Chapters
It might be that you have read the Bible before. It might be that you have never read a single page. So, before we start looking at who Jesus is, we’re going to take a short look at what the Bible is and why it is important for all of us.
The English word ‘Bible’ comes from the Latin, biblia and the Greek, biblos – words that simply mean ‘book’ or ‘books’. At its most basic, the Bible is a collection of books that is divided into two major sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament comprises 39 books, all of which were written before Jesus. These books include the Pentateuch or Torah (known as the Taurat in Arabic), the historical books, the wisdom books including the book of Psalms (the Zaboor) and the prophets. The New Testament comprises 27 books and these include the Gospel of Jesus (the Injil) and the letters which were written after Jesus.
Jews believe the Old Testament is the Word of God. Christians believe the Old and New Testaments together are the Word of God. But what about you? How do you view the Bible?
The Qur’an refers to Jews and Christians as ‘the people of the book’, Ahlay Kitab in Arabic. And the Qur’an also acknowledges that the books that were sent down to the Jews and the Christians were from Allah. But it actually goes even further than that: the Qur’an instructs Muslims to believe in these books (known as the previous revelations or ‘the books’). Doing so is part of the six articles of faith in Islam as we see in Quran 4.136.
The Qur’an doesn’t mention all of the books in the Bible but it does specifically refer to the Torah, the writings of the prophets, the Psalms and the Injil. Note: The Qur’an does not explicitly mention the writing of the prophets but it does say that Allah sent many prophets. If Allah sent the prophets, it would be reasonable to assume Allah sent revelations to the prophets to guide people. The prophets wrote down these revelations and these are found in the Bible. And the Qur’an does mention some books that aren’t in the Bible (eg the scrolls given to Abraham). But, broadly speaking, when the Qur’an speaks of the books (the revelations), it is referring to the Bible. And it teaches that everyone – Jews, Christians and Muslims alike – should treat the words as the Word of God.
That might surprise you. It might raise some questions in your mind. After all, the word ‘Bible’ doesn’t actually appear in the Qur’an – isn’t that an indication that Muslims don’t have to read the Bible?
We shouldn’t expect an English word, ‘Bible’ to appear in an Arabic Qur’an. ‘Bible’ is not an Arabic word. But Al Kitab is an Arabic word and that does appear in the Qur’an. When the word Al Kitab is found, it is basically referring to the books of the Bible – and that is a good reason for all Muslims to read the Bible and treat it as the Word of God.
But the suggestions that you should treat the Bible as the Word of God might also confuse you. While there are definitely some similarities between the Qur’an and the Bible (they both use words such as sin, demons and angels; they both mention key prophets and they both point to the realities of judgement, heaven and hell) there are some big differences between them too. There are certainly huge differences between the Christian view of Jesus (set out in the Bible) and the Islamic view of Jesus (set out in the Qur’an and the Hadith). What are we to conclude? Is one of them wrong? Has one of them been changed?
You may have been taught that the Bible has been changed – which is why it is sometimes said that Allah sent his final messenger, to restore what had been lost. But what is the truth? It is important to look at the evidence.