COMPARISON OF THE BIBLE AND QURAN- HISTORY OF THE BIBLE AND QURAN

HISTORY OF THE BIBLE

The first recorded instance of God’s Word being written down was when the Lord Himself

wrote it down in the form of the Ten Commandments on the stone tablets delivered to Moses

at the top of Mount Sinai.

The earliest scripture is generally considered to be the “Pentateuch”, the first five books are:

 Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  When the entire Pentateuch

is present on a scroll, it is called a “Torah”.  An entire Torah Scroll, if completely unraveled, is

over 150 feet long!

By approximately 500 BC, the 39 books that make up the Old Testament were completed and

continued to be preserved in Hebrew on scrolls.

1.      The roots of the Bible go back over 3000 years 1450 BC – 600 AD

2.      Beginnings 600 AD – 1611 AD

3.      Post King James 1611 AD – 1947 AD

4.      Post Dead Sea Scrolls 1949 AD – 1982 AD

Autographs:  The original texts were written either by the author’s own hand or by a scribe

under their person’s supervision.

Manuscripts:  Until Gutenberg first printed the Latin Bible in 1456, all Bibles were hand copied

onto papyrus, parchment and paper.

Translation:  When the Bible is translated into a different language it is usually translated from

the original Hebrew and Greek.  However some translations in the past were derived from an

earlier translation.  For example the First English translation by John Wycliffe in 1380 was

prepared from the Latin Vulgate.

Old Testament:  The Bible comes from two main sources – Old and New Testaments – written

in different languages.  The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew, with some books

written in Aramaic.

Autographs:  There are no known autographs of any books of the Old Testament.

Translations:  The Old Testament was translated very early into Aramaic and Greek.

The New Testament: 

Autographs:  45-95 A.D. The New Testament was written in Greek.  The Pauline, Epistles, the

Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts are all dated from 45-63 A.D.  The

Gospel of John and the Revelation may have been written as late as 95 A.D.

Translations:  Early translations of the New Testament can give important insight into the

underlying Greek manuscripts from which they were translated.

The Advent of Printing:  Printing greatly aided the transmission of the biblical texts

HISTORY OF THE QUR’AN

The Qur’an has a rich history that spreads out over six centuries.  In 610 the first verses of the

Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad from the angel Gabriel.  Muhammad had revelations

throughout his life until he died in 632.

The Qur’an we see today was put together by Uthman ibn Affan (653-656).  He destroyed the

existing codices.  Some variations still remained and they are seen in the early manuscripts of

Umayyad and Abbasid Dynasties.

The Qur’an was recorded on tablets, bones and the wide, flat ends of date palm fronds.

The Qur’an manuscript from the 7^th century CE was written on veilum (made of calf) in the

Hijaz script.  [Veilum is a mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single

pages, scrolls, codice or books.[ [Hijazi script does not yet contain any dots or diacritical marks: 

only the consonants are represented.]

Seventy reciters were killed at the Battle of Yamama.  Abu Bakr knew he had to collect the

chapters and verses and make one volume.  They had Zayd ibn Thabit to collect chapters and

verses and produce several hand-written copies of the complete book.

The last verse sent down to the Prophet was the saying of Allah which mean”…This day I have

perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you

Islam as religion…” [Qur’an 5:3.]

The Qur’an is divided into 114 surahs or chapters and they are from two broad categories: 

those revealed at Mecca, the beginning of Muhammad’s mission.  These chapters were short

and spoke about the eternal themes of the unity of God, faith, punishment of those who

strayed from the right path, the Last Judgment, and when man’s actions and beliefs will be

judged.  The surahs revealed at Medina are longer.  They dealt with specific legal, social, or

political problems.  The surahs are divided into ayas, verses.  The surahs are in different lengths,

long and short.  The longest is at the beginning and the shortest at the end.  The Fatihah is the

opening surah and it introduces the entire revelation.

The Qur’an was being revealed in accordance with the needs of the different stages of the

prophetic mission.  It was not in chronological order of its revelation.  The Qur’an is known also

as Al-Furqan (that which differentiates between truth and falsehood), Al-kitab (the book) and

Adh-Dhikr (the remembrance).

The most important teachings of the Qur’an is “Tawhid” oneness of God and belief in the day

of judgment.

An important aspect of the Qur’an is its description of historic events.  It tells about the conflict

of truth and falsehood and the conflict of Allah’s followers and enemies.  It is a primary

doctrinal source of Islam.  The Qur’an attests all Books revealed previously by Allah.  It is a holy

book not for a specific community only, rather it is for mankind as a whole.  It is a complete doe

of life.