The alteration of their sacred books
The Alteration of Their Holy Books:
In truth, this is a question on which debate has ended among trustworthy scholars and researchers. There is no longer any disagreement worth mentioning among them about the Jews' alteration of their holy books; the differences between them lie only in the quantity and kind of evidence they offer. The evidence we present here is nothing more than an addition to, or a reminder of, the evidence they have established:
1. The Swelling of the Torah at the Hands of the Jews:
Here we shall rely on the Torah itself. The Torah we have in our hands today cannot possibly contain the same quantity of words with which it was revealed. We see its five books filling 379 pages in small type, whereas the Torah itself defines for us the form in which it was revealed, in a way that leaves no room for comparison between its present size and the size in which it was revealed. The Book of Exodus states that Moses received the Torah written on two tablets of stone:
"And the Lord said to Moses: Come up to the mountain and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone, and the law and the commandment which I have written to teach them" (46).
"And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written" (47).
It may occur to the mind that there is no rational objection to the two tablets being so large and wide that what was inscribed on them would fill 379 pages of paper, as we see it now.
But the Torah itself rules out this possibility when it defines the size of the two tablets by the ark that God commanded Moses to make and in which to keep the Torah:
(46) 24: 12.
(47) 32: 15.
"An ark of wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit and a half high; and you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you" (48).
The possibility may also occur to the mind that the letters written on the two tablets were so small that, if its words were copied onto paper, they would fill many pages; we see today the Noble Qur'an written on a single page not much more than a cubit by a cubit.
Once again we find the Torah itself ruling out this possibility, when it defines for us the time its writing and reading took, so that no doubt at all remains for us in estimating its size: it amounted to no more than words that would not fill more than a few leaves.
"And Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying: ... at the Feast of Tabernacles ... you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing" (49).
The Book of Joshua defines the time more precisely still, when it relates that Joshua inscribed a copy of the Torah on stone and recited it to the people at a single sitting:
"And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses. And afterwards he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel" (50).
But a last possibility may arise: is it not possible that Moses (peace be upon him) received other texts along with the two tablets, and that the whole is what is called the Torah?
Yet we find this last possibility refuted by the First Book of Kings, which states clearly that when Solomon moved the ark into the temple he had built, there was nothing in it but the two tablets:
"There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses had put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the Children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt" (51).
(48) Exodus 25: 10; 16.
(49) Deuteronomy: 34.
(50) Book of Joshua: 9.
(51) 8: 9.
Finally, the Torah specifies for us, on the tongue of Moses (peace be upon him) before his death, the content of the Torah: that it consists of the Ten Commandments, and that these alone are what was written on the two tablets:
"And Moses called all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your hearing this day, and learn them and take care to do them. ... He said: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image ... You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain ... You shall not kill, and you shall not commit adultery, and you shall not steal, and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbour, and you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, and you shall not covet your neighbour's house, nor his field, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's. These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly on the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness, with a loud voice, and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me" (52).
All this makes it likely, if it does not confirm it, that the Torah which Moses wrote on the two tablets was no more than the Ten Commandments. This is what agrees with reason and with the texts we have cited from the Torah itself, especially when we know that sefer ("book") in the Hebrew language means a leaf or a sheet. As for the mass, the swelling, in which the Torah now stands, it is the work of human beings.
2. The Loss of the Torah, or the Break in Its Chain of Transmission:
Besides what we have mentioned of the Philistines' seizure of the holy ark, the temple that Solomon (peace be upon him) built, and in which he placed the ark of the Lord containing nothing but the two tablets, was plundered and destroyed twice after Solomon.
The first time was at the hands of the Egyptians in the reign of Rehoboam son of Solomon. The First Book of Kings [14: 25] says: "And in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house; he took away everything, and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made."
The evidence that the Torah was lost in this destruction is that there is no mention of it until the priest Hilkiah announced, in the reign of King Josiah son of Amon, who ruled the kingdom of Judah 629-
(52) Deuteronomy 5: 1-22.
598 BC, at a time when that kingdom was breathing its last because of the unbelief and heresy into which it had fallen, that he had found the Torah. This announcement by Hilkiah means that it had been lost. Researchers doubt Hilkiah's truthfulness, because it is not reasonable that the Torah should have been in Jerusalem all that time without anyone finding it before him. They therefore hold that this Torah was composed by Hilkiah himself, who relied in writing it on the legends and stories the Israelites and their elders used to repeat. As for the Torah revealed to Moses, nothing of it remained but the Ten Commandments; what helped those commandments survive was the ease with which they could be memorised and handed down orally from generation to generation (53).
