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Global Torah Change Conspiracy Theory
It has been argued by Islam, and other religious and secular institutions, that the Torah is a corrupted and now irrelevant text. Lets look at this misconception closely and discover that this claim is really a conspiracy against God's people.

First, a great presentation:


Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "My similitude in comparison with the other prophets before me, is that of a man who has built a house nicely and beautifully, except for a place of one brick in a corner. The people go about it and wonder at its beauty, but say: 'Would that this brick be put in its place!' So I am that brick, and I am the last of the Prophets."  
— (Book #56, Hadith #735)

Occam’s razor principle:
Occam's razor principle generally recommends when faced with competing hypotheses that are equal in other respects, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions.
Diagram - 1
The majority of  Muslim sources, as we will see in a minute, indicate that the Torah supposedly was changed only during or after Muhammad’s time. This is a very serious accusation! We must deal with it circumspectly, using facts and logic, not emotions and assumptions. As Christians, we have an answer to our potential problem with the Biblical text.

Global Torah Change Conspiracy: After Muhammad
Here is a response that illustrates a common argument dismissing the Torah as the Word of God:

By
Bassam Zawadi
 
David Wood's article could be found over here.

I want to make it clear from the beginning what Muslims actually believe. We believe that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was predicted in the original Torah and Gospel revealed to Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them both) respectively. Some of these prophecies happened to remain preserved and found their way into the Bible, which also contains much falsehood according to Islamic teachings.

Ibn Abbaas said in his commentary on Surah 2:79:
(Therefore woe) severe punishment, and it is said this means: a valley in Hell (be unto those who write the Scripture with their hands) change the description and traits of Muhammad (pbuh) in the Book (and then say, " This is) in the Book that has come (from Allah " , that they may purchase) through changing and altering it (a small gain therewith) a small gain in terms of means of subsistence and surplus of property. (Woe unto them) theirs is a severe punishment (for what their hands have written) have altered (and woe unto them) and theirs is a severe punishment (for what they earn thereby) of unlawful earnings and bribes. (Ibn Abbaas, Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn 'Abbâs, Commentary on Surah 2:79, Source)

Early Qur'anic commentator Muqatil bin Sulaiman says in his commentary on Surah 2, Verse 79:
The leaders of the Jews in Medina erased the descriptions and traits of Muhammad peace be upon him from the Torah, and they wrote other traits and descriptions (Source)

Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi (d. 373 A.H.), the well known Hanafi scholar in his commentary of the Qur'an known as Bahr al-'Ulum on Surah 2, verse 79 quotes Az-Zajjaj as saying:
The leaders of the Jews erased the traits and descriptions of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, then they wrote things besides his traits and descriptions.

Imam ar-Razi said: 
As for the third evidence it is with reference to what is maintained in the Torah and gospels concerning the Prophethood of Muhammad. The objection to this evidence (on the Jewish and Christian side) is whether you (Muslims) say that the description of Muhammad was written in these books in detail; namely that Allah Almighty, made manifest that he shall come in the coming years and in such and such country, a person whose description shall be such and such, and so know you that he is my messenger. On the one hand; or they say: 'No, but rather Allah has merely referred to him briefly, without specification due to time, place or personality.' And so if you hold on to the first claim it false and faulty: (O, you Muslims.)" (Fakhar ad-Din ar-Razi, Muhassal Afkar Al-Mutaqadimin Wal Mut'akhrin (Cairo, Maktabat al-Kuliyyat al-Azhariyya) p. 211 and Fakhr ar-Razi, Mafatih Al-Ghayb, Cairo, Dar al-Ghad al-'Arabi, 1412 A.H. 1991 A.D. vol.3, pp.186 f, vol.9, 233, cited here)

Thus, it is not a surprise for a Muslim to find that the predictions of Muhammad (peace be upon him) are vague and some how isolated from the context of the entire Bible. The reason for this is because there is also falsehood in the Bible, which would distort the truth.

Thus, the Muslim is not required in any way to prove that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is clearly predicted in the Bible by taking all the verses in the Bible into consideration. This is simply the Muslim position regardless of one likes it or not.

I found this "Muhammad in the Bible" argument to be effective with the Jews and Christians of the Prophet Muhammad's time since many of them still knew the true teachings of the Torah and Gospel despite its textual corruption. These people are not here today and that is why I personally do not use the "Muhammad in the Bible" argument.

