4,682
edits
Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature (view source)
Revision as of 04:51, 27 May 2021
, 27 May 2021no edit summary
| [checked revision] | [checked revision] |
No edit summary |
|||
| Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
The similarities between the Qur'an and previous scriptures have been noted since the advent of Islam. However, the Judeo-Christian tales and their Qur'anic counterparts do not always match. A claim found in the Qur'an and other Islamic literature is that the Jews and Christians deliberately changed their scriptures to obscure the truth of the Qur'an. There is no documentary evidence in the textual traditions of those religions to support this claim, and as it would require a conspiracy of people across centuries and empires, speaking different languages and holding radically different beliefs, as such the claim is generally not taken seriously by modern scholars. | The similarities between the Qur'an and previous scriptures have been noted since the advent of Islam. However, the Judeo-Christian tales and their Qur'anic counterparts do not always match. A claim found in the Qur'an and other Islamic literature is that the Jews and Christians deliberately changed their scriptures to obscure the truth of the Qur'an. There is no documentary evidence in the textual traditions of those religions to support this claim, and as it would require a conspiracy of people across centuries and empires, speaking different languages and holding radically different beliefs, as such the claim is generally not taken seriously by modern scholars. | ||
The more accepted theory is that the Qur'an | The more accepted theory is that the Qur'an borrows stories from the ancient milieu in which it arose--Christianity and Judaism of the late antique period in the near or middle east. Contrary to the Islamic tradition, most scholars today agree that the Qur'an must have been composed in an environment in which Christian and Jewish stories were very familiar, both to the person(people) writing the Qur'an and to the audience. As such borrowings are to be expected, and in a semi-literate culture before the advent of the printing press different versions of the same story as well as mistakes in transmission from one medium to the other are also to be expected. | ||
In such an environment it is also unsurprising that many of the stories one finds in the Qur'an do not comes from the canonical books of the Christian or Jewish bibles, but often from secondary literature which played a huge role in the spiritual life of believers in that time. | In such an environment it is also unsurprising that many of the stories one finds in the Qur'an do not comes from the canonical books of the Christian or Jewish bibles, but often from secondary literature which played a huge role in the spiritual life of believers in that time. | ||