The second destruction was at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the Temple completely and burned all of Jerusalem. After this destruction the Jews never rose again. This is the description of what happened in the Second Book of Chronicles 36: 11-20: "And he, that is, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, made Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem. Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king ... And he did evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar ... Moreover all the chiefs of the priests and the people multiplied their transgressions according to all the abominations of the nations, and they polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem ... But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose ... Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged; He gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire ... and they became servants to him and to his sons."
3. The Old Testament Is the Rabbis' Selection:
The books that the Old Testament contains in their present form were selected by the rabbis after the Babylonian captivity from among an enormous number of conflicting books, all of which were attributed to Moses and the prophets of the Children of Israel. After the destruction of their state in Palestine, and the dispersal of those of them who survived Nebuchadnezzar's onslaught to scattered regions, the rabbis and leaders of the Jews feared that the Israelites would be lost as a people and dissolve into the peoples among whom they had taken refuge. So they convened
(53) Muqaranat al-Adyan: al-Yahudiyya (Comparative Religion: Judaism), p. 112 ff.
a council of theirs in Alexandria in 130 BC, which collected what religious heritage was available to it and codified it without scrutiny, then translated it into Greek, in order to preserve the history and unity of the Jews. But the Sadducees and the Samaritans recognised nothing of what the council approved except the five books attributed to Moses. Then another council was held in Palestine around AD 95 to review and refine the heritage collected by the council of Alexandria. But that council split: the Pharisees rejected any text in the Greek language and regarded as holy only the books written in Hebrew, while the rabbis of Alexandria accepted many books the Pharisees had not accepted and added them to the holy books. Thus the Jews came to have two different versions of the Bible, quite apart from the fact that many Jews recognised none of this except the five books of Moses. Moreover, the rabbis who authorised the holy books were not above suspicion and were not competent for so grave a task. Among them, as Spinoza says, were "unbelievers and profligates who attained the office of high priest by criminal means, and who nonetheless had, according to the commandments of the Book, absolute authority in interpreting the Law" (54). This testimony of Spinoza is supported by what we have set out about the morals of the Jews.
4. Objective Criticism of the Text
If we look at the texts of the Torah themselves, it becomes clear to us beyond any room for doubt that they are of human composition, or that the word of revelation has been mixed in them with the word of man. Any reader will realise at first glance that they could only have been dictated by a human spirit and could not be of divine dictation, or at the very least that they have suffered such severe alteration as to disqualify them from being a holy document relied upon as revelation sent down from God.
Here are some observations that make this statement clear:
- The Torah not only speaks of Moses in the third person; it also gives numerous testimonies about him, such as: "Moses wrote this law; God spoke with Moses; God was with Moses face to face; Moses was a very meek man, more than all men; Moses was angry with the officers of the army; Moses the man of God; so Moses the servant of the Lord died in the land of Moab, and no
(54) Risala fi al-Siyasa wa al-Lahut (A Treatise on Politics and Theology), p. 262; and see note 2, p. 35.
man knows his grave to this day; and there has not arisen since a prophet in Israel like Moses ..." (55).
It is clear from this style that Moses did not write these words; rather they were written by someone else who came long after him, perhaps as late as the age of Jesus (peace be upon him). For the judgment that no prophet like Moses has since arisen among the Children of Israel can only be made by someone who surveys the history of the Children of Israel to its end, especially as he says of Moses: and no one knows his grave to this day. One who lived close to the time of Moses' death would not say such a thing.
- Extreme exaggeration that contradicts the laws of nature. For example, Genesis 46: 26 says: "All the souls of the sons of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy," whereas the Book of Numbers states that the number of the Israelites immediately after they left Egypt was more than five million souls. Chapter 1: 44-48 says: "So all those numbered of the Children of Israel, by their fathers' houses, from twenty years old and upward ... all those numbered were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty. But the Levites by the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them." And "all those numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the command of the Lord, by their families, every male from a month old and upward, were twenty-two thousand" (56).
This means that the number of the Israelites grew in two centuries from seventy individuals to more than five million souls; that is, their number multiplied more than seventy thousand times in a period of no more than two centuries. This is inconceivable and does not accord with the laws of nature, when we know that the number of Jews today, after nearly three thousand years have passed since their exodus from Egypt, has not reached double that figure.