However, one thing that I do want to show in this article is that it cannot be proven from the Bible that Muhammad is not the one whom the Torah and Gospel predicted to come. Despite all the falsehood that I believe is in the Torah and Gospels today, I would still argue that it cannot be proven that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is clearly not predicted at all.

Diagram - 2WHAT?
Lets take a detailed look at what Zawadi is arguing here.

The leaders of the Jews in Medina erased the descriptions and traits of Muhammad(peace be upon him) from the Torah, and they wrote other traits and descriptions.

Zawadi observes that "it is also possible that parts of the true Torah and Injeel [Gospel] existed until the 7th century [during Muhammad's time] and are not found in the Bible today".

Yet the very scriptures of Islam paint a different picture:

And if thou (Muhammad) art in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto thee, then question those who read [present tense] the Scripture (that was) before thee. (10:94 Pickthall)

O children of Israel! call to mind My favor which I bestowed on you and be faithful to (your) covenant with Me, …And believe in what I have revealed, verifying that which is with you, and be not the first to deny it, …What! do you enjoin men to be good and neglect your own souls while you read the Book; have you then no sense?

The apostle asked the Jews what had induced them to abandon of stoning for adultery, when it was prescribed in the Torah. …Then all agreed to resort to scourging, and both the memory and practice of stoning died out.
Then the apostle of Allah said, 'I was the first to revive the command of Allah, His scripture, and obedience to it.’

... That (mercy) I shall ordain for those who do right, and practice regular charity, and those who believe in Our signs;-
"Those who follow the apostle, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures),- in the law and the Gospel;- for he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil;

Say: O followers of the Book! you follow no good till you keep up the Taurat and the Injeel and that which is revealed to you from your Lord; and surely that which has been revealed to you from your Lord shall make many of them increase in inordinacy and unbelief; grieve not therefore for the unbelieving people. Surely those who believe and those who are Jews and the Sabians and the Christians whoever believes in Allah and the last day and does good-- they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve.

Those to whom We have given the Book know this as they know their own sons. Those who have lost their own souls refuse therefore to believe.
(6:20)

Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say:"This is from Allah," to traffic with it for miserable price!- Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby.
(2:79)

Of those who are Jews (there are those who) alter words from their places and say: We have heard and we disobey and: Hear, may you not be made to hear! and: Raina, distorting (the word) with their tongues and taunting about religion; and if they had said (instead): We have heard and we obey, and hearken, and unzurna it would have been better for them and more upright; but Allah has cursed them on account of their unbelief, so they do not believe but a little, you who have been given the Book! believe that which We have revealed, verifying what you have, before We alter faces then turn them on their backs, or curse them as We cursed the violators of the Sabbath, and the command of Allah shall be executed.

The Bani Israel wrote a book, they followed it and left the Torah.
(This hadith was reported in Tabarani's Al Mu'jam Al Awsat and was authenticated by Sheikh Nasr Al Deen Al Albani in his Silsila Al Ahaadeeth Al Saheeha, hadith no. 2832.)

The Bani Israel as a long time passed and their hearts became hardened, they invented a book from themselves. It took over their hearts and their tongues.
(This hadith was reported in Al Bayhaqi'sShu'b Al Eemaan, Volume 2, no.439. Sheikh Nasr Al Deen Al Albani has authenticated this hadith in his Silsila Al Ahaadeeth Al Saheeha, hadith no. 2694.)

Abdullah bin 'Abbas said: How can you ask the people of the Scriptures about anything… Allah has told you that the people of the Scriptures have changed some of Allah's Books and distorted it and wrote something with their own hands.

These scriptures illustrate contradictory statements from the Qur’an: In Sura 2(79) and 3 it possibly say that Christians and Jews rewrite the Torah, but in Sura 2 (40-44), 5,7, 10 and 21 Allah stated that there is nothing wrong with the Torah what was in the possession of the Jews in Medina during time of Muhammad.

Please note that Sura 5 was “revealed” to Muhammad much later that Sura 2 and 3 and therefore could fall under the very important doctrine of Abrogation. I believe that it is the most important and less understood doctrine and in order to lean about Islam we should learn this doctrine first.

Based on these texts we can conclude that in the days of Muhammad, the Torah and Gospel were intact, but are claimed to have been later corrupted by Jews and Christians. As Abdullah bin Abbas stated.

Therefore… Torah was unchanged before year 622 AD according to the Quran.

THE 7TH CENTURY
Muslims insist that some parts of the Torah in connection with the future coming of Muhammad had been removed in the 7th century AD.
 
