2025-12-24 1447 AH

.

bit.ly/_tahrif

Quran:

Distortions and Falsifications in the Bible

Edit: OmarKN

Quran: Distortions and Falsifications in the Bible.^[8]
The Bible itself in the OT and the NT cite examples of scripture falsifications by the Jews, for example from the NT^[n3] and here ^[n7].

The Quran does not explicitly state that the entire present-day Bible or Torah is universally corrupted, but rather speaks of a falsification (tahrif)^[3] of scripture by specific groups of Jews and Christians through the alteration of words or their interpretation, or the concealment of certain texts or their usage.^[n5]

AI: The original revelations (Tawrat, Injil, Zabur) are affirmed as divine in origin. (AI Overview) [n1]

[n1]
If we take seriously the AI expression 'divine in origin', regarding the message, or revelation from Allah (God) to men, it dissimulates the essential question how the divine element in the Scripture has been preserved or not.

Posing that the origin is divine, i.e. from God, it implies that something very evil happened to those revelations over time.
It also means that 2600 years later (and 2000 years later respectively in the case of the NT)^[9] we are still suffering in our age from the consequences of those distortions and lies.
This is what this webpage is about from the point of view of the Quran.^[n2]

Verses from the Quran with tafsir regarding falsifications in the Bible,
Sections 1. 2. 3. 4. and 5. with additional verses

tafsir: scholarly explanations,
tahrif: different kinds of distortions of the original divine message.

1.

{ أَفَتَطْمَعُونَ أَن يُؤْمِنُوا لَكُمْ وَقَدْ كَانَ فَرِيقٌ مِّنْهُمْ يَسْمَعُونَ كَلَامَ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ يُحَرِّفُونَهُ مِن بَعْدِ مَا عَقَلُوهُ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ }

2:75: {Do you(320) covet [the hope, O believers] that they(321) will believe for you(322) while a party of them(001) used to hear the words of Allah(002) and then deliberately distort them(323/003) after they had understood them(324/004) while they know?}(325/005)

This points to the distortion of the meaning or wording by a specific group.

Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi

320: O Muslims! (320-575 are from Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi)^[1]

321: i.e., the Jews,-a people so hard-hearted.

322: i.e., for your sake

323: Islam was not the first to accuse the Jews of deliberate perversion of their sacred texts. The charge dates back to Jeremiah, one of their own prophets. 'You have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, our God.' (Je. 23:36)

In the NT also there are several allusions to the Jews corrupting and perverting the word of God, as in 2 Co. 2:17; Ti. 1:10.^[8] That the books of the OT exist now in their original purity is not the position of anybody today - not even of the most conservative Jew.

324: i.e., their act of perverting the sacred text is deliberate and with a set purpose, so that far from being ashamed of it they are proud of their performance.

325: Very interesting and very illuminating are the Jews' own description of the 'Books' of the Bible and their description of the authorship to 'ancient sages' and to 'great teachers' and never to the Divine Order Himself. (Joseph, Judaism as Creed and life, page 18)

The latest analysis [i.e., 1941 CE], however, has led finally to the definitive attribution of the Pentateuch^[4] contents to know less than 28 different sources. (The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol IX. p.589)

Ibn Kathir

001: Jewish rabbis
002: The Tawrah
003: distort its meaning
004: they understood well, yet they used to defy the truth.
005: being fully aware of their erroneous interpretations and corruption. This statement is similar to Allah's statement in 5:13

- Mujahid said regarding Allah's statement {then they used to change it knowingly after they had understood them} "those who used to alter it and conceal its truth;^[n5] they were their scholars." (At-Tabari 2:245) - Ibn Kathir Vol1, p.269

- Ibn Wahb reported that Ibn Zayd commented on {They used to hear the words of Allah, the Tawrah, and then used to change it}: they altered the Torah that Allah revealed to them,^[2] making it say that the lawful is unlawful and the prohibited is allowed, and that what is right is false and that what is false is right.

(1) So when a person seeking the truth comes to them with a bribe, they judge his case by the book of Allah, but
(2) when a person comes to them seeking to do evil with the bribe, they take out the other (distorted) book (or parchment), in which it is stated that he is in the right.
(3) When someone comes to them who is not seeking what is right, nor offering them bribe, then they enjoy righteousness on him.

This is why Allah said to them:

{Do you preach piety and righteousness and fail to practice it yourselves, although you read the Scripture? Have you then no sense?}
2:44

2.

