that did the copying had meticulous methods for checking their copies for errors. 2) The Holy Spirit made sure we would have an accurate copy of God's word so we would not be deceived.

There is enough evidence to support the claim that the Quran may have been tampered with. Nobody knows where the original Quran is. The Quran that we have in our hands now is called the Uthman's Quran, which was collected long after Mohammed's death. Parts of the original Quran must have been lost, after many of the reciters of the Quran died or were killed in battle.

The Bible, on the other hand, has stood the test of time. To suggest that the Bible has been altered is against both reason and historic findings.

Neither Christians nor Jews can reasonably be accused of altering their Scriptures. One reason is that they didn't have anything to gain from doing so, and if they did, they wouldn't willingly spill their blood defending it.

Answer 2

Before answering i would like to tell you that no offense is intended... If someone is offended by my answer, i appologize in advance.

We muslims believe that Four Holy books were revealed by God out of which only the Quran is in the orignal form . We doubt the authenticity of bible becuase there are various versions of bible availabe which differ in one way or other.
( Bible is a collection of scripts existing in two religions i.e Judisam & Christanity commonly known as Old Testiment and New Testiment .... and We believe that bible along with the other two holy scriptures have been manipulated by man according to their needs and desires. None of these are availabe in the orignal form. Bible has some scientific errors awell ..... Now coming to Quran; Allah has said in Quran Surah Al-Imran " I revealed this book and I will take care of it"... This is for the reason that 1400 years have passed but still the Quran avaiable all over the world is same with no change at all. If you compare any two books of Quran, they will exactly be the same. Many muslims have also learned the entire Quran by heart.

Answer 3

We believe the Bible has been changed because it has been. They are still finding parts of the Bible today that contradict what is in the Bible now and Constantinople burned entire manuscripts of the Bible that are now lost forever. The Bible was written hundreds of years after the death of Jesus (peace be upon him) by people. It is not the direct word of God.

And the Quran does not say for their followers to "follow the Holy books" it says to respect "the People of the Book" ie Jews and Christians because they at least believe in the One True God.

Answer 4

Mohammed's and early Caliphs' authority was challenged, mainly by Jews, but also christians later. Claiming the bible is corrupted is a something that a person's mind might conjure up to defend Mohammed's view.

I'm not sure this idea that the bible is corrupted existed prior to Mohammad. Perhaps it was a 'revelation' from his angel.

Kelebow - it would have been very narrow-minded to just write in Aramaic if you were trying to reach all people. Greek was the common language of the Roman empire. Evangelists must have gone to Arabia; perhaps they were too proud or to wedded to violence to receive the message there.

I & I: give an exact checkable example. Vague aspersions of change aren't reasonable proof.

Pray to God honestly if you dare - He will show you that you need a Saviour.

Answer 5

Because the Koran is much more recent than the bible, it is still in the same language it was first written in [arabic] which the majority of Muslims speak and write. Compare this to the bible, which was written in Hebrew, which most Christians do not speak. Therefore it is impossible for a Christian [unless they speak Hebrew] to get an accurate interpretation for themselves, as any translator has to use his or her discretion when translatating certain difficult words/phrases/concepts.

The Koran is also a single volume, written by one man over the space of a relatively short amount of time. In Arabic, there is only one version of the Koran [although of course, its translations differ due to the inherent difficulties in translating distant languages]. Compare this to the bible which was written over hundred of years and has several different versions [King James, etc].

At least with the Koran, you know what you are getting. They also believe it to be the actual word of Allah himself, whereas the bible reads more like a chronology of events, in which God is mentioned, and his words are written through people, but he did not actually compose its words.

For the record, I am neither Moslem or Christian.

Answer 6

Its not only Muslims, alot of people actually know the bible has been changed and butchered so many times over the years...Its a fact the bible you read today is no where near the original.

Answer 7

God said the bible has changed because of the men who make profit what of it
if the bible did not change then you well see the Christian worship Allah not Jesus ( pbuh ).
not all the part of the bible change but only some .

Answer 8

Because the bible has been changed..written by man..you said for urself in your description. The original bible and the Quran were written based on revelations from God..Did you know that the bible prohibits pork consumption just like the Quran? and yet you guys eat it...nice going!!!

Answer 9

not going to happen since i am 64 and wife near to it. anyhow i remember when my son came home from school after about 2 days into it and informs my wife and i that if we ever discipline him or our daughter again that the police will come and deal with us for child abuse. apparently the school made this decision to be acting guardians of all their students regardless of what homes the kids came from and they didn't have a clue about what we were really like. so like i told the kids if you think you would rather live somewhere else then pack your bags and off you go and have a great life. no more complaints from them after this confrontation of who might have their best interests at heart

Answer 10

We don't believe it has changed, we beleive they changed it. Because the quran and the bible are closly related and now some parts are different. If you have any more quetions, I would be happy to answer. Just email me at [e-mail]. Assalamu Alaikum!