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The Gospels in Islam: Authentic or Corrupted?

Is the Gospel referred to in the Quran authentic or corrupt?


  • Total voters
    23

wizanda

One Accepts All Religious Texts
Premium Member
The logos used
The logos is from Greek logic, which implied everything in our reality comes from the Source; the Quran also says Yeshua was the word of God, that isn't the problem...

It is the idea that Yeshua was God made manifest that becomes problematic in Islamic texts, as he was a man, and corruptible; whereas because Christianity wanted a clean sacrifice, they've made him into a perfect God being.

3:45 [And mention] when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary - distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to Allah].

4:171 O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs.


In my opinion. :innocent:
 

Dawnofhope

Non-Proselytizing Baha'i
Staff member
Premium Member
This is not an argument, he never added or subtracted anything from it, poor comparison man. Besides, the Qur'an is one book, not four and we still have pre-Uthman manuscripts.

The Quran is 114 chapters written in very different circumstances compiled over 20+ years.

The best example of the need to pick and choose texts would be the Hadiths themselves whose accounts of the sayings and life of Muhammad are contradictory and often unreliable.

In regards the pre-Uthman scripts we don’t have too much to go on. The Sana’a and Birmingham Quran manuscripts may or may not have predated Uthman.

Criticism of the Quran - Wikipedia
 

Niblo

Active Member
Premium Member
Injil is the Arabic name for the Gospel of Jesus. This Injil is described by the Quran as one of the Holy books revealed by God, Including the Tawrat (Torah) and the Quran itself. The word Injil is also used in the Quran, the Hadith and early Muslim documents to refer to both a book and revelations made by God to Jesus.

However Muslim scholars have resisted identifying the Injil with the New Testament Gospels. Some have suggested the Injil may be the Gospel of Barnabas or the Gospel of Thomas. More commonly, Muslim scholars have argued that the Injil refers to a text now lost or hopelessly corrupted.

For example, Abdullah Yusuf Ali wrote:

The Injil spoken of by the Quran is not the New Testament. It is not the four Gospels now received as canonical. It is the single Gospel which, Islam teaches, was revealed to Jesus, and which he taught. Fragments of it survive in the received canonical Gospels and in some others, of which traces survive (e.g., the Gospel of Childhood or the Nativity, the Gospel of St.Barnabas, etc.)

The following verse is often interpreted as implying that the Injil is preserved, but instead many Muslim scholars interpret it as Allah warning the Christians not to enforce the law contrary to the law sent by Allah:

And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the Gospel [Injil] wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah ] - a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil). Let the People of the Gospel [Injil] judge by that which Allah hath revealed therein....".
Quran 5:46-47

Scholars such as Gabriel Said Reynolds have maintained Injil refers specifically to the Gospel of the New Testament in the possession of the Christians being addressed in such passages, which is none other than the Gospels of the Bible as known today and in copies that predate the lifetime of Muhammad.

Adapted from: Gospel in Islam - Wikipedia

So is the Gospel of Jesus referred to in the Quran the New Testament Gospels? Or does it refer to a Gospel that is now hopelessly lost, meaning the New Testament Gospels are corrupted? What evidence would support your conclusion?

Hello, Adrian.

Concerning the Corruption of the New Testament:

The Arabic word ‘ʾInjīl’ is translated ‘Gospel’ by those writing in English. However, in the Qur’an the word is always in the singular, and is never used to describe the four gospels of the New Testament.

The Exalted says: ‘We sent Yeshua, son of Mary, in their footsteps, to confirm the Torah that had been sent before him: We gave him the Gospel (ʾInjīl) with guidance, light, and confirmation of the Torah already revealed - a guide and lesson for those who take heed of Allāh.’ (Al-Ma’ida: 46).

There is no doubt that the New Testament gospels were written decades after the lifetime of Yeshua (ʿalayhi as-salām); by anonymous authors who never met him (that of ‘Mark’ being the first). These narratives cannot possibly be the ‘ʾInjīl’ mentioned in the Qur’an.

It is quite clear from Al-Ma’ida 46 that Yeshua was given the ʾInjīl complete; how else could it have been ‘a guidance, light and confirmation of the Torah’?

The ʾInjīl is no longer extant. However, I have no doubt that elements of this Book are to be found in the synoptic gospels; in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, for example; or in the words: ‘I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ (Matthew 15:24).

