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Contradictions in the Quran: Difference between revisions
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==Miscellaneous== | ==Miscellaneous== | ||
===Did Pharaoh or his chiefs ask this question about Moses?=== | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|7|109|112}}|(109)'''Said the eminent among the people of Pharaoh''', "Indeed, this is a learned magician | |||
(110) Who wants to expel you from your land [through magic], so what do you instruct?<BR> | |||
(111) They said, "Postpone [the matter of] him and his brother and send among the cities gatherers | |||
(112) Who will bring you every learned magician."}} | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|26|34|35}}|(34)'''[Pharaoh] said to the eminent ones around him''', "Indeed, this is a learned magician | |||
(35) He wants to drive you out of your land by his magic, so what do you advise?<BR> | |||
(36) They said, "Postpone [the matter of] him and his brother and send among the cities gatherers | |||
(37) Who will bring you every learned, skilled magician."}} | |||
In one version the question is spoken by Pharoah to his chiefs, but in the other, it is they who ask it (apparently to themselves, as the 2nd person plural is still used). The whole dialogue is virtually identical in Arabic, and the question is identical except for the addition of "by his magic" (bisiḥ'rihi) in verse 26:35. | |||
This contradiction (and the awkwardness of the surah 7 version) has attracted the attention of numerous academic scholars. Joseph Witztum notes that Muslim exegetes proposed that both Pharaoh and his chiefs made the same statement despite it being portrayed within the same dialogue in both versions. He proposes that in surah 7 the words are given to the chiefs to better fit the context of that surah in which they play a more prominent role.<ref>Witztum, J. (2021) [https://www.lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jaos/article/view/795/634 Pharaoh and His Council: Great Minds Think Alike] Journal of the American Oriental Society, 139(4), 945–952. https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.139.4.0945</ref> | |||
===When did 'the Pharaoh' command the killing of baby boys?=== | ===When did 'the Pharaoh' command the killing of baby boys?=== | ||