{ وَمِنْهُمْ أُمِّيُّونَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ الْكِتَابَ إِلَّا أَمَانِيَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ }

2-78: {And among them(335) are the illiterate who know nothing about the Scripture except lies/ but (their own) vain desires(336), and ˹so˺ they only ˹wishfully˺ speculate.}(337)

335: i.e., the Jews

336: i.e., the product of imagination and fancy.

Compare with the New Testament:

"Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction (doctrine). For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Ti. 4:2-4 NIV)

337: it is perhaps to these fancies and conjectures that Paul refers to: "But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless." (Tt. 3:9)

3.

{ فَوَيْلٌ لِّلَّذِينَ يَكْتُبُونَ الْكِتَابَ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ ثُمَّ يَقُولُونَ هَٰذَا مِنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ لِيَشْتَرُوا بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا فَوَيْلٌ لَّهُم مِّمَّا كَتَبَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَوَيْلٌ لَّهُم مِّمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ }

2:79: {So woe to those(338) who write the Book(339) with their hands, and then say: 'This is from Allah,'(340) that they may exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written,(341) and woe to them for what they earn thereby}.(342)

This verse is usually interpreted as an accusation against some individuals who produced non-scriptural texts and claimed they were from God.

Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi

338: i.e., the learned among the Jews.

339: i.e., any part thereof.

340: Pseudepigraphy^[5] or 'the habit of adopting literary disguises' is a very old one in Hebrew literature. According to the views of higher criticism, there are a large number of books of the old Testament which might be included under the foregoing heading.' (The Jewish Encyclopedia, 12 volumes, Funk and Wagnalls, New York). 'the ancients regarded the whole mass of the national religious writings as equally holy.'(III. p.140)

341: 'Some of the modern biblical scholars have not been content only with explaining and justifying the practice but have gone the entire length of extolling it, and that too with an artistry that makes the fabrication a most touching form off self-effacement.' Mawlana Mohammad Ali

342: thus the Quran condemns both the ends and the means equally empathetic.

'Such fraud upon human conscience is indeed woeful and no less woeful is the petty purpose that the perpetrators of such frauds have in view compared with the divine purpose of transcendent importance running through God's revelations.' Mawlana Mohammad Ali

Ibn Kathir

{ فَوَيْلٌ لِّلَّذِينَ يَكْتُبُونَ الْكِتَابَ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ ثُمَّ يَقُولُونَ هَٰذَا مِنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ لِيَشْتَرُوا بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا فَوَيْلٌ لَّهُم مِّمَّا كَتَبَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَوَيْلٌ لَّهُم مِّمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ }
2-79

Ibn Kathir's tafsir on 2-79 p.273

This is another category of people among the Jews who called to misguidance with falsehood and lies about Allah, thriving on unjustly amassing people's property. 'Waylun (woe)' carries meanings of destruction and perishing, and it is a well-known word in the Arabic language.

Az-Zuhri said that Ubadydullah bin 'Abdullah narrated that Ibn 'Abbas said, "O Muslims! How could you ask the People of the Book about anything, while the Book of Allah (Qur'an) that He revealed to His Prophet, ﷺ may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, is the most recent Book from Him and you still read it fresh and young?

Allah told you that the People of the Book altered the Book of Allah, changed it and wrote another book with their own hands. They then said, 'This book is from Allah,' so that they acquired a small profit by it. Hasn't the knowledge that came to you prohibited you from asking them?

By Allah! We have not seen any of them asking you about what was revealed to you."

This Hadith was also collected by Al-Bukhāri!

Al-Hasan Al-Başri said, "The little amount here means this life and all that it contains."

Allah's statement,

{ فَوَيْلٌ لَهُم مِمَّا كَتَبَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَوَيْلٌ لَهُم مِمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ }

{Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for that they earn thereby} means, "Woe to them because of what they have written with their own hands, the lies, falsehood and alterations. Woe to them because of the property that they unjustly acquired." Ad-Dahhak said that Ibn 'Abbas commented,

{ فَوَيْلٌ لَهُم }

{Woe to them}, "means the torment will be theirs because of the lies that they wrote with their own hands,

{ وَوَيْلٌ لَهُم مِمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ }

{And woe to them for that they earn thereby}, which they unjustly acquired from people, be they commoners or otherwise."

4.

{ وَإِنَّ مِنْهُمْ لَفَرِيقًا يَلْوُونَ أَلْسِنَتَهُم بِالْكِتَابِ لِتَحْسَبُوهُ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَيَقُولُونَ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ }

3:78: {And indeed, there is a party among them who distort the Scripture with their tongues(575), that you may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say, 'It is from Allah,' when it is not from Allah. And they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly}.