First example of NT corruption:

The King James Bible (including the American Version); the King James 2000 Bible; the Jubilee Bible 2000; the Douay-Rheims Bible; the Webster’s Bible Translation; and the Young’s Literal Translation contain what is known as the ‘Comma Ioanneum’. This is shown below in capitals:

‘For there are three that bear record IN HEAVEN, THE FATHER, THE WORD, AND THE HOLY GHOST: AND THESE THREE ARE ONE. AND THERE ARE THREE THAT BEAR WITNESS IN EARTH, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.’

Anthony and Richard Hanson write: ‘It (the ‘Comma Ioanneum’) was added by some enterprising person or persons in the ancient Church who felt that the New Testament was sadly deficient in direct witness to the kind of doctrine of the Trinity which he favoured and who determined to remedy that defect . . . It is a waste of time to attempt to read Trinitarian doctrine directly off the pages of the New Testament.’ (‘Reasonable Belief: A Survey of the Christian Faith; page 171).

The ‘Comma Ioanneum’ is spurious, and yet for centuries the Church insisted it be included in 1 John 5: 7-8; on the grounds that it had become official Church teaching.

In 1927, the Holy Office (Guardian of Catholic orthodoxy; and once named the ‘Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition’) declared: ‘After careful examination of the whole circumstances that its genuineness could be denied’ (Ludwig Ott: ‘Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma’, page 56).

This is why one of my Bibles (the Jerusalem Bible - a Catholic version) reads: ‘So there are three witnesses, the Spirit, water and blood; and the three of them coincide.’ Another Catholic version of mine – the Douay-Rheims – does contain the ‘Comma Ioanneum’. So which of these two is the uncorrupted: the former or the latter?

Second example:

The story of the woman caught in adultery (found in John 8) has been a source of much controversy for decades. Is it authentic; or is in a later insertion into the text?

The King James Version (based on the Textus Receptus) includes the ‘pericope adulterae’ as an original part of the gospel. On the other hand, more modern translations – such and as the ESV, NIV, RV; NRVS; and GNB – include the ‘pericope adulterae’, but bracket it as not original; while others print it in a smaller font (TNIV), or place it at the end of the gospel (REB), all with notes of explanation. This is because the story is not found in the earliest Greek manuscripts.

It certainly seems as if, somewhere along the way, a scribe added this story into 'John' in a place he thought it would fit well. Most likely, the story had been circulating for a long time – as an oral tradition – and a scribe (or scribes) felt that, since it was already accepted as truth by consensus, it was appropriate to include it in the text of Scripture. The problem is that truth is not determined by consensus (witness the ‘Comma Ioanneum’ debacle).

The omission of the ‘pericope adulterae’ from the early manuscripts has been explained as an attempt by early church leaders to prevent scandal; to prevent the impression that adultery is acceptable (for Yeshua is said to have forgiven the woman). Concerned for the moral welfare of their flock these leaders are said to have ordered the story’s removal. If this is true, then they tampered with the Gospel!

The fact remains that the ‘pericope adulterae’ is not supported by early manuscript evidence (and some might say, the best manuscript evidence); there is, therefore, serious doubt as to whether it should be included in the Bible at all.

Third example:

Mark 16: 9-20: ‘Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.’

Some manuscripts end 'Mark' with 16:8; others include verses 9-20 immediately after verse 8. At least one manuscript inserts additional material after verse 14; some manuscripts include, after verse 8, the following: ‘But they reported briefly to Peter and those with him all that they had been told. And after this, Jesus himself sent out by means of them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.’ These manuscripts then continue with verses 9-20.

Conclusion:

An acknowledged spurious text – justifying the belief in a Trinitarian deity – and still present in at least six current versions of the Bible; the insertion of the ‘pericope adulterae’; and the changes to Mark.

Perhaps now you can understand why scholars (both Christian and Muslim) speak of a corrupted New Testament!

A far more pernicious form of corruption is that which arises from textual interpretation.

About fifty years ago I had an older colleague who was a Biblical Unitarian (I was a Catholic). We discussed (often) both the trinity and incarnation. On one occasion I became angry with him (I was fiery in those days!). I grabbed my Bible and thrust it under his nose. ‘This is my Book’, I hissed. ‘What’s yours?’

