C. G. Pfander, D. D

¹ Compare Manor it'I Haqq, pp. 14, 15, 16.

any body of J ewish or Christian fanatics attempted to corrupt the Old Testament or the New by altering or omitting passages which seemed to refer to Muhammad, all other Jews and Christians in the world would have fiercely refused to accept the mutilated copies at the hands of these men, just as they rejected Marcion's attempt to omit the first two chapters of St. Luke's Gospel. The very fact that some heretics, long before Muhammad's time, tried and failed to corrupt the New Testament, shows the impossibility of the task.

Had some King or Emperor or other powerful ruler shortly after Moses' death collected all copies of the Tauriit, or of single chapters of it, and published a new edition of it, relying for some verses on men's memories, copying others from inscriptions on bones and pieces of wood ; and had he then burnt all these and all earlier copies he could find, so as to compel men to use only the text he had caused to be compiled ; we might then have found very few various readings in the Tauriit; but very little reliance could be placed on its correctness. If something similar had been done to all the books of the New Testament at the end of the first century, there would evidently be no way of proving that the new edition had not been corrupted by addition or omission. It would not be possible for a scholar to rely with perfect certainty on a single verse in the whole volume. But this did not happen to the Bible, thanks be to the Most Merciful God. We Chris­tians have never had an 'Uthmin. The Roman Em­perors Galerius and Diocletian, being heathens, did endeavour to collect and burn all copies of the Sacred Scriptures, but Christians laid down their lives rather than surrender their books. Later persecutors often made similar attempts, and failed for the same reason. But had our books been all burnt, the Bible would not have perished, for Isaiah has said : " The Word of our God shall stand for ever " (Isa. xl. 8). In all ages very large numbers of Christians have learnt by heart much of the most important parts of the Old Testament and of the New, especially the Psalms and the Gospels. Hence the Word of God could not be destroyed, unless all Christians were destroyed also. During the perse­cutions in France in the sixteenth century, in many instances the clergy of the Reformed Church had to learn by heart whole books of the Bible, so that, even if their books were taken from them, they might still be able to draw the water of life from the wells of salvation for themselves and for their people. It is well known, moreover, that in all ages Jews and Christians have taken the greatest possible care of their Holy Books, prizing them more than life itself. Hence to say that at any time, whether before or after the Hijrah, they have become corrupted (¿iwhether intentionally or unintentionally, is to assert the occur­rence of what is absolutely impossible. None but the ignorant and bigoted can bring such a charge against the Bible.

That this may be clearer than the sun at noonday, let us inquire what advantage to themselves had the Jews or the Christians to expect from corrupting their Sacred Books. They well knew that to attempt such a thing would be to sin against God and to bring down upon themselves grievous punishment, for this is taught both in the Old Testament (Deut. iv. 2) and in the New (Rev. xxii. 18,19). Moreover, they would thereby be destroying their own religion and leading astray from the way of salvation all their own children and children's children for ever. Had Oriental Jews and Christians desired to gain worldly advantages from Muhammad and his followers, they would have tried to introduce passages to support Muhammad's claims, instead of striking out such passages, as Muslims accuse them of doing. By rejecting Muhammad they were condemning themselves and their descendants to " give tribute out of hand and be brought low" (Stirah ix. 29), to occupy the degraded position of the unhappy Zimmts (^¡j). Every now and then they knew that they were in danger of frightful massacres and of undergoing unutterable brutality, as at Ad&nah and its neighbourhood in 1909 a.d. For many cen­turies such awful scenes have been the natural result of these words of Silrah At Taubah, as interpreted by wicked rulers and the ignorant multitudes. Had the Jews and Christians accepted Muhammad as a Prophet, they would not only have escaped all this cruelty and oppression, but they would also have shared all the worldly privileges belonging to Muslims. Instead of this they have clung to their ancestral faith, though they knew that in every mosque throughout the Otto­man Empire in the Friday prayer all Muslims express their hatred of them in these awful words : " O God, make their wives widows and their children orphans, and give their possessions to be a possession for the Muslims." Is it not clear that, if either Jews or Christians had found in their Holy Scriptures any prophecies relating to Muhammad and bidding them expect and accept him when he came, they would gladly have become his disciples, and thereby gained the good things both of this world and of the world to come ? H ence they had every inducement to endeavour to corrupt their Scriptures, not by omitting, but by inserting, passages relating to Muhammad. That such passages were not inserted is a proof that they did not and could not corrupt their Scriptures. To corrupt them by striking out verses which would have brought them great advantages, and by so corrupting them to condemn themselves to untold misery here and hereafter was not a thing likely to commend itself to either Jews or Christians. Nor can anyone who reflects on the matter believe that this was done, there being no motive whatever for it, and many against it.

But, had either of these religious communities plotted and endeavoured to change and corrupt their Scrip­tures, the other party would at once have detected and exposed the fraud. There was in Muhammad's time, as both before and after it, great animosity between Jews and Christians, and hence it is impossible to

h

imagine an agreement between them to falsify the Old Testament. Had any one sect of Christians or Jews, or those living in any country, for instance in Arabia, all agreed to corrupt their Scriptures, then the other sects and all chose in other parts of the world would have raised a great outcry against them for such a terrible sin. We have histories written by Jews, others by Muslims, others by Christians, and yet in none of these do we find any account of it ever being proved that such an attempt was made whether during Muhammad's time or after it.