This verse describes the act of misrepresenting non-scriptural content as genuine scripture.

575: wly is primarily twisting, and secondarily perverting, mutilating, forging and lying about the text, and covers all forms of distortion and fabrication.

Ibn Kathir

Allah states that some Jews, may Allah's curse descend on them, distort Allah's Words with their tongues, change them from their appropriate places, and alter their intended meanings.

They do this to deceive the ignorant people by making it appear that the words are in the Book of Allah. They attribute their own lies to Allah, even though they know that they have lied and invented falsehood.

TSQ399

3:78: {And indeed, there is a party among them who distort the Scripture with their tongues, that you may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say, 'It is from Allah,' when it is not from Allah. And they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly}.

3:78
Much like 2:79 {So woe unto those who write the book with their hands, then say, "This is from God"}, this verse has been interpreted to mean outright forgery, obfuscation-by means of misinterpretations-of the prophecies fortelling the coming of the Prophet Muhammad, or the deception for worldly purposes of ignorant people who were told that the Torah says so-and-so when they did not have the ability to read the Torah for themselves (R, T);

See 2:79c, which suggests that these distortions were isolated incidents meant to deceive people who did not know the scriptures.

Twist their tongues with the Book means their tongues are twisted for the purposes of distorting or misrepresenting the Book of God (Z); that is, they bend or contort their words while reciting the Book, so as to change or misrepresent it (R). Regarding the "distortion" of scriptures, see 2:75c; 4:46c; 5:13c; 5:41c.

TSQ399 - The Study Quran p.399 digital The Commentators
R - Razi
Z - Zamakhshari
T - Tabari

5.

Other verses regarding tahrif mentioned in the Quran

4:46 {Some Jews (Among those who are Judaised are some who) take words out of context (who pervert words)(143) and say, “We listen and we disobey,” … playing with words and discrediting the faith…} 4-46

143: i.e., they dislocate and corrupt the very words and passages of the holy texts, alter their sense, and twist their rendering. The Holy Qur'an was not the first to charge the Jews with the falsification of their Scriptures. Daryabadi

More of the charges on the fallibility and the human origin of the Jewish Scriptures below.^[7]

5:41: Those {who distort the meanings/ context of words.}:

{Messenger, do not be grieved by those who race to surpass one another in disbelief (al-kufr) – of those who say with their mouths, ‘We believe’, but have no faith in their hearts, and of the Jews who listen eagerly to lies and listen to another group (qawm ākharīn) who has not even met you, who distort (yuḥarrifūna) the meanings/ context of words (al-kalām).}5:41, [n4] Comment on the verse.^[16]

hierw

[n4]: {changing words from their context (mawāḍiʿihi)}, from their true meaning.

Related
5:13: Some Jews "change the words from their (original) places (in the text - mawāḍiʿihi)" as part of them breaking their covenant with God.
{But bear with them and pardon them. Certainly a Lord loves the kindly.}

6:91: Mentions that Jews {you made it into (separate) sheets/ parchments, while you conceal much (of its contents)}. This refers to concealing or selectively presenting parts of the scripture.

7:157: Describes the Prophet Muhammad, "whose mention they find written with them in the Torah and the Gospel".
The Messenger of Allah, Mohammed ﷺ (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him!) was announced in the Bible DT18:15 and :18 and in the new Testament Joh. 14:26 and 16:13. 

The Quran generally commands Muslims to respect and believe in the original earlier revelations and notes that among the People of the Book, there were those who did not tamper with the scriptures but recited them correctly. The concept of tahrif is complex and interpretations vary among scholars, often focusing on the actions of particular groups at the time of Muhammad, rather than a universal corruption of all existing manuscripts.^[6] 

TSQ539

4:46
{Some Jews (Among those who are Judaised are some who) take words out of context (who pervert words) and say, “We listen and we disobey,” … playing with words and discrediting the faith…} 4:46

4:46
Here the phrase {are those who/ are some who} has been added in the translation, as it is assumed by most commentators to be elided [in recitation] in the Arabic.

An alternate interpretation, favored by al-Tabari, reads this as a continuation of the rhetorical question in 4:44: {Hast thou not considered those who were given a portion of the Book... Among those who are Jews distort the meaning... (those who were given a portion of the Book} is the subject of the sentence; distort, the verb beginning the predicate).