Let's go back in time to the village of Al Yathrib in the year of Hijra, 622. Muhammad had just arrived. Jews had been living in this region for many years at this point. They had synagogues, and each synagogue had a copy of the Torah.

Let us follow this Muslim theory and apply logic to it in order to find out what could happened if the Torah presumably was be changed after or during Muhammad’s life.
Diagram - 3
THE TECHNICAL ASPECT
Here is a possible scenario of this event:
» After having encountered Muhammad and finding his arrival mentioned in the Torah, the Jews nevertheless did not accept him as a prophet and decided to delete this description from all the scrolls of the Torah they possessed.

» Supposedly, all three tribes of Jews erased these references. Since many Jews had been expelled and dispersed to other countries, they also brought altered copies of the Torah into Khaybar and Syria.

» At that point they would have convinced other Jews to modify their scrolls of the Torah so as to match their altered versions. Suppose they had all agreed and all the scrolls had to be rewritten, (because it is not possible just to scratch off a couple of verses or an entire paragraph, it is necessary to rewrite scroll completely. Torah scrolls are written on one, continuous piece of parchment). Usually it would take about one year of hard labor to write out, by hand, just one copy of the Torah.

TECHNICAL SPECS
º Banu Qaynuqa (one Jewish tribe) was expelled in 624 AD
º Banu Nadir (another Jewish tribe) was expelled in 625 AD
º Banu Qurayza (a third Jewish tribe) was invaded in Feb/March 627 AD
º The Battle of Khaybar, May/June 628 AD
º Torah presumably rewritten by 625 AD.

Let's choose the earliest date of expulsion of the Banu Quyanuqa tribe in 624 AD. Let's presume that the Torah was already rewritten by 625 AD. Just one Torah scroll takes about one year to complete.

These Jews would then have had to travel up to Syria and have assimilated with the local Jewish communities. We could deduce that they had also initiated the “Massive Torah Change” or MTC, in the same year, 625 AD. This MTC must be carried on slowly throughout all synagogues in Syria and the Middle East, and eventually the entire Jewish communities found in Europe and Africa.  Next would be to move into and change the Torahs of Jewish communities from Spain to Egypt to Persia and beyond.

REASON WITHIN REASON
Without the internet, e-mails, or other modern methods of intercommunication, it would have been a very, very slow process. This would have entailed a massive amount of work, done by many scribes in every Jewish community from Spain on the west and Egypt on the south, to Persia on the east and beyond. Additionally, these Jews would have to come with an astounding and blasphemous statement: change the Torah. For people who did not know Muhammad, his teachings or anything about the man, what possible argument could these Jews have mustered in order to convince other tribes to commit one of the worst forms of blasphemy against God?
Can you tell me if this is realistically possible or not?

But let us continue with the Muslim's logic…
It was not enough to change all Torahs in Jewish possessions; Christians would have to be doing the same with their Bibles, which contain the Torah.

CHRISTIAN BIBLES
Christians who were living at the time of Muhammad were rivals of the Jews so they had their own Bibles with the Torah comprising the first part of it.
Here are few of Ancient Christian Bibles:

TECHNICAL SPECS
º Latin Vulgate
º Syriac Peshitta
º Coptic Bible
º Septuagint
º Byzantine texts

Please bear in mind that somehow a group of Jews would have to approach all Christians (or their leaders) and have convinced all of them to change EVERY copy of the Torah found in the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta, the Coptic, the Sahidic, the Bohairic, the Alexandrian Septuagint (which was actually completed before the birth of Christ), and all the Byzantine texts. This would have been a MASSIVE undertaking! Many Christians were at odds with each other in the 7th Century AD. The Jews would have to be able to convince some Christian leaders or groups, and they must have been able to convince the rest of the vast Christian world all the way from western Arabia to Britain. And this change would have taken place everywhere simultaneously! Otherwise we would have still in our possession a “Correct” Torah with Muhammad’s name in it.
Diagram - 4
All these changes MUST have been done after 625 AD and completed no earlier than 725 AD in order to fulfill that supposition. That kind of “conspiracy” would have required a massive exchange of correspondence including letters and messages across Jewish and Christians communities from India to Spain and Britain and yet we have not even one single document, letter or thought, about this HUGE task that had to be done.

