If you put a copy of the Bible, Torah and Koran side by side, how many similarities are there in the stories?

Question

What are the main similarities and differences in the stories and content if you take them as pieces of literature and ignore all theological leanings?

Answer 1

Great Question! Ask more like it!

The fact is that there are tons of ideals and similarities between these three. Not only these three but so many more of the Holy Books of different culture throught out the world.

For some reason most want to focus on the differences between what they believe and what others believe. Perhaps they feel that God loves best those that, look like them, dress like them, talk like them, think like them, worship like them, believe like them and use the same holy book as they do and understand it exactly as they do.

My beloved brothers and sisters, I have long since stopped looking at the differences between the Holy Books of God and now only look for the things they have in common. If you want to exploit the differences there are plenty who will wallow in this with you.

I urge all to take a different approach and look for all the things that are in common. When these things are found, you will come so much closer to the truth of the divine love inherent in all things.

For those who seek the truth, the truth will be found. For those that seek lies, lies will be found. If you read another mans Holy text that is not yours and you only look for lies, that is all you will find, but if you look for the truth within you will be amazed at how much truth is there. I came up in a Christian family and words do not exist to explain how much more fully the Gospel has been revealed to me by reading other Holy text.

Those who think that they hold the absolute truth only block the path through which revelation comes.

I promise you that heaven is revealed in all of Gods Holy words. Including but not limited to the 3 you mention here.

Continue down this path and you will find great light!

Blessings and peace to all,
All in all,
An

Answer 2

The question was..if you put a copy of the bible, torah and koran side by side, how many similarities are there in the stories?
with the guidelines of..
...if you take them as pieces of literature and ignore all theological leanings?

So to me that means stories, literature and no theological stuff!!
So...stories and literature..well iam not that much into the literature but stories...
Ok if you understand that the bible is a poor translation of the hebrew torah then you understand that the stories are very generally the same...but the bible contains the new testament...and the new testament contains serveral re-worked stories of the old testament. And I suppose that because the old and new testaments were written at different times this would be the biggest reason for different literature?? And again because the koran was written at a different time to the previous the literature would be different. With this then the stories as told in the koran that are from both the old testament and the torah, are told differently,not in full,almost in passing, this is because although based on both the previous the koran expounds its stories in a different way to the older books.

Answer 3

A Scholar in Comparative Religious Studies would be able to explain it better.

However, personally, I have reading OLD TESTAMENT & KORAN side by side and I have found both the similarities & dissimilarities. Frankly speaking, could never properly read the NEW TESTAMENT as it gets a bit disturbing for me to read again & again the Messiah was (God forbid) was son of god – and that goes against the basic ideology of Islam.

The CORE IDEOLOGY of the Jewish & the Muslims is intact and I found no differences except for a few that are petty but there is no conflict as far as the 10-Commadments goes.

Answer 4

The Torah and Bible are identical because the Torah is the early part of the Bible. The Qur'an has differences and is not really narrative on the whole. Stylistically, it comes across like the Psalms and Isaiah.

Answer 5

The Torah consists of the following five books found within the Bible:

1. Genesis, Ge—Bereshit (בראשית)
2. Exodus, Ex—Shemot (שמות)
3. Leviticus, Le—Vayikra (ויקרא)
4. Numbers, Nu—Bamidbar (במדבר)
5. Deuteronomy, Dt—Devarim (דברים)

The following, however, are similiarities between the Koran and the Bible:

We both agree that there is one God who created the universe and is sovereign in the lives of men. We agree that God is the source of justice and morality. We agree that his ultimate justice is dispensed via life after death in heaven and hell.

Fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Muslims both consider such things as pornography and licentious living as pollutants to society. In fact, one of the reasons for the strong negative reaction to western civilization in Muslim countries is the influence of such practices emanating from the west.

The differences between the two are rather striking however:

"The last hour won't come before the Muslims would fight the Jews, and the Muslims will kill them. So Jews would hide behind rocks and trees. Then the rocks and trees would call, 'Oh, Muslim. Oh, Servant of God. There is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him.' "

"Jews and Christians are the enemies of believers. They will never approve of the Muslims. Beware of them."

Bukhari 4:176-177 (Koran)

The treatment of woman is also a seperating point:

Men are superior to women in Islamic teaching. (See Suras 2:228, 4:34. Note: English translations vary considerably here. For example, in 4:34 some use the term "superior," while others say that men are "maintainers" or "guardians" of women.) In Islamic law, a woman's testimony is worth half that of men because the female mind is considered deficient (Sura 2:282, Bukhari 3:826). Women are only entitled to inherit half of what men do (Sura 4:11).

Prostitution is common in some Muslim countries, especially Africa. Some Muslims justify prostitution by marrying the woman for the night, which seems to be okay as long as they stay within the limit of four wives at one time. Prostitution may be partly a result of the attitude in Muslim societies that men can do whatever they want, while women have limited rights.

The Quran and hadiths teach that it is morally acceptable to force women to have sex with their captors (Sura 70:29-30; also Bukhari 3: 432, 436, 5:459, 7:22, 8:600; 9:506; also Muslim Hadiths numbers 3371 and 3433)

In comparison, fundamentalist Christianity condones none of the above abuses of women. While Old Testament figures had multiple wives, this is seen as sinful behavior. Jesus insisted on the sanctity of marriage with one woman (Mark 10:5-12).

Answer 6

Considering the shared histories of the three books you wish to compare, the similarities are expected.

We will separate The Bible as Old and New Testament calling the Old Testament the Tanakh (which includes the Torah) and the Qu'ran will stand separate.

All speak of Moses(Musa in Qu'ran), Abraham, King David (Daud in Qu'ran) and other shared major characters.

The sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham is replaced with the sacrifice of Ismael (The is more a statement of who is the chosen son of promise).

The Torah promises a messiah of a virgin birth, the NT claims speaks to Jesus as that messiah, the Qu'ran speaks of the virgin birth of the messiah as well.

The NT and Qu'ran both mention Jesus (Isa)

The list goes on.

Good luck with your search

Answer 7

The Torah is Part of the Bible...i cant speak for the Koran

Answer 8

There are many similarities in all 3, this I think is not due to plaigiarism but more to do with the fact these stories happened, therefore are present in all 3 !

Answer 9

there are a lot of similarities between koran and bible and same people feature in each, cant say about torah tho as dont know anything about it.

Answer 10

The Torah would seem to be identicle to the first 5 books of the Bible.

The Koran is very different, it contains no history.