In either reading, the Jews of Madinah are the particular object of the criticism in 4:44-55. In Kathir reads this as a general condemnation of Jews, although the historical context is primarily the Prophet's conflict with the Madinan Jews. Here the criticism (repeated in 2:75; 5:13,4) is that they distort the meaning of the word (lit. {they distort words from their places or contexts}). This may mean that they distort the words of the Torah (IK, Q) or that they rearranged the words of scripture (Z).

A minority reading suggests it is the words of the Prophet that they distort (Q).

The verse criticizes their mocking remarks to the Prophet. They acknowledge having received the Prophet's message {We hear}, but assert their defiance of it {and disobey}. They command the Prophet to hear, but then mock that he hears not.

Alternate translations could be {Hear, may you hear not!} (T, Ts, Z), which would clearly make it a curse or imprecation, or {Hear, may you not be heard!} that is, may your words or call not be accepted (T, Ts, Z).

They are further accused of issuing the command {Attend to us (raina)}, which might mean simply {Pay attention to us} or {Consider us,} but they alter the pronunciation or tone of the command, twisting their tongues, so that it becomes condescending and disparaging in connotation; and in disparaging the Prophet, they are disparaging religion. Some suggest that their deliberate mispronunciation of the word made it sound like a derogatory term in Hebrew (Z).

They should have said, Listen and Regard us (using a different term, unzurna; see 2:104). For their insolence and denial, {God cursed them,} so that {they believe not, save a few.}

This may also be translated {they believe not, save a little} (Q); cf. 2:88.

Elsewhere the Quran pronounces a curse on any who conceal Divine Revelation or torment the Prophet (2:159; 33:57), two charges leveled here against the Madinan Jews.

TSQ539 - The Study Quran p. 539 digital
The Commentators
IK - Ibn Kathir
Q - Qurtubi
Z - Zamakhshari
T - Tabari
Ts - Tabrisi

6.

6a.

Jeremia and a fateful forgery of biblical texts, commented on by Christian scholars

Jer 8:8 “How can you say, `We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us’? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.”

A Major Forgery in the Hebrew Bible? by Dennis Folds Ph.D.

The consequences of the forgery include the centralization of YHWH worship in Jerusalem, acceptance of the existence of a written law of Moses [□ comment: which probably did not exist in the form as it exists today] that required animal sacrifices and agricultural donations (tithes) to the priests in Jerusalem, and establishment of priests and Levites as the authoritative custodians of the law. In short, it became the basis of the Jewish religion that existed at the time of Jesus. And, I maintain, it was forged.
more: ^[10]

6b.

Prophet Jeremia warned his people:
The Lord says, "For every man's word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God".
Jeremiah 23:36

6c.

Deuteronomy 4:1-2 and Proverbs 30:5-6 also contain warnings against adding to or taking away from God's words.

Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.
DT 4:2

5“Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
6Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
Proverbs 30:5-6

But this is exactly what happened. How these distortions came about is concealed in 'the darkness of history.'

7. Distortions in the NT Bible

In the New Testament, Jesus (peace upon him) never said: "Worship me!" He said I follow the orders of my 'Father in Heaven', which of course is the One God.

So he is the child of his father, which is a metaphor (i.e., not literally applicable).^[13]

In the Bible there are frequent verses that call the faithful and the peacemakers "the children of God," an expression to underscore the believer's intimacy with God and his (her) love for God as well as his dependancy.
However, this language is unclear. In Islam Allah telles humanity (through revelation of the Holy Quran) that we are all His servants, obedient or disobedient ones.

In a time when the Jewish Pharisees or Levi's taught a hard legalistic religion, prophet Jesus (peace upon him) came with a living esoteric message. He frequently used similes,^[14] metaphors and teaching stories. He taught the meaning of love of God and - in principle - the love of man.

It is very simple, but at this point, generations of mankind have strayed from the doctrine and many are the victims over the millenea because of this obscure usage of words.

His purported words of 'Son of God' have to be understood in this sense, as humans we are a kind of "children of God," but in islamic discourse we don't use this kind of language.

The Quranic Response

However the ensuing historical spiritual confusion necessitated a correction:

Mankind needed a new and undiluted version of the divine message, Islam:

{O People of the Scripture (Jews and Christians)! Do not exceed the limits in your religion… The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a Messenger of Allah and His Word… Hallowed be He above having a son.} 4:171

{They say, 'Allah has taken a son.' Exalted is He! Rather, to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth. All are devoutly obedient to Him}. 2:116

There are several more verses that reject the notion of "Son of God."

Related texts

The Revelation of the Quran
Selected Quran Verses
Quran-Verse-21-25
Allah! The Throne verse Quran
What You Need To Grasp Re: The Divine Revelation

A new book: The Islamic Moses^[16]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -