Islam teaches that Bible is corrupted based on Qur’an 3:71 & 78, and most Muslims believe that the Bible we now have is completely corrupted. Therefore, they do not read the Bible, even though the Qur’an says that they should read the Bible in Q. 2:4. Let us examine first what the Qur’an really says.
Q. 3:71 – People of Book, why do you wrap the truth with falsehood and hide the truth on purpose when you know better?
Q 3:78 – Some People of Book distort the meaning of their scriptures when they read them aloud, so much so it sounds like scripture, but in fact it is not. Yet they claim that it is from God’s own presence, but it is not. They knowingly lie against God.
These two verses represent the misconduct and misinterpretations of the Bible by Jews and Christians, but never say they changed the Bible itself. Q. 3:71 says that the Jews and Christians in the 7th century did not reveal everything the Bible says, but hid certain things so that they could use it for their advantage against Muslims. I believe that present day Muslims are doing the same thing with their own Qur’an. For example, Qur’an 2:256 says “there is no compulsion in religion.” However, the traditional Islamic interpretation has been that this does not apply to them in most cases. During the early days of Islam, they asked the non-converts to take one of two choices: the Qur’an or the sword. This is a well-known historical fact. The purpose of Q. 3:71 was to remind the followers of Muhammad not to follow the examples of bad conduct of the Jews or Christians.
Q. 3:78 says that the Jews and Christians “distort the meaning of their scripture.” This is talking about a matter of misinterpretation. Historically the Bible was misinterpreted by many people, but the Qur’an was also misinterpreted by many. Even some Islamic scholars interpret this verse as the act of misinterpretation by the Jews and Christians, and not necessarily corruption of the Bible.
Therefore, the conviction of many Muslims that the Bible is corrupted is primarily due to the teaching of the Islamic religious leaders and Imams, not due to what the text of the Qur’an says.
Any scripture gets mis-interpreted after so many years of human handling of interpretation. Historically, Judaism became corrupted 1400 years after Moses at the time of Jesus Christ. Jews claimed “corban” (which means “sacrificed to God”) to keep their favorite items instead of giving them to their parents, violating the 5th commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” The Catholic church also became corrupted 1400 years after the founding of the church during the time of Martin Luther. Catholics sold indulgences to trade sins for money. Islam has passed about 1400 years since its foundation. Muslims are forbidden to persecute virgins because the Qur’an says that virgins go to Paradise. Therefore, in Iran they allow Basij guards to rape female inmates systematically to persecute virgins. A woman has only half a vote compared to one full vote for men. Therefore, these female inmates have no recourse. A similar practice is legally allowed in several Islamic countries. I am sure that the original intent of the Qur’an was never to use it for this type of situations.
Archeological findings on the manuscripts of the Bible shows that there is no corruption. The number of the manuscripts of the Old Testament is not very large, but several manuscripts found are amazingly consistent. The number of the New Testament manuscripts are in the range of several thousands, but all are nearly the same with very minor variations. Archeology is an objective science, and you cannot lie.
The following conclusions may be drawn from this discussion.
- The Bible itself has not been corrupted. Archeology and the text of the Qur’an prove this.
- Muslims were taught erroneously that the Bible “was corrupted” by their religious leaders.
- As a result of such a wrong teaching, Muslims have been led astray, i.e., they have not been reading the Bible due to this mis-information. They have been deprived of certain spiritual nourishment they are supposed to get from the Bible.
I feel very sorry for majority Muslims, because they are like lambs misled by their leaders.