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Historical Errors in the Quran: Difference between revisions
→Regarding ancient religious doctrine: Added a section on the claim that the 'most ancient' scriptures contain warnings of hell verses the academic consensus of a later development.
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Historically, Judaism has been a strict form of monotheism. The Quran, by contrast, describes the Jews as practitioners of polytheism by stating that they hold ''Uzair'' (Ezra) to be the son of God. This is compared directly with the Christian doctrine which hold Jesus to be the son of God. This appears to be a confusion resulting from conflating the alternative senses in which Jewish and Christian theologians have employed and understood the word "son".{{Quote|{{Quran|9|30}}| | Historically, Judaism has been a strict form of monotheism. The Quran, by contrast, describes the Jews as practitioners of polytheism by stating that they hold ''Uzair'' (Ezra) to be the son of God. This is compared directly with the Christian doctrine which hold Jesus to be the son of God. This appears to be a confusion resulting from conflating the alternative senses in which Jewish and Christian theologians have employed and understood the word "son".{{Quote|{{Quran|9|30}}| | ||
The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth! }} | The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth! }} | ||
=== The afterlife in the Torah === | |||
The Quran states that the warnings of hell are in the most ancient of scriptures, listing Moses's (elsewhere listed as the Torah, e.g. {{Quran|5|44}}) and the prophet Abraham's. | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|87|9-19}}|So remind, if the reminder is useful! He who fears God will take heed but the wretched one will turn away from it, the one who will roast in the great fire. There he will neither die nor live. Blessed be the one who purifies himself and recall the name of his Lord and prays. But you prefer the life of this world, while the world to come is better and more permanent. <b>This is in the most ancient scriptures, the scriptures of Abraham and Moses.</b>}} | |||
However, despite the 'warning' being essentially the most important point of the scriptures, alongside worship of one God, and is mentioned many times in the Quran - the Torah itself contains no references to hell (or heaven). Instead a highly ambiguous vision of the afterlife in 'Sheol' is provided that includes both Jews and non-Jews, that does not come close to matching any Islamic description.<ref>''[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/afterlife Afterlife in Judaism]'' (jewishvirtuallibrary.org) Sources used: ''Encyclopaedia Judaica''. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved; Joseph Telushkin. ''Jewish Literacy''. NY: William Morrow and Co., 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author. | |||
</ref> While apologists argue the Torah has been corrupted, this corruption would have been enormous, happening across many different people in the community and different time periods to change such a fundamental aspect of the religion, with no clear reason as to why. | |||
This apologetic view also goes against scholarly consensus that ideas of rewards for the good and punishment for the evil only developed during Second-Temple Judaism, found in scriptures written centuries post the torah; particularly due to its interactions with the Hellenistic Greeks, and the theological problems of it's righteous members (Jews) dying and facing oppression for their belief for no reward.<ref>''[https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/95914/1/BR2_Finney.pdf This is a repository copy of Afterlives of the Afterlife: The Development of Hell in its Jewish and Christian Contexts.]'' Finney, M.T. (2013) Afterlives of the Afterlife: The Development of Hell in its Jewish and Christian Contexts. In: Exum, J.C. and Clines, D.J.A., (eds.) Biblical Reception. Sheffield Phoenix Press , Sheffield . ISBN 978-1-907534-70-6 | |||
E.g. see the section: ''Second-Temple Judaism: Resurrection and the Myths of Israel''</ref> As Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman, who wrote a book on the subject ''Journeys to Heaven and Hell'',<ref>''[https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300265163/journeys-to-heaven-and-hell/ Journeys to Heaven and Hell Tours of the Afterlife in the Early Christian Tradition.]'' Bart D. Ehrman. Yale University Press. 2022.</ref> stated in an article for Time Magazine. | |||
{{Quote|[https://time.com/5822598/jesus-really-said-heaven-hell/ <i>What Jesus Really Said About Heaven and Hell.</i> Time. Bart D. Ehrman. 2020.]|And so, traditional Israelites did not believe in life after death, only death after death. That is what made death so mournful: nothing could make an afterlife existence sweet, since there was no life at all, and thus no family, friends, conversations, food, drink – no communion even with God. God would forget the person and the person could not even worship. The most one could hope for was a good and particularly long life here and now. | |||
But Jews began to change their view over time, although it too never involved imagining a heaven or hell. About two hundred years before Jesus, Jewish thinkers began to believe that there had to be something beyond death—a kind of justice to come.}} | |||
There is also no known scripture given to Abraham. | |||
== Regarding general history == | == Regarding general history == | ||