Posted by Amir on 4/24/2009, 11:47 am, in reply to "Re: The Koran"
41.212.200.198
"I don t find anything about the Koran superceding the Bible here."
The Quran supersedes merely because of the timeline.It is the most recent edition of the divine book, the final update. The scripture before it was around 600 years earlier.
It supersedes because the older scriptures did not claim to be the last communication.Their purity was not guaranteed.God made this promise only for the Quran.
It is true that the Qur'an calls the Tawrat, Zabur and Injil as Allah's books and messages given to prophets Moses, Dawud and Jesus, peace be upon all of them, respectively, but the Qur'an also says that these books as they exist today are not in their authentic and complete form. Allah says, "They (i.e. Jews and Christians) changed words from their contexts and forgot a good part of the message given to them, and you will continue to find them -except a few among them- bent on new deceits…" (al-Ma'idah: 13) And He further says, "O People of the Book, now has come to you Our Messenger, clarifying to you much of that you used to conceal of the Book and passing over much (that is now unnecessary)." (al-Ma'idah 5:15) So our Islamic position is that the Bible has some true and authentic words of Allah, but it is not totally authentic. Some of its passages were lost and it had many additions and alterations.
U believe the Bible was not altered but which Bible is not alterd? Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible, Latin Bible, English Bible, Jewish Bible, Catholics’ Bible, Protestants’ Bible, Eastern Orthodox Church's Bible, which Bible are u talking about? All these Bibles individually and collectively have been changed and some are still being changed. The Bible contains two main sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is recognized by Jews and Christians both. Jews calls it the Hebrew Bible or TANAK. But their Bible has 24 books and some books have two parts thus a total of 39 books. Protestants also have 39 books but in a different order. The same Old Testament of Catholics has 46 books, while Eastern Orthodox Christians have 51 books in their Old Testament. Jewish version of the Bible is based on the Hebrew Masoretic text while Christians generally use the Greek (Septuagint) and Latin (Vulgate) versions as the basis of their Old Testaments. Each group also has variations in the texts of their books as well as in the number of verses.
The New Testament is accepted by Christians only. It has 27 books: four Gospels and then other books and letters of various writers known as apostles. But Catholics add some verses in the Gospels that are not accepted by the Protestants. The Catholics as well as the Eastern Orthodox Christians accept some books that are not accepted by the Protestants.
As far as the ancient manuscripts of the Bible are concerned, it is known to the Biblical scholars that most of the manuscripts came from the fourth century CE down. The manuscripts that are discovered are mostly partial and their texts differ from each other considerably. M. M. Parvis in the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (vol. 4, pp. 594-595) says, "The New Testament is now known, in whole or in part, in nearly five thousand Greek manuscripts alone. Every one of these handwritten copies differ from the other one… It has been estimated that these manuscripts and quotations differ among themselves between 150,000 and 250,000 times. The actual figure is, perhaps, much higher. A study of 150 Greek manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke has revealed more than 30,000 different readings… It is safe to say that there is not one sentence in the New Testament in which the manuscripts' tradition is wholly uniform."
Any one can get hold of the Good News Bible and can see for oneself that in the 1300 pages of this modern English version there are almost as many footnotes pointing to phrases, sentences and passages that are omitted or added by various ancient manuscripts or versions. Many of these alterations are not unintentional scribal errors such as are expected in handwritten copies of a book. A careful study of ancient texts has convinced scholars that the variations found in them were very often intentional tampering with the texts. This tampering is still going on for various political or ideological reasons. Under the pressure of the Jewish organizations, many churches in America and Europe have begun rephrasing Jesus' criticism of the Jews in the Gospels. Feminists groups are urging the use of unisex language in the new versions. Homosexual groups have their own versions. All these changes are taking place before our own eyes.
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