Do you think that every Christian and every Jew on the planet agreed with GTCC theory and changed their Torah scrolls and their Bibles? And no one ever rebelled and defended the True Torah and True Bible and try at least to hide one uncorrupted copy for us to discover later? Or leave at least one letter mentioning such a HUGE event? Do you think that these Christians and Jews after becoming Muslims by acknowledging Muhammad as a prophet of God would not speak about such a conspiracy and warn others to abstain from changing Bibles and Torahs?

Logically speaking we must find a lot of materials concerning this conspiracy, but yet there no revert who spoke about it!
 
There exists many letters and chronicles from these centuries but nothing at all in reference to this vast conspiracy to alter the Torah. Not only are Jewish and Christian sources absolutely silent about it, but also…Muslim sources. Then Muslims also are considered to be part of this Global Torah Change Conspiracy (GTCC). Correct?
Diagram - 5
A MATTER OF FACT
History preserved for us many letters and documents describing in details every “schism” among Christian patriarchs and bishops.

We know all shameful quarrels among many Christians sects, wars between Byzantine Empire against Monophysites of North Africa and Levant in the 5th and 6th century, Iconoclast event in 8th century when many nuns and priests as well as peasants were killed by Byzantine army trying to defend Icons in Orthodox Churches. It lasted for two centuries. We know from contemporary sources a lot of awful details of atrocities, committed by Catholic Crusaders in the name of Christ. I am sure that all of you know about the Inquisition. Many Christians wish that these events had never happened, but they are historical facts, no one will dear deny them. We have huge amount of written documents covering all what happened during these centuries from Christian, Jewish and Muslims historians… But no letter, no thought was ever found what would support even remotely Global Torah Change Conspiracy… Isn't that interesting? Diagram - 6

While I ask my Muslim friends to think about logical answer to this technical issue of the GTCC theory they are so eager to defend they have no answer. Lets look at another aspect of the GTCC theory and how it has been disproven.

ANOTHER TEXTUAL ASPECT
Even if this could really have been achieved, there remains another huge problem with the Muslim theory of Torah corruption, as it is stated:
 
The leaders of the Jews in Medina erased the descriptions and traits of Muhammad(peace be upon him) from the Torah, and they wrote other traits and descriptions.

All the Christian texts mentioned here are available for investigation to researchers today, either in parts or entire works in physical manuscripts whose ages have been dated accurately.

I will only mention few of them…

TECHNICAL SPECS: CHRISTIAN BIBLES
º Coptic Bible
º Latin Vulgate
º Syriac Peshitta
º Armenian Bible
º Byzantine texts
º Hebrew Scriptures

TECHNICAL SPECS: COPTIC MANUSCRIPTS
º Bodmer III — John 1:1-21:25, Genesis 1:1-4:2; 4th century; Bohairic
º Bodmer VI — Proverbs 1:1-21:4; 4th/5th century; Paleo-Theban ("Dialect P")
º Bodmer XVI — Exodus 1:1-15:21; 4th century;
º Bodmer XVIII — Deuteronomy 1:1-10:7; 4th century;
º Bodmer XXI — Joshua 6:16-25; 7:6-11:23; 22:1-2; 22:19-23:7; 23:15-24:2; 4th century;
º Bodmer XXII — Jeremiah 40:3-52:34; Lamentations; Epistle of Jeremiah; Book of Baruch; 4th/5th century;
º Bodmer XXIII — Isaiah 47:1-66:24; 4th century;
º Bodmer XL — Song of Songs
º Bodmer XLIV — Book of Daniel; Bohairic.[2]
º Schøyen Ms 114 — Psalms; Sahidic; ca. A.D. 400.

As you can see, these manuscripts are dated mainly 4th and 5th century AD and we have them in our possession today.
Diagram - 7
Ancient copy of Coptic Bible
Latin Vulgate: Late 4th-century translation
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damascus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations. By the 13th century, this revision had come to be called the version vulgata, that is, the "commonly used translation", and ultimately it became the definitive and officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church.




Diagram - 8
An ancient copy of Old Latin Text
Syriac Peshitta: 2nd century AD
The Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from the Hebrew, probably in the 2nd century AD.

F. Crawford Burkitt concluded that the translation of the Old Testament was probably the work of Jews, of whom there was a colony in Edessa about the commencement of the Christian era. The older view was that the translators were Christians, and that the work was done late in the 1st century or early in the 2nd. The Old Testament known to the early Syrian church was the genesis of the modern Palestinian Jews' text. It contained the same number of books but it arranged them in a different order.
















Diagram - 9
An ancient copy of Syriac Peshitta Text
Armenian Bible: Early 5th century translation
(This version, now in use in the Armenian Church, was completed about 434.)

