SECOND OBJECTION

• Contradictions Between The Quran And The Bible.

• First Discrepancy To Twenty-Fifth Discrepancy.

The Qur’anic opposition to the Bible, as expressed by the Christian theologians, is categorized as follows:


1. The Qur’an abrogates a number of injunctions contained in the Bible.

2. The Qur’an fails to mention some events that are described in the Old and New Testaments.

3. Some events described by the Holy Qur’an are different from the descriptions given in the Bible.

There are no grounds for denying the truth of the Holy Qur’an on the basis of the above three types of Qur’anic opposition to the Bible. Firstly, abrogation is not unique to the Qur’an. We have cited specific examples of the presence of abrogation in the laws prior to the Qur’an. The presence of abrogation in any revelation is not contrary to reason. We have already seen that the law of the Prophet Jesus abrogated all but nine injunctions of the Torah including the Ten Commandments.

Secondly, there are many events described by the New Testament that do not exist in the Old Testament. It would be quite in order to reproduce some examples of such events. The following thirteen events out of a large number of them should sufficiently prove our claim. The Old Testament cannot be disbelieved only on these grounds.

1.We read in the Epistle of Jude in verse 9:

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

No trace of the dispute of Michael with the devil mentioned above is found in any book of the Old Testament

2.The same epistle contains in verses 14-15 the following statement:

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly dceds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

The above statement made by Enoch is also not found in any of the books of the Old Testament.

3.We find the following description in Hebrews 12:21:

And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. 1[1]

The event to which the above statement has referred is described in chapter 19 of the Book of Exodus. The above sentence of the Prophet Moses can be found neither in Exodus nor in any other book of the Old Testament.

4.II Timothy 3:8 contains the following statement:

Now as Jannes and Jambers withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth.

The dispute referred to in the above passage is described in chapter 7 of the Book of Exodus. The names Jannes and Jambers can be found neither in any chapter of Exodus nor in any other book of the Old Testament.

5. I Corinthians 15:6 says:

After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

The number of five hundred people having seen Christ 2[2] after his resurrection cannot be found in any of the Gospels, nor even in the book of Acts, in spite of Luke’s fondness of describing such events.

6.The book of Acts 20:35 says:

And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

The above statement of the prophet Jesus cannot be traced in any of the four gospels.

7.The genealogical description of Matthew in the first chapter contains names after Zorobabel 3[3] that are not found in any book of the Old Testament.

8.We find the following event described in the book of Acts 7:23- 28:

And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren: why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?

This event also appears in the Book of Exodus but we find that there are many additional things mentioned in Acts which do not appear in the following description of the book of Exodus, which goes:

And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? 4[4]

9.The Epistle of Jude verse 6 says:

And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day.

10.The same statement also appears in the Second Epistle of Peter 2:4:

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of dark- ness, to be reserved unto judgement.

The above statements attributed to Jude and Peter do not exist in any book of the Old Testament. In fact it seems to be a false statement, because the imprisoned angels referred to in this statement are, it seems, devils while they too are not in everlasting chains of imprisonment. This is evident from chapter 1 of the Book of Job, Mark 1:12, I Peter 5:8 5[5] and many other similar verses.

11.Psalm 105:18 says, with regard to the imprisonment of the prophet Joseph:

Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron. Genesis also describes this event in chapter 39, but there he is not reported as being chained and laid in irons which was not always necessary for a prisoner.

12.The Book of Hosea 12:4 has:

Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept and made supplication unto him.

Genesis describes the above event of Jacob’s wrestling with the angel in chapter 32, but it does not speak of his weeping and making supplication to him.

13.The four gospels briefly describe Paradise, Hell, the Day of Judgement and the rewards and punishments of the Hereafter, but in contrast to this we do not find any of these things in the five books of the Pentateuch. The obedient are promised worldly rewards and the disobedient threatened with only worldly punishments. 6[6]This proves that the fact that such descriptions or events are described in later books and not mentioned in former books, does not necessarily prove the falsehood of the later books.

 Otherwise it would demand that the gospels be declared false since they contain material from the past that does not exist in any book of the Old Testament. It is not therefore necessary for a later book to cover all past events. For examples, the names of all the descendants of Adam, Seth and Jonah and their accounts are not mentioned in the Torah.

The commentary of D’Oyly and Richard Mant contains the following comments on II King 14:25:

The name of the Prophet Jonah is not found mentioned anywhere except in this verse and in the famous message to the people of Nineveh. There is no mention in any book of any prophecy of Jonah with regard to Jeroboam’s invasion of Syria. This is not because we have lost many books of the prophets, but simply because the prophets did not speak of many events that took place.

Our claim is sufficiently affirmed by the above statement.

Similarly the Gospel of John 20:30 says:

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

John 21:25 also has:

And there are many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.

Apart from being a metaphorical exaggeration the above statement testifies to the fact that all the events of Jesus’ life could not be recorded in the books.

Thirdly, their objection that, regarding many events, the Qur’anic description is different from the one in the Bible is not valid because a profusion of such differences is also present within the books of the Old Testament, and similarly some of the Gospels differ concerning many events from the others; and also the New Testament differs from the Old Testament. Though we have produced specific examples of this at the beginning of this book, it is quite in order to cite some more examples of such differences here to eliminate any possible misunderstanding Created by the above objections.

It goes without saying that the three basic versions of the Pentateuch, that is, the Hebrew, the Greek and the Samaritan are also different from each other in the same way. A further prolongation of this exposition by producing more examples of such discrepancies is necessary in view of their relevance to the present subject.

1[1] This refers to the oral communication of Moses with God on Mount Sinai described in Exodus.

2[2] This refers to the event of Christ’s resurrection after the ’crucifixion’. There is no mention of five hundred people having seen him, only eleven people are reported by the gospels to have seen him. R.A. Knox has admitted that Paul has erroneously counted separately every time he was seen by James and Peter.

3[3]. See Matthew 1:13-16.


4[4] . Exodus 2:11-14.


5[5] “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 5:8. The freedom of the devil is obviously known from this statement. There are many more similar statements showing the freedom of the devils.


6[6]For example Exodus 23:22 says, “But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary unto thine adversaries.” Similarly Leviticus 26:15-16 has said.”if ...ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:....I will even appoint over you terror, consumption and the burning ague.” Also see for obedience: Exodus 19:5, Leviticus 26:3, Deut. 4:8. etc.