He smiled, and gently removed the book from my hand. ‘This!’, he replied. I was stunned. How could this man read the very same book as I, and yet reach conclusions so opposed to my own? He was no fool; neither was he perverse. He was both genuine and honest; a decent man who lived his faith according to his conscience. And yet, he did not, could not, believe what I believed.

Here is a quote by Cliff Reed, a Unitarian minister:

‘Unitarians believe that Jesus was a man, unequivocally human. It has long been our view that to talk of him as God is unfaithful to his own understanding of himself. The New Testament accounts describe a Jewish man, chosen, raised up, adopted and anointed by God. They claim that the divine purpose was that Jesus should reconcile first the Jews and then all humanity to each other and to God. This would prepare the way for the Messianic age of peace.’ (Sourced from a Unitarian website).

Two groups of people read the very same scriptures. One group interprets these scriptures in a way that makes God a Trinity, and Jesus ‘wholly God, and wholly Man’. The other group sees absolutely no justification for the notion of a trinity; and regards Yeshua as just a man; in no way divine. Which interpretation is the uncorrupted?

Have a good day, and very best regards.
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
So is the Gospel of Jesus referred to in the Quran the New Testament Gospels? Or does it refer to a Gospel that is now hopelessly lost, meaning the New Testament Gospels are corrupted? What evidence would support your conclusion?
I think it refers to a misunderstanding of what the "Gospel" actually is. They are trying to literalize it as a book, or a set of teachings. Rather, than entertaining that Muhammad had a misunderstanding of it reflected in his speaking of it, they try to legitimize a human error, starting with the assumption it must be accurate or true.

The "gospel" is actually not a book at all. It is the "good news" that the kingdom of God had already come into the world through Jesus. The term gospel was deliberately co opted from the "gospel" or good news that Caesar Augustus had brought peace to the world through his victories in battle.

It was a deliberate twist on its usage to say that the true peace of God's kingdom had already come, through non-violence. It was a challenge to Rome using that same term applied to Jesus. They did this with all the titles for Christ as well, lifting each of them from titles previous applied to Caesar, "Son of God", for instance.

There is no "book" that is the "gospel". The books called "gospels" in the Bible is a misnomer. There is only one single "good news". and those books are the "gospel" (singular) according to this person, or to that person.

I recall having read parts of the Koran when I was younger and was taken by it's references to things that were not in the Christian Bible, speaking as if they were. Such as the myth of Jesus breathing life into clay doves as a young, sassy child. The other is this dialog with Jesus questioning if he had told his followers to take himself and Mary as two other Gods besides Allah. That showed a clear misunderstanding of the doctrine of the Trinity, seeing it as Father, Son, and Virgin Mary.

The point is, this supposed Gospel that is seen as either some book, or some message that was given to Jesus in some form, simply shows a later culturally distorted view of that period of history of early Christianity and its origins as a competing sect within Judaism. It is not a more perfect view, but a distortion into another culture and time. It has no historical grounding.

It's a very human corruption of understanding something without the benefit of the tools of research being used. If it were valid, it would withstand closer scrutiny and would not conflict with the history we have been able to reconstruct. It doesn't fit with any of that.

The Koran cannot be held as a complement, or a continuation of a any "gospel" that may have had its origins in 1st century Rome, either the gospel of Caesar Augustus, or the gospel of Christ Jesus. It is at best, a 7th century religion's take on another religion born in another time and another place foreign to their own time and place.
 
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firedragon

Veteran Member
Injil is the Arabic name for the Gospel of Jesus. This Injil is described by the Quran as one of the Holy books revealed by God, Including the Tawrat (Torah) and the Quran itself. The word Injil is also used in the Quran, the Hadith and early Muslim documents to refer to both a book and revelations made by God to Jesus.

However Muslim scholars have resisted identifying the Injil with the New Testament Gospels. Some have suggested the Injil may be the Gospel of Barnabas or the Gospel of Thomas. More commonly, Muslim scholars have argued that the Injil refers to a text now lost or hopelessly corrupted.

For example, Abdullah Yusuf Ali wrote:

The Injil spoken of by the Quran is not the New Testament. It is not the four Gospels now received as canonical. It is the single Gospel which, Islam teaches, was revealed to Jesus, and which he taught. Fragments of it survive in the received canonical Gospels and in some others, of which traces survive (e.g., the Gospel of Childhood or the Nativity, the Gospel of St.Barnabas, etc.)