The Armenian Bible is due to Saint Mesrob's early 5th century translation. The first monument of Armenian literature is the version of the Holy Scriptures. Isaac, says Moses of Chorene, made a translation of the Bible from the Syriac text about 411. This work must have been considered imperfect, for soon afterwards John of Egheghiatz and Joseph of Baghin were sent to Edessa to translate the Scriptures. They journeyed as far as Constantinople, and brought back with them authentic copies of the Greek text. With the help of other copies obtained from Alexandria the Bible was translated again from the Greek according to the text of the Septuagint and Origen's Hexapla.
































Diagram - 10
Byzantium Texts: Fourth century
After the fourth century, different types of text were popular in the East, but the Byzantine text "almost wholly displaced the rest.“The Byzantine text-type has by far the largest number of surviving manuscripts. There are at least 522 manuscripts in the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster, Germany.














Diagram - 11
Ancient Byzantine manuscripts
Here is just partial list of ancient manuscripts available for the public at large to inspect.
•Codex Boreelianus
•Codex Alexandrinus
•Codex Ephraemi
•Codex Washingtonianus
•Codex Guelferbytanus B
•Codex Basilensis
•Codex Seidelianus
•Codex Angelicus
•Codex Mosquensis
•Codex Macedoniensis
•Codex Koridethi
•Codex Vaticanus
















TECHNICAL SPECS: JEWISH SCRIPTURES
Diagram - 12
Alexandrian Septuagint: First centuries BC
The Septuagint, the ancient (first centuries BC) Alexandrian translation of Jewish scriptures into Koine Greek, later separated into the Hebrew Bible and Biblical Apocrypha by Protestants, exists in various manuscript versions.











Diagram - 13
Jewish Scriptures; Dead Sea Scrolls: 250 BC to 68 AD
Dating from around 250 BC to 68 AD, the scrolls include about 207 biblical manuscripts representing nearly all of the books in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) except the book of Esther. Approximately 900 scrolls were discovered.








CLEAR AND VISIBLE TRUTH
It is abundantly evident that the afore-mentioned manuscripts are dated well before birth of Muhammad. It would have been absolutely impossible for Jews and Christians in the 7th and 8th centuries to have changed the Torah by erasing all references and all description of Muhammad  from these manuscripts, unless they could have used a time machine. You may disagree with me, I understand that, but I think that they did not have one in their possession during Muhammad’s era, nor does one exist today.

In addition, all these Christian manuscripts are virtually the same in comparison with modern texts found in our Bibles. They differentiate among themselves in certain words and verses, but the stories remain identical and consistent in their descriptions.
Therefore, ancient manuscripts are in virtual agreement with themselves and with our Bibles as well.  

TECHNICAL SPECS: EARLY CHURCH FATHERS WRITINGS FROM THE 1ST, 2ND AND 3RD CENTURIES
Even if had no manuscript of the New Testament survived till our days, we could reconstruct it entirely except 11 verses using quotations taken from letters being written by so called "early Church fathers."
º Clement (Rome)-96 AD
º Ignatius (Antioch)-35-110 AD
º Polycarp (Smyrna) – 69-155 AD
º Irenaeus (Lyons) – 200 AD
º Clement (Alexandria) – 157-216 AD
º Origen (Alexandria) – 185-254 AD
º Athanasius (Alexandria) – 293-373 AD
º Macrina the Younger (Cappadocia) -324-379AD

We have in our possession many volumes of writings – letters by these men. As I said entire our New Testament could be reproduced by using their quotations. Strangely none of them contains any description of Muhammad or his name.

Nevertheless, Muslim sources insist that name of Muhammad was in the Torah and the Gospel in 7th century AD:
The leaders of the Jews in Medina erased the descriptions and traits of Muhammad(peace be upon him) from the Torah, and they wrote other traits and descriptions.

Zawadi observes that "it is also possible that parts of the true Torah and Injeel [Gospel] existed until the 7th century [during Muhammad's time] and are not found in the Bible today".

