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Muslims consider certain Christian texts (Injil<\/strong>) from the 7th century sacred<\/strong>. But a study reveals that the Quran<\/strong> refers to the Syriac Peshitta<\/strong>, identical to the current Gospel. A hard dilemma for Islam.<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not everyone knows that the Quran<\/strong><\/mark> recognizes Christian texts as divine scriptures and authentic revelations from God.<\/p>\n But how is that possible? Christian texts explicitly contradict<\/strong> the contents of the Quran, starting with the divinity of Christ, the crucifixion and his resurrection.<\/p>\n The response of Islamic doctrine<\/strong> has always been that the Gospel known today, containing teachings incompatible with Islam, would not be the original<\/strong> one circulated in the 7th century, but would have been modified and corrupted<\/strong> over time.<\/p>\n Two researchers have instead shown that the texts Christians read in the time of Muhammad were exactly the same<\/strong> as those we still read today. This creates a dreadful dilemma: does the Quran value texts that contradict the foundations of Islam?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let’s take a step back and start from the beginning.<\/p>\n The Quran<\/strong>, the holy book of Islam, in several surahs refers to the Injil<\/strong><\/i><\/mark>, an Arabic term that denotes the Gospel<\/strong> given by God to Jesus (\u012as\u0101<\/i>).<\/p>\n For the Quran and for Muslims, the Injil<\/i> is an original divine revelation<\/strong>, a holy book, similar to the Torah given to Moses.<\/p>\n The Quran speaks of the Injil<\/em> as an authentic scripture, a written document<\/strong> available to Christians at the time of Muhammad and which they were to follow as a sacred text, exhorting them to \u00abjudge according to what God has revealed to you<\/strong>\u00bb<\/i> (Sura 5:47).<\/p>\n In another passage, the Islamic text reports: \u00abAnd We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming what was before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Injil, in which there is guidance and light<\/strong>\u00bb<\/i> (Sura 5:46).<\/p>\n And again, in surahs 3:3-4 and 5:68 it is reiterated that God revealed<\/strong> the Torah and the Injil before the Quran and that these scriptures have a guiding role for believers.<\/p>\n As already mentioned, Muslims today maintain that when the Quran refers to the Injil<\/i> it is speaking of Christian texts different<\/strong> from today’s Gospel, which contains texts different from the original, corrupted or altered over time. This is called the doctrine of Tarif<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n On the other hand, it would be absurd<\/strong> to claim that the Quran indicated the Gospel as a sacred and divine scripture, in which Jesus<\/strong> is the only son of God, risen and ascended to heaven. Evidently Christians at the time of Muhammad read texts coherent with Islam<\/strong> that did not contain these assertions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As noted by YouTuber Cameron Bertuzzi, in 2017 researchers from North-West University (South Africa), Henk G. Stoker<\/strong> and Paul Derengowski<\/strong>, however contradicted the doctrine of Tarif<\/em>.<\/p>\n Publishing in the African Online Scientific Information Systems<\/i><\/a><\/strong> (also here<\/a><\/em><\/strong>), through a thorough historical and philological investigation the scholars showed that Christians in Arabia in the 7th century owned well-defined Christian texts substantially identical<\/strong> to those used today.<\/p>\n These are the Syriac Peshitta<\/strong><\/mark>, that is the version of the Gospel in use among Syriac-speaking Christians in the Middle East (Syria, Mesopotamia and Arabia). It is to this that the Quran refers as a sacred and divine scripture, giving it the name “Injil<\/strong>“<\/i>.<\/p>\n By the 4th century the canon of the Scriptures was already essentially defined but not all Christian communities in the world used exactly the same texts. Although the content was largely similar, regional, linguistic and canonical differences meant that Syriac Christians<\/strong> read one version, Copts in Egypt another, and Latins in the West yet another.<\/p>\n And this leads us to Arabia. At the time of Muhammad<\/strong>, in the early 7th century, Christianity was already present<\/strong> in that region for centuries, brought into the Arabian Peninsula by monks, merchants and missionaries. Jews and Christians were active in Medina<\/strong> and their scriptures were read, taught and debated openly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Syriac Peshitta<\/strong> was the dominant version, copied, memorized and preached in the churches from Syria to Arabia. It comprised 22 books of the New Testament, including the four Gospels<\/strong> and the letters of Paul. It excluded<\/strong> only the Second Epistle of Peter, the Second and Third Epistles of John, the Epistle of Jude and the Revelation of John.<\/p>\n Its manuscript tradition is extraordinarily stable, as acknowledged by Bruce Metzger<\/strong>, one of the leading New Testament philologists: \u00abSyriac scribes devoted great care to the transcription of the Peshitta version. There is an extraordinary agreement<\/strong> among manuscripts of every age, there being on average no more than one significant variant per chapter\u00bb<\/i>1<\/a><\/sup>B. Metzger<\/b>, “The early versions of the New Testament<\/i>, Clarendon 1977, p. 49<\/span>.<\/p>\n
\nWhat the Quran says about Christian texts<\/h2>\n
The research: the Injil of the Quran is the Syriac Peshitta<\/h2>\n
The Syriac Peshitta is identical to today’s Gospel<\/h2>\n