Distortion of Holy Scriptures

Distortion of Holy Scriptures or al-taḥrīf (Arabic: التحریف) refers to verbal changes made in the texts of scriptures and their misinterpretations. The issue of distortion goes back to the Qur'an. According to the Qur'an, holy scriptures were distorted by the Jews and Christians. The distortions are also mentioned in hadiths. In order to prove the verbal distortions of the Torah and the Gospel, Muslims have usually appealed to differences in various manuscripts and versions of these scriptures. They hold that the most important distortions in scriptures include the elimination of the name of the Prophet Muhammad (s), and the omission of the punishment for adultery in the Bible. Contradictions in their texts, as well as some irrational contents such as Trinity, are also taken as evidence for distortions in these scriptures.

Literal and Terminological Meaning

The word, "al-tahrif", literally means to "transform the word" or to "change the word" and it is particularly used to mean a change in a book. It sometimes refers to a verbal change and sometimes to a misinterpretation of a text.

History

The debate over the distortion of holy scriptures was more serious at times and places in which Muslims had more encounters with Jews and Christians; for example, in the early years of Islam during the period of the Prophet Muhammad (s) or in places close to the residence of Jews and Christians, such as al-Andalus. In recent times the debate was raised once again when European or American missionaries began to propagate Christianity in Iran and other Islamic countries.

In the recent period, non-Muslim scholars have shown the unreliability of the Bible through a historical criticism. Such studies have been appealed to by Muslim scholars to show the distortion of the Torah and the Gospel.

In the Qur'an and Hadiths

The debate over the distortion of the holy scriptures of the Jews and the Christians is originated in the Qur'an in which the Torah and the Gospel are confirmed as scriptures sent down by God to the prophets, but it is emphasized that they were later distorted. According to the verse 75 of Qur'an 2, "a party of the Jews used to hear the words of Allah and then distort the Torah after they had understood it while they were knowing" and according to the verse 79 of this Sura^[1] as well as the verse 78 of Qur'an 3,^[2] there are people who write the book and pretend that it was from God. The verse 46 of Qur'an 4^[3] and the verse 13 of Qur'an 5^[4] are also concerned with the distortion of God's word by People of the Book. The same thing is stated in verse 41 of Sura al-Ma'ida as well. The issue of distortion frequently appears in books of hadiths.

Time

Quranic exegetes and Muslim scholars have provided different accounts of when the Bible was distorted. Some of them trace it back to the 70 people who accompanied Moses and received God's message from him. Others take Quranic verses concerning the distortion to be about People of the Book who lived at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (s). The latter type of distortion does not extend it to all words of the Bible in all languages.

Instances

Different instances of the distortion of the Bible have been referred to. However, two major instances have been mentioned in hadiths and the work of Muslim scholars:

The Bible contained the characteristics of the Prophet Muhammad (s) and a prognostication of his prophethood, as pointed out in the Qur'an, but the Jews and the Christians distorted it.
According to the Torah, adultery was punished by stoning, but the ruling was later distorted. According to Islamic sources, Jews in Medina disliked the enforcement of the stoning punishment to a nobleman and a woman who had committed adultery. So, they went to the Prophet Muhammad (s) to ask him for adjudication over the matter. The Prophet (s) ruled that they should be stoned, but they refused to accept his ruling. The Prophet (s) characterized a person called Ibn Suriya, who was admitted by the Jews to be the most knowledgeable person about the Torah. Ibn Suriya was summoned and inquired about the ruling of adultery. He explained that the stoning punishment originally appeared in the Torah, but Jewish scholars distinguished rich and poor people at first, enforcing the ruling only for the latter. The poor objected to the discrimination and adultery was common among rich Jews. So, Jewish scholars considered other punishments for adultery.

Manner

In general, there are two accounts of how the Bible was distorted:

Some people take the distortion referred to in the Qur'an to consist solely in misinterpretation, rather than changing the words. Abu Hatam al-Razi, an Isma'ili theologian in the 4th/10th century, was a proponent of this view. He believed that differences between the three versions of the Torah and those between the Four Gospels were like differences in the recitation of the Qur'an. Perhaps, this was the reason why he found himself obliged to defend the existing Bible in his debate with Muhammad b. Zakariyya al-Razi.

The majority of Muslim scholars reject this view, taking the distortion to consist of verbal changes as well.

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi preferred the misinterpretation view because many different copies of the Torah and the Gospel were available in Eastern and Western parts of the world, and so, it was unlikely that they all could be verbally distorted. However, he refers to cases of verbal changes within the Bible as well. Moreover, he subtly distinguishes between the two Quranic accounts of the distortion, "they distort the words from their proper usage" (Quran 4:46, 5:13) and "they distort the words beyond their proper usage," (Quran 5:41) taking the former to be concerned with non-verbal distortions (that is, misinterpretations) and the latter to be concerned with both verbal and interpretive changes.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzi classifies the distortion into five:

Mixing the truths and falsehoods in a way that they cannot be discerned from one another.
The denial of the truth.
Concealing the truth.
Distorting the words from their usages (both interpretive and verbal changes).
Reading the text in an ambiguous way in order to confuse the hearer.

