On Christianity: Educating Ourselves (Part 2)

Part 2: What is the Bible?

An examination of the Bible is necessary today because of the many questions being raised by religious people of all circles, including Jews and Christians, as to its inconsistency with contemporary church teachings as well as its inconsistency within itself.

The word "Bible" comes from the Koine Greek word "biblios" and it simply means the same as the word "book" in English. Nowhere in the Bible do we find the word "Bible." However, it is interesting to note the word "kitab" (Bible in Arabic) appears many times in the Quran, referring to the Bible and the People of the Book (Jews and Christians)

“Christ” and ‘Original Sin’:

Muslims believe in the same Omnipotent, All-powerful, Unseen God that the Jews have believed in since Adam. However, unlike the Jews, Muslims join in with the Christians by also believing in Jesus as the "Christ"; "Messiah"; "Logos"; and "Miraculous Conception"; as well as all the previous Biblical prophets and their original scriptures that they brought. Muslims also believe that God is merciful and just to His creatures. So, they deny the concept of the 'Original Sin' [all children are born into the sins of their parents] and the 'Sacrificial Lamb' concept which requires the blood of Jesus, peace be upon him, to atone for the sins of the sinners.

"Versions" of the Bible:

First and foremost, let us be perfectly clear on the position of Muslims regarding the authenticity of the Holy Bible. It is a condition of faith for believers to believe in all of God's Books and scripture as stipulated by the Quran, the Last and Final Testament from Almighty God to mankind, that the previous scriptures, including of course the Old Testament (Arabic = Torah), the Psalms (Arabic = Zabur) and the New Testament (Arabic = Injeel) were all from Almighty God (Arabic = Allah) in their original form. The beginning verses of the Quran clearly spell out the position of the 'Believer' with regard to these scriptures:

“And they believe in what is being sent down to you and they believe in what has been sent down before” (Holy Qur’an: 2:2-3)

Therefore, it must be established that Muslims do accept that Almighty Allah did send down many Holy Books and he did allow the people to alter, change, delete and make additions to these Books, and as such, they can not longer be considered as the "Word of God" in their present condition.

This is something immediately agreed upon by all qualified Biblical scholars. Incidentally, there is sufficient evidence in the Quran to prove the remainder of the Bible still contains many of the original teachings and sayings of the prophets to whom the various scriptures were revealed.

It can be easily determined that the original source of the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments have been lost and are no longer extant in any language. What has remained and been referred to for translations, is in fact nothing more than old copies that do not necessarily agree with each other and there does exist in them obvious corruption in additions and deletions. Additionally, they are not complete and do not have full agreement of the scholars of the Bible as to their meanings.

As indicated before there are numerous versions of the Bible. Out of these let us look at some of the ‘most famous’ versions:

The King James Version of the Bible is in English. There was no English language until the year 1066 AD when the Normans invaded the Saxons. Therefore the English Bible cannot be anything like what any of the prophets spoke or understood, as it did not exist in their times.

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible which was a revised version of the American Standard Version, published in 1901, which was a version of the King James Version, published in 1611, which was revised and corrected for the first time in 1612, etc. However, there were still some problems with this ‘improved’ version of the Holy Bible, as stated IN THE BIBLE itself by the Bible scholars themselves.

Pages iii and iv in the preface of Revised Standard Version says:

“…The King James Version has grave defects. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the development of the Biblical studies and the discovery of many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was based, made it manifest that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for a revision of the English translation. The task was undertaken, by authority of the Church of England, in 1870. The English Revised Version of the Bible was published in 1881-1885; and the American Standard Version, its variant embodying the preferences of the American scholars associated in the work, was published in 1901…The King James Version of the New Testament was based upon a Greek text that was marred by mistakes, containing the accumulated errors of fourteen centuries of manuscript copying…”

Therefore, it is a simple and straightforward conclusion that these "versions" are NOT the actual Bible sent by God to Mankind!

Bear in mind also, that if a book were revealed from Almighty God to the humans, it should not have even a single mistake or error anywhere in it. Otherwise, it would indicate that it is not from a Perfect God, but rather from an imperfect human. Thus we find that many Jews and Christians are opening their eyes to this fact and are willfully accepting Islam and the Last and Final Testament of Almighty God (the Holy Quran) wholeheartedly!