The following verse is often interpreted as implying that the Injil is preserved, but instead many Muslim scholars interpret it as Allah warning the Christians not to enforce the law contrary to the law sent by Allah:

And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the Gospel [Injil] wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah ] - a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil). Let the People of the Gospel [Injil] judge by that which Allah hath revealed therein....".
Quran 5:46-47

Scholars such as Gabriel Said Reynolds have maintained Injil refers specifically to the Gospel of the New Testament in the possession of the Christians being addressed in such passages, which is none other than the Gospels of the Bible as known today and in copies that predate the lifetime of Muhammad.

Adapted from: Gospel in Islam - Wikipedia

So is the Gospel of Jesus referred to in the Quran the New Testament Gospels? Or does it refer to a Gospel that is now hopelessly lost, meaning the New Testament Gospels are corrupted? What evidence would support your conclusion?

Brother. Good post.

If you read the Gospels in the New Testament, does any one of them refer to themselves as the Gospel?
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Mark 1

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
That is not referring to the book itself as a book with the title "good news". The good news is "Jesus Christ, the Son of God", as it says right there directly in the passage. You are taking a latter distortion that the book is the gospel, and reading it as saying the book is the gospel. But it's not.

Why would a book be used to co opt a term applied to a person, such as it was to Caesar Augustus. The "good news" of Caesar Augustus, was about his person, not about the author who wrote about him. The Gospel of Caesar Augustus becomes the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Not Mark, or Matthew, or Luke, or John.
 

Rival

Diex Aie
Staff member
Premium Member
That is not referring to the book itself as a book with the title "good news". The good news is "Jesus Christ, the Son of God", as it says right there directly in the passage. You are taking a latter distortion that the book is the gospel, and reading it as saying the book is the gospel. But it's not.

Why would a book be used to co opt a term applied to a person, such as it was to Caesar Augustus. The "good news" of Caesar Augustus, was about his person, not about the author who wrote about him.
I'm not really invested in this so, *shrug*
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
You can try to reconcile the four biographies together but at the end of the day you're still dealing with four biographies that were chosen out of around 40 or so.
I see you calling the four "gospels" as biographies. They really are not biographies. If so, what do they say about the years of his life prior to 30 years of age? Not a lot of anything at all. That's very unusual for a biography.

For better information on this, here's a quick discussion of that on PBS with what modern scholarship understands about these texts: The Story Of The Storytellers - What Are The Gospels? | From Jesus To Christ | FRONTLINE | PBS

The gospels are not biographies in the modern sense of the word. Rather, they are stories told in such a way as to evoke a certain image of Jesus for a particular audience. They're trying to convey a message about Jesus, about his significance to the audience and thus we we have to think of them as a kind of preaching, as well as storytelling. That's what the gospel, The Good News, is really all about.
Storytelling and preaching is a much better understanding of these, rather than biographies, which isn't supported. The stories are vehicle for theologies. They aren't about chronicling the life of an historical figure.
 

PruePhillip

Well-Known Member
Injil is the Arabic name for the Gospel of Jesus. This Injil is described by the Quran as one of the Holy books revealed by God, Including the Tawrat (Torah) and the Quran itself. The word Injil is also used in the Quran, the Hadith and early Muslim documents to refer to both a book and revelations made by God to Jesus.

However Muslim scholars have resisted identifying the Injil with the New Testament Gospels. Some have suggested the Injil may be the Gospel of Barnabas or the Gospel of Thomas. More commonly, Muslim scholars have argued that the Injil refers to a text now lost or hopelessly corrupted.

For example, Abdullah Yusuf Ali wrote:

The Injil spoken of by the Quran is not the New Testament. It is not the four Gospels now received as canonical. It is the single Gospel which, Islam teaches, was revealed to Jesus, and which he taught. Fragments of it survive in the received canonical Gospels and in some others, of which traces survive (e.g., the Gospel of Childhood or the Nativity, the Gospel of St.Barnabas, etc.)

The following verse is often interpreted as implying that the Injil is preserved, but instead many Muslim scholars interpret it as Allah warning the Christians not to enforce the law contrary to the law sent by Allah:

And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the Gospel [Injil] wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah ] - a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil). Let the People of the Gospel [Injil] judge by that which Allah hath revealed therein....".
Quran 5:46-47

Scholars such as Gabriel Said Reynolds have maintained Injil refers specifically to the Gospel of the New Testament in the possession of the Christians being addressed in such passages, which is none other than the Gospels of the Bible as known today and in copies that predate the lifetime of Muhammad.

