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Home -- English-1 -- English-2 -- BIK01 -- Step 094 - Introduction to UNIT 06 BIK01 - Biblical Investigations of the Koran
A Ministry Course on Biblical Content in the Koran
STAGE 2 - Biblical PASSAGES and Biblical PERSONALITIES in the Koran
UNIT 06 - OBJECTIVES: Analyze, Explain and Apply the Three Kinds of Differences between Bible and Koran
094 - Introduction to UNIT 06What we have found so far is symptomatic for the relationship between the Bible and the Koran in general. This pattern of omissions, additions and changes can be discerned on different levels: a) On the level of the Bible and the Koran as books, we have already seen in UNIT 03 that the Koran has selectively taken up only certain parts of the Bible. Most of what the Bible teaches was omitted in the Koran. And since this biblical material in the Koran constitutes less than half of what the Koran teaches, it is clear that the Koran has added more to the Bible compared to what the Koran has taken up from the Bible.
b) On the level of the subjects that the Koran has taken up from the Bible we have seen in the specific example of the subject of the personality of Adam in the Bible and the Koran (UNIT 05), that the Koran omitted some passages from the Bible about Adam, the Koran has added some non-biblical passages associating them with Adam, and finally the Koran has changed the remaining biblical passages about Adam.
NOTE: There are a number of other subjects in the Bible and the Koran, for which you have this threefold type of relationship (for example the subject of prayer in the Bible and the Koran). However, there are many other subjects in the Bible, which the Koran has nearly completely omitted (for example: the construction of the Tabernacle in the desert or of the Temple in Jerusalem as recorded in the Bible). In these cases, you only have omissions of the Bible in the Koran. Then there are subjects, where the Bible has a large amount of verses, while the Koran only has very few verses (for example the subject of holiness and sanctification, where the Bible has 990 verses, while the Koran only has 10 verses). In this case most of the biblical material is omitted in the Koran, leaving only a tiny trace of this biblical subject in the Koran. Then there are subjects, for which the Koran has many verses, while the Bible has absolutely no or hardly any verses (for example the koranic passages about the prophets Hud, Salih and Dhu al-Kifl, or the passages about the discussions of Muhammad with the Meccans and Medinans recorded or alluded to in the Koran). In this case the Koran in comparison with the Bible added all or most of this koranic material. This means that not for each subject between the Bible and the Koran do you necessarily have all the three types of relationship between them: omissions, addition and change.
c) On the level of biblical passages, which the Koran has recognizably taken up but changed, you will find the same type of relationship between the Bible and the Koran (as will be demonstrated in UNIT 09): words, phrases, sentences and / or verses were changed, omitted or added by the Koran.
When you compare the modifications of biblical material in the Koran on these three separate levels, you will find that they are interrelated. The modifications on the level of the books are the most significant in that they usually determine how and why the Koran has changed the biblical material on the level of specific subjects and passages. This insight will help us in the following units. Before we proceed, we first give an overview on three different objectives that are helpful in dealing with the omissions, additions and changes between the Bible and the Koran. We suggest that for each of these three types of relationship you try to achieve the following three objectives: a) ANALYZE and understand,
b) EXPLAIN and interpret; and finally
c) APPLY and use.
Let us look at each of these objectives or aims separately. |