Moreover, had any sect ever thought of the com­mission of this crime, its accomplishment would have been found absolutely impossible. For before the Hijrah the Christian faith had spread so widely that the greater portion of the population of Asia Minor, Syria, Greece, Egypt, Abyssinia, North Africa, Italy, all professed belief in Christ. Besides this, very many had accepted Christianity in Arabia, Persia, Armenia, Georgia, India, France, Spain, Portugal, England, and Germany. In all these lands different languages were spoken, and into many of these tongues translations of the Bible had been made before Muhammad's time; viz. into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, -^thiopic, Gothic, Georgian. Besides this, the Old Testament existed in the original Hebrew, and the New Testa­ment in the original Greek. The Old Testament had also been translated into Greek, and much of it into Aramaic.

The Jews also were to be found in all the countries we have mentioned. They were divided into more or less opposed parties, and the Christians into many sects hostile to one another. Had any Jewish or Christian sect therefore attempted to corrupt any one of the Sacred Books, the others would at once have detected and mercilessly exposed the crime. Hence no madman is mad enough to be able to imagine all Jews and Christians agreeing to corrupt the Bible. But, if this had taken place, the crime would have been detected long since, because of the existence of so many MSS. written long before Muhammad's time. The many ancient Versions and the numerous quotations from the Bible found in authors who wrote before Muhammad's time absolutely disprove the charge that the Bible was corrupted in or after his time.

Those Muslims who assert that the Jews and Chris­tians have corrupted their Scriptures say that this was done in order to strike out all the prophecies about Muhammad which those Books contained. We have already seen that the " People of the Book " had no object in doing this, and that the temptation must have rather been to interpolate such passages than to expunge them. But Muhammadan commentators themselves answer the charge by stating that many prophecies of Muhammad are still to be found in the Bible. If so, then the lews and Christians are evi- dently not guilty of striking them out. If the attempt was made to commit such a crime, and if it succeeded so far as to expunge some such prophecies, how are we to account for the retention of others which the Qur'dn itself¹ asserts to exist in the Holy Scriptures ? If these passages really do refer to Muhammad, then it is clear that the Bible has not been corrupted in the manner and with the object stated by Muslims. For example, the Qur'fin states ² that Muhammad is men­tioned by the Lord Jesus Christ. Commentators say that the reference is to Christ's promise of the coming of the Paraclete, and refer to John xvi. 7. Christians do not think that the promise there given did refer to Muhammad. But the fact that the verse still stands in the New Testament shows that it has not been omitted. If Christians had desired to omit any passage relating to Muhammad, surely on no account would they have left this verse in the Bible, for it is the only one dis­tinctly appealed to in the Qur'&n as proving Muham­mad's claims. Moreover, everyone of learning among

1. 
   Sfirah
   

vii. 156. But see Part III, ch. ii, of this Treatise.

2. 
   SOrah lxi. 6.
   

h 2

them knew that Mfini had made a claim to be the Paraclete, basing his pretensions upon this verse. Yet, when he had been detected as an impostor, and when his religion had perished off the earth, Christians still preserved this verse in the Gospel.

The Jews found in the Old Testament many Mes­sianic Prophecies. The Christians claimed that these had in large measure already been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, and asserted that this was a proof that He was the Messiah. These Messianic passages were and are a terrible condemnation of the Jews. Yet the Jews have never attempted to omit them from the Old Testament. Had they wished to destroy the pro­phecies relating to Christ, they would have tried to erase from their Holy Scriptures the following passages, besides very many others : Gen. xlix, 10 ; Deut. xviii. 15, 18; Ps. xxii. 14-18; Isa. vii. 14; Isa. ix. 6, 7 ; Isa. xi. i-ro; Isa. lii. 15-fin. and liii; Dan. vii. 13, 14; Dan. ix. 24-27; Mic. v. 2; Zech. xii. 10. For all these passages clearly speak of Him (compare Luke xxiv. 25-27). Another series of passages which the Jews would have struck out of the Bible, if they had dared to endeavour to corrupt it, are those which recite and condemn their past sins. But even these are found to-day in the Hebrew Old Testament as well as in all the Versions- God had commanded them to observe the Law of the Taur&t (Joshua i. 7) and not to add thereto or detract therefrom (Deut. iv. 2 ; xii. 32). Hence they have until now so carefully preserved the whole of the Old Testament that, lest a word or a letter should be lost, they have counted every letter and word in each book, and recorded the numbers. The copies of the Old Testament in the original Hebrew in use among Christians are the same as those that are used by Jews: in fact, they are printed at the same presses.