Evidence for Verbal Distortions

Muslims particularly appealed to differences between various versions of the Torah and the Gospel to show that they were subject to verbal distortions.

In the Torah

With respect to the Torah, evidence for verbal distortions was sought in differences between the three Hebrew, Syriac, and Greek versions, which were respectively referenced by the Jews, Samaritans, and Christians. They considered such differences, along with the date in which the Torah was compiled, the absence of a frequent transmission of its copies, and the existing Torah being written by Ezra, as evidence for the unreliability of the existing Torah.

In the Gospel

Muslims argued for the verbal distortion of the Gospel from the fact that, according to the Qur'an, the Gospel was sent down to Jesus by God, while the Four Gospels are written by four people (Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John). It is argued that the differences between these four versions reveal the unreliability of the existing Gospel.

Conflicts within the Bible

Ibn Hazm

Since the period of Ibn Hazm (d. 456/1063-4), Muslim scholars began to investigate the contents of the Torah and the Gospel to find internal conflicts in them, as well as the irrationality and theological unjustifiability of certain doctrines contained therein, such as Trinity. They concluded that such contents could not be from God, and so, the Bible was verbally distorted. Ibn Hazm significantly contributed to the literature with his vast knowledge of the Torah and the Gospel. He also concerned himself with the time of the compilation of the Torah and the absence of frequent transmission of the book.

Al-Samaw'al b. Yahya

Al-Samaw'al b. Yahya al-Maghribi (d. 570/1174-5), the author of Ifham al-Yahud, was another scholar who concerned himself with the critique of the existing Torah and the debate over its distortion. He had converted from Judaism to Islam, and was one of the few people who discussed the distortion of the Torah after Ibn Hazm. In his book, Tanqih al-abhath, Ibn Kammuna rejected some claims in Ifham al-yahud. However, Ibn Kammuna's book was subject to many criticisms and replies. In addition to Ibn Kammuna who tried to reply to objections concerning the distortion of the Bible from a Jewish point of view, 'Ammar al-Basri, the author of al-Burhan, tried to defend the reliability of the Bible from a Christian perspective. Ibn Hazm's methods for showing the distortion continued to be followed in debates between Muslims and People of the Book. Recent authors drew on all these methods to demonstrate the distortion of the Bible.

Critique versus Total Rejection

Given that the Qur'an and hadiths confirm that the Torah and the Gospel that existed in the period of the Prophet Muhammad (s) also had contents that were sent down by God, the above critiques about their distortions never led to a total rejection of the Torah and the Gospel. They were sometimes appealed to without taking their verbal changes into account. And since it is believed that a prior holy scripture must prognosticate the emergence of the subsequent prophet, some people have looked for prognostication of the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad (s) in the existing Torah and Gospel. According to some sources, the Torah even contains a prognostication of the Prophet's (s) successor, 'Ali (a), as well.

Notes

↑ So woe to those who write the Book with their hands and then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ that they may sell it for a paltry gain. So woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn! (Quran 2:79)
↑ There is indeed a group of them who twist their tongues to mimic the Book, that you may suppose that it is from the Book, though it is not from the Book, and they say, ‘It is from Allah,’ though it is not from Allah, and they attribute lies to Allah, and they know [it]. (Quran 3:78)
↑ Among the Jews are those who pervert words from their meanings and say, ‘We hear and disobey’ and ‘Hear without listening!’ and ‘Rāʿinā,’ twisting their tongues and reviling the faith. But had they said, ‘We hear and obey’ and ‘Listen’ and ‘Unẓurnā,’ it would have been better for them, and more upright. But Allah has cursed them for their faithlessness, so they will not believe except a few. (Quran 4:46)
↑ Then, because of their breaking their covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard: they pervert words from their meanings, and have forgotten a part of what they were reminded. You will not cease to learn of some of their treachery, excepting a few of them. Yet excuse them and forbear. Indeed Allah loves the virtuous. (Quran 5:13)

References

The material for this article is mainly taken from تحریف کتابهای آسمانی in Farsi WikiShia.

[1] So woe to those who write the Book with their hands and then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ that they may sell it for a paltry gain. So woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn! (Quran 2:79)

[2] There is indeed a group of them who twist their tongues to mimic the Book, that you may suppose that it is from the Book, though it is not from the Book, and they say, ‘It is from Allah,’ though it is not from Allah, and they attribute lies to Allah, and they know [it]. (Quran 3:78)

[3] Among the Jews are those who pervert words from their meanings and say, ‘We hear and disobey’ and ‘Hear without listening!’ and ‘Rāʿinā,’ twisting their tongues and reviling the faith. But had they said, ‘We hear and obey’ and ‘Listen’ and ‘Unẓurnā,’ it would have been better for them, and more upright. But Allah has cursed them for their faithlessness, so they will not believe except a few. (Quran 4:46)

[4] Then, because of their breaking their covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard: they pervert words from their meanings, and have forgotten a part of what they were reminded. You will not cease to learn of some of their treachery, excepting a few of them. Yet excuse them and forbear. Indeed Allah loves the virtuous. (Quran 5:13)

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