- It is enough to set out a simple comparison between the Noble Qur'an and the books of the Jews where they speak of the prophets and messengers, to grasp the vast difference between the language of
(55) Book of Deuteronomy 13, 31, 34; and Book of Numbers 12, 13.
(56) Book of Numbers 3: 39.
revelation and the language of men, which contradicts every divine value and ideal.
For example, whereas the Noble Qur'an says of Aaron (peace be upon him):
And We indeed conferred Our favour upon Moses and Aaron, and We delivered them and their people from the great distress, and We helped them, so that it was they who prevailed. And We gave them the clarifying Book, and guided them to the straight path, and left for them [a good name] among later generations: "Peace be upon Moses and Aaron!" Thus do We reward those who do good. They were truly among Our believing servants. (57)
we find that the Torah, which acknowledges Aaron as a prophet, makes of him an idolater who fashions idols for them with his own hands and joins them in worshipping them, as mentioned above. What contradiction could be greater than this?!
And whereas the Noble Qur'an says of David (peace be upon him):
And remember Our servant David, the man of strength; he was ever turning [to God]. We made the mountains glorify [God] with him at evening and at sunrise, and the birds, gathered together, all turning to Him. And We strengthened his kingdom and gave him wisdom and decisive speech. (58)
their books, which acknowledge him as a prophet, make him a man of base soul and a profligate. The Second Book of Samuel 11: 2 says: "But David remained in Jerusalem. And it happened at evening time that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's
(57) Al-Saffat: 114-122.
(58) Sad: 17-20.
house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon ... And David sent messengers and took her, and she came in to him, and he lay with her ... and she conceived by him." The book then relates how David plunged deeper into sin and set about killing the woman's husband treacherously and perfidiously in order to add her to his harem, and that she then bore him Solomon (peace be upon him).
As for Solomon (peace be upon him), of whom the Qur'an says:
And to David We gave Solomon. How excellent a servant! He was ever turning [to God]. (59)
we find their books making of him a profligate and an unbeliever with no concern but to sink himself in lusts, and making of his house a den of debauchery, vice and unbelief. The First Book of Kings 11: 1-6 says: "And Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, from the nations of which the Lord had said to the Children of Israel: You shall not go in to them, nor shall they come in to you, for they will turn your hearts after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly with the Lord his God. So Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully." You may see for yourselves how far alteration has afflicted the holy books of the Jews.
The Testimony of Spinoza:
Finally, many Jewish, Christian and Muslim historians are now certain that the Torah we have in our hands today is not the Torah of Moses but was composed by the Jews themselves many centuries after the death of Moses (peace be upon him). Their efforts now turn on determining who composed this Torah and when it was written. Among them it is enough for us to take the testimony of the Jewish philosopher Spinoza, known for his learning and his religiosity, who on that account cannot be accused of ignorance or bigotry. After presenting many proofs and observations on the alteration of the Torah, Spinoza says: "From all these observations it appears as clear as daylight that Moses
(59) Sad: 30.
did not write the five books; rather they were written by someone who lived many centuries after Moses" (60).
Spinoza then goes on to criticise the remaining books and concludes that all the books contained in the Old Testament were written by a single historian who wished to relate the ancient history of the Jews from their first beginnings until the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Whoever leafs through these books from first to last will see that they bear three principal characteristics:
- Unity of purpose and style in all the books.
- The connection between them in one and the same manner.
- Their composition many centuries after the events narrated.
- All this confirms that a single historian wrote them.
As for who this author or writer might be, Spinoza considers it most likely that he was Ezra, who was known for his devotion to the study of the Law and his complete mastery of the religious heritage of the Jews, and who took charge of their affairs by mandate from Cyrus, king of the Persians, after the Babylonian captivity (61).
I believe that after the testimony of Spinoza the Jew, and the evidence we have presented, which is little compared with what historians and researchers in this field have presented, no doubt remains for us that the holy books of the Jews have been altered completely. Even if something of the words of revelation has remained in them, it cannot be distinguished with certainty, and so reliance on them as religious documents of any standing falls away. That is to say, it is not possible, relying on reason, to distinguish the milla in them from the nihla, or revelation from opinion, except by relying on another source, namely the Qur'an.
(60) Risala fi al-Lahut wa al-Siyasa (A Theologico-Political Treatise), p. 274.
(61) See Risala fi al-Lahut wa al-Siyasa, Chapter Eight, p. 215 ff.