Lest there should still remain in any reader's mind the supposition that perhaps the Jews may have corrupted their Old Testament before Christ's time, though they evidently could not have done so after­wards, it should be observed that, as the Qur'An truly¹ says, Christ confirmed the Sacred Scriptures which they then had, and which are the very same that they now have. Neither Christ nor any one of His Apostles have in any part of the New Testament accused the Jews of corrupting their Scriptures, though their real sins are denounced. On the contrary, everywhere the New Testament asserts the genuineness of the Old Testament, and urges men to study it. This will be clear from such passages as: Matt. v. 17, 18; xxii. 31,32; Mark vii. 6-10; Luke xi. 29-32; xxiv. 25-27; John v. 39, 45-47 ; 2 Tim. iii. 16. Hence it is plain that in the time of Christ and His Apostles the Old Testament was admitted to consist of inspired, true and uncorrupted books. Surely, if the Jews had falsi­fied them, Christ would have openly rebuked them for such great wickedness. He would also doubtless have pointed out the corrupted passages, and He would have corrected these, for the instruction of His disciples.

This argument serves also to show that the Scrip­tures had not been destroyed or corrupted at the fall of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar or during the Babylonian captivity. Otherwise Christ would have told us this.

Some Muslim writers venture to assert that they can prove that the Taur&t has been purposely corrupted in certain places. One of these is said to be Deut. xxvii. 4. Here the Samaritan Pentateuch has " on Mount Gerizim ", while the Hebrew has " on Mount EbalBut as not only the Hebrew but all the ancient versions (Septuagint, Latin Vulgate, Syriac Peshitt£, Armenian, ¿Ethiopic) have " Ebaland not " Gerizim ", this is almost certainly correct. It was not the Jews but the Samaritans who tried to corrupt the text, but they evidently failed to do so. Or their reading may possibly be due to the honest attempt of some scribe to correct what he fancied to be another copyist's blunder, since in ver. 12 the blessings are to ¹ Sfirahs iii. 44; v. 50.

be uttered by certain tribes standing on Mount Gerizim. Had the Jews tried to change anything, they would have changed ver. 12, not ver. 4. There is therefore proof that -the Jews did not corrupt this passage, though perhaps the Samaritans attempted to do so. If they tried, they failed.

Again, as has already been pointed out, the numbers which give the ages of the Patriarchs in Gen. v. and xi. differ somewhat in the Hebrew from those found in the Samaritan copy of the Taur&t and in the Septua- gint Version. But this is almost certainly accidental. In all old books figures are very apt to be mistaken for one another. In these matters it is clear that the various readings affect neither morality nor doctrines.

Certain Muslim writers have endeavoured to prove that there are many contradictions in the Bible, and they allege this as a proof that the books have been cor­rupted. But among all reasonable men it is an ad­mitted fact that, when two or more writers give separate accounts of any event, there always is found some difference between one narrative and another ; other­wise collusion is considered as proved. Such differences may amount to contradiction in the opinion of one who does not know all the facts of the case, but not in that of men who have studied the matter thoroughly. The very existence of such differences and apparent contra­dictions, e.g. in the two genealogies of Christ (Matt, i ; Luke iii) and the two accounts of Judas' death (Matt, xxvii. 5 ; Acts i. 18, 19), is a conclusive proof that no one has corrupted the text of the Scriptures : otherwise these differences would have been removed.

Some assert that the New Testament has been falsified by the interpolation of the following pas­sages : Markxvi. 9-20; John v. 3, 4; vii. 53-viii. 11 ; 1 John v. 7. This statement is not quite accurate. We Christians have discovered that these verses do not exist in the earliest MSS., and hence we have recognized that they are, as it were, marginal notes which some scribe fancied were part of the text, and therefore copied into it. But these passages do not alter a single doctrine. The facts mentioned very concisely in Mark xvi. 9-20 are more fully detailed else­where in the Gospels. The story of the adulteress is related by Papias.¹ The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is clearly taught in Matt, xxviii. 19, and in very many other places. Hence the omission of the verses we have mentioned does not in the slightest degree affect a single doctrine of the Christian faith.

In this respect there is a great difference between the Bible and the Qur'ân. Men of learning know that some of the Shi'ah party have affirmed that certain verses in the Qur'ân have been altered by the Khalîfahs 'Umar and 'Uthmân, in order to conceal the fact that 'All should have been the first Khalîfah, and that the Imâmat should have continued in his family. Others say that the whole of a Sûrah, which they call Sûratun Nûrain, has been omitted for the same reason. It is not our purpose to inquire whether or not there is any truth in these statements, although it is evident that to Muslims the matter is of the very greatest importance ; for, if even the Sûratun Nûrain is properly part of the Qur'ân, then the fate of the Sunnîs is not a happy one, since in that Sûrah it is said of them : " Verily ² for them there is a place in Hell : from it they shall not deviate." Mîrzâ Muhsin of Kashmir, sur-amed Fânî, in his Dabistân-i Maçâhib (printed at _>ombay, a.h. 1292, pp. 220, 221), gives the whole of the Sûratun Nûrain, and says that some of the Shi'ah party "state that 'Uthmân, having burnt the original documents (., struck out some of the Sûrahs

which were in favour of 'All and the superiority of his family : and one of those Sûrahs³ is this". He also

¹ Eusebius, Ecc. tiist., Bk. iii, ch. 39.

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