Adapted from: Gospel in Islam - Wikipedia

So is the Gospel of Jesus referred to in the Quran the New Testament Gospels? Or does it refer to a Gospel that is now hopelessly lost, meaning the New Testament Gospels are corrupted? What evidence would support your conclusion?

As the Mormons will testify, anyone can write their own bible. Mohamed's violent followers certainly did.
 
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firedragon

Veteran Member

I think the creator of the OP would have a different approach to this question and you might take it as a faith based response by the looks of it.

Nevertheless with all due respect, where does any of the canonised gospels call itself the "Gospel"? This is asked to establish a book as the gospel since the OP is looking for that discussion.
 

Rival

Diex Aie
Staff member
Premium Member
I think the creator of the OP would have a different approach to this question and you might take it as a faith based response by the looks of it.

Nevertheless with all due respect, where does any of the canonised gospels call itself the "Gospel"? This is asked to establish a book as the gospel since the OP is looking for that discussion.
Mark is canonical, but see Windwalker's response.
 

shmogie

Well-Known Member
Injil is the Arabic name for the Gospel of Jesus. This Injil is described by the Quran as one of the Holy books revealed by God, Including the Tawrat (Torah) and the Quran itself. The word Injil is also used in the Quran, the Hadith and early Muslim documents to refer to both a book and revelations made by God to Jesus.

However Muslim scholars have resisted identifying the Injil with the New Testament Gospels. Some have suggested the Injil may be the Gospel of Barnabas or the Gospel of Thomas. More commonly, Muslim scholars have argued that the Injil refers to a text now lost or hopelessly corrupted.

For example, Abdullah Yusuf Ali wrote:

The Injil spoken of by the Quran is not the New Testament. It is not the four Gospels now received as canonical. It is the single Gospel which, Islam teaches, was revealed to Jesus, and which he taught. Fragments of it survive in the received canonical Gospels and in some others, of which traces survive (e.g., the Gospel of Childhood or the Nativity, the Gospel of St.Barnabas, etc.)

The following verse is often interpreted as implying that the Injil is preserved, but instead many Muslim scholars interpret it as Allah warning the Christians not to enforce the law contrary to the law sent by Allah:

And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the Gospel [Injil] wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah ] - a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil). Let the People of the Gospel [Injil] judge by that which Allah hath revealed therein....".
Quran 5:46-47

Scholars such as Gabriel Said Reynolds have maintained Injil refers specifically to the Gospel of the New Testament in the possession of the Christians being addressed in such passages, which is none other than the Gospels of the Bible as known today and in copies that predate the lifetime of Muhammad.

Adapted from: Gospel in Islam - Wikipedia

So is the Gospel of Jesus referred to in the Quran the New Testament Gospels? Or does it refer to a Gospel that is now hopelessly lost, meaning the New Testament Gospels are corrupted? What evidence would support your conclusion?
Islam is a polyglot of ideas from Christianity and Judaism which existed centuries before Mohammed had his alleged visions. His commentary on anything regarding Judaism and Christianity means absolutely nothing.

Islamic scholars and their views on anything are irrelevant to Christianity and Judaism.

The Gospels are exactly what they say they are. They are the only true revelation of Christ, as are the other books of the NT.

The Torah and other books of the OT are the only true revelation of God, until the Messiah ( Christ) came.

All else is false, and the source for the falsity is not God.
 

Rival

Diex Aie
Staff member
Premium Member
I did. Doesn't answer my question brother.
Perhaps if you could rephrase it? What I understood from it was that you wanted to know if the books Christians call the gospel(s) refer to themselves anywhere as 'gospel'. I gave a response that Windwalker then refuted and I thought that was that. If I interpreted you wrong, we can have another go, bro.
 

Terry Sampson

Well-Known Member
I did. Doesn't answer my question brother.

Screenshot_2019-08-20 The Gospels in Islam Authentic or Corrupted .png
 

firedragon

Veteran Member

Right.

That is a good explanation. But doesn't answer the question.

But one must either say "No, the gospels don't call themselves the gospel" or as wind walker says "The gospel is the message, not the name of the book".

Anyway, the Quran refers to a revelation which is called the Injeel. Thats why this question was asked in response to the OP. It is not for a faith based debate.

Thanks for the response.
 
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