Is the Bible Corrupted?

A Muslim may say: Christians believe in a corrupted scripture. The Quran is the only preserved scripture, and the Bible is corrupted.

Do you believe that the Torah, the Zabur (Psalms), the Injil (Gospel) – all part of the Bible – and the Quran are all the word of God?

If so, it is a confusing statement to say that God’s previous words (the Bible) were corrupted, while God’s last word (the Quran) – according to Islamic belief – was preserved.

In a way, you are saying that some of God’s words could be preserved while others could be corrupted. (read my article “Is the Quran Preserved?“)

In other words, you accuse God of being powerless (unable to protect His previous words) and/or unfair (not caring to preserve His previous words and letting people be misled, while preserving the last word He sent).

We need to choose: is God mighty and just, or is He powerless and unfair?

We believe God is mighty and just, and whatever message He sends He is able to protect and preserve. Any tampering with this message is an insult to Him.

We also have to ask ourselves: when did this alleged corruption happen?

Was it before the time of Muhammad?

That is impossible, since the Quran refers to the Bible as a true scripture in many verses. For example, God says to Muhammad in the Quran regarding the Jews:

But how do they come to you for decision while they have the Torah, in which is the Decision of God? Quran 5:43

If the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) was corrupted, then why does the Quran refer to it as an authentic carrier of God’s decision? And the Quran says the same of the Gospel: it tells the Christians of Muhammad’s day to judge by the Gospel they have (Quran 5:47), tells Jews and Christians together that they have nothing to stand on until they hold to the Torah and the Gospel (Quran 5:68), and tells Muhammad himself, if he is in doubt, to ask those who were reading the Book before him (Quran 10:94).

Therefore, we cannot say the Bible was corrupted before the time of Muhammad.

Was it corrupted after Muhammad claimed to be a prophet?

If the Quran accused the People of the Book of corrupting their scripture (e.g. Quran 4:46; 5:13; 5:41), it may have been an accusation against a local group, but not against the entire Jewish and Christian world. The Jewish and Christian world was thousands of times bigger than the oasis town of Medina in the desert of Arabia where this accusation was made.

In order for the Jews and the Christians to corrupt their scripture, they would have had to call a universal conference – bring all the leaders of their religions from all the known world at that time, Asia, Europe, and Africa – to meet in one place and decide what to remove. Then they would have had to burn thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of copies of scripture from all around the world, in Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Latin and Coptic; and then produce thousands of modified copies to be redistributed to the entire known world.

This is logistically impossible, even in our own time. It is also morally impossible, because thousands of religious leaders would have had to choose to tamper with their God’s word knowingly. Is it not conceivable that at least a few of them would have rejected such tampering? And would not some of the older copies have escaped the modification, so that we would have found them by now? We have, in fact, manuscripts of the Bible that are centuries older than Muhammad, and they can be compared with what we read today.

We are also talking about two adversaries, Jews and Christians. They were not friends of each other at the time.

If the Jews corrupted the Jewish scripture, then the Christians, who believed in it, would not have been silent. On the other hand, the Jews would not have kept quiet if the Christians tampered with the Jewish scripture, as it is their own scripture; and they would certainly have found something to say against the Christians if the Christians had tampered with the Christian scripture.

Again, you would have to get these two adversarial groups together and then get them to agree on changing their own scripture. Do you think there were no believers among them who took God’s command seriously?

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. Deuteronomy 4:2

God is good, honest, mighty and just. He would not let His word be tampered with and allow people to be led astray, while He did nothing for six hundred years until He sent a new prophet with a new scripture.

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. Revelation 22:18–19

Nobody can tamper with God’s word without experiencing God’s wrath.

I invite you to read the word of God, the Bible, for yourself.