Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

That may be the more recent Muslim apologetic. But in the original Muslim
tradition, the Qur'an, there is an explicit injunction to read the Tovrat =
Hebrew Bible and the Injil = New Testament. So in answer to these Muslim
claims that the text is corrupted, one can ask when the text was first
corrupted, before or after the time of Muhammad. If they say "before", then
ask why Muhammad was instructed to read these corrupted texts. If they say
"after", then they will have to agree that MSS from before Muhammad's time
are not corrupt, and you can show them DSS and the 4th-5th century CE folios
of LXX and NT.

Peter Kirk


-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Wagner [mailto:Dan.Wagner AT datastream.net]
Sent: 03 January 2001 19:23
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: RE: Arabic Bible


> and thus any information on Arabic translations and interpretations
>  of the Bible
> would be appreciated

You probably know that Moslem Tradition typically claims (as part of their
apologetic) that much of the Hebrew Bible is textually corrupt, edited for
theological reasons by Jews (and/or Christians?)--for example, to prioritize
Isaac over Ishmael. (Same idea as the redaction in SP, but much more
radical.) I assume they would want to remove blood sacrifice, the concept of
unmerited grace, and many other theological concepts essential to Jewish and
Christian religions but absent from Islam. Of course there is no extant MSS
evidence for this. I'm not sure how much translation would be affected by
this agenda, but one should keep it in mind.

Dan Wagner


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan D. safren [mailto:yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 02:08
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Re: Arabic Bible