There was a Muslim who declared confidently that the Torah and the Gospel had been changed. Ibn Khazem, who was born in Cordoba and died in 1064 AD, made the claim that the Bible (the Gospel, in this particular case) had been corrupted. Let us carefully examine his reasoning, it will help us to identify the source of Global Torah Change Conspiracy Theory. This is what he said:

IBN-KHAZEM
In his defense of Islam against Christians, Ibn-Khazem came up against the contradictions between the Qur'an and the Gospels. One obvious example was the Qur'anical text `They slew him not and they crucified him not' (Sura 4:156). "Since the Qur'an must be true," Ibn- Khazem argued, "it must be the conflicting Gospel texts that are false. But Muhammad tells us to respect the Gospel. Therefore, the present text must have been falsified by the Christians... The Christians lost the revealed Gospel except for a few traits which Allah has left intact as argument against them."

It looks as if it was approximately 400 years after the death of Muhammad when the Global Torah Change Conspiracy (GTCC) was conceived! It is clear that Ibn-Khazem erroneously concluded that Christians must have falsified their Gospel simply because the Qur’an and the Gospel are in disagreement with each other.

But Muhammad told Muslims to respect the Gospel. Therefore according to Ibn-Khazem, the Gospel as it existed during the days of Muhammad  should have been intact and unchanged until sometime afterward.

I bet he never thought about these logical and historical problems that such a conclusion could bring.

TWO LOGICAL AND ONE HISTORICAL PROBLEM
Jews from Al Yathrib eventually convinced all other Jews in the known world to rewrite their Torahs.
In order to complete the job, they must have convinced all Christians to apply the same changes to their Bibles (the Torah section).
Jewish, Christians and Muslims sources MUST have some kind of evidence to this conspiracy.
Khazem must have never heard about the existence of ancient manuscripts.Diagram - 16
Diagram - 14Diagram - 15








Christian manuscripts = the Truth from God
» NO corrupted manuscripts,
» NO letters of reference,
» NO personal testimonies, 
» NO correspondence indicating a conspiracy.

If this was the case, we would have to conclude that all those ancient Christian manuscripts MUST have contained the Truth from God, well-preserved before the first corruption or alteration was ever made in connection with Muhammad  in 7th century AD.

However, we can’t find any manuscripts, letters of reference, personal testimonies, or correspondence pointing to such a conspiracy. I should say, absolutely nothing even vaguely referring to Muhammad ever appeared in all these ancient scrolls and manuscripts.
How now we justify GTCC theory? We have one more option:

THE 250 BC CLAIM
The date of alleged change of the Torah might have occurred from the year 624 AD to around rather than about 250 BC, in order to be at least in agreement with the undeniable historical facts. Can this date be substantiated?

Let us read Muslim sources:

Adbullah bin Sallam:
O Jews, fear Allah and accept what He has sent you. For by Allah you know that he is the apostle of God. You will find him described in your Torah and even named. I testify that he is the apostle of God, I believe in him, I hold him to be true, and I acknowledge him.

Obviously if Muhammad is in a present tense Torah according to the Quran, those changes could not have been made 850 years earlier.

A few more examples:

Ibn Hisham, Seera Rasool Allah:
While the apostle was in Mecca some twenty Christians came to him from Abyssinia when they heard news of him…
When they heard the Quran their eyes flowed
with tears, and they accepted God's (Or, `his call'.) call, believed in him, and declared him truth.
They recognized in him the things which had been said of him in their scriptures.
Narrated by Al Fultaan ibn A'asim:
Muhammad said: Do you bear witness that I am the Messenger of Allah? He said: No. The Prophet peace be upon him said: Do you read the Torah? He replied back: Yes. Then the Prophet peace be upon him asked: and the Gospel? The man replied: Yes. The Prophet peace be upon him then asked: The Qur'an? The man replied back: No. ... Then the Prophet peace be upon him pulled the man and asked: Don't you find me in the Torah and Gospel?

We have clear evidence form the Quran itself disproving the 250 BC corruption theory.

FACTS ON TOP OF FACTS
There are some other discrepancies that we can located in the Quran that contradict the unchanged Torah and Gospels:

Narrated by Al Fultaan ibn A'asim:
The man replied back and said: We find someone who is similar to you and your Ummah (community) and from the place where you were brought up and we were hoping that you would be from amongst us. When you rose up (as a Prophet) we were afraid that it would be you. However, we looked and saw that it wasn't you. The Prophet peace be upon him replied back asking: Why is that? The man said: From him will be 70,000 of his followers from his community who will have no judgment passed on them nor punishment but you have a simple number of men following you. The Prophet peace be upon him replied back: By He Whose Hand my soul lies it is me and it is referring to my Ummah (community). And they are more than 70 thousand, 70 thousand, 70 thousand.
(This hadith has been declared authentic by Sheikh Albani in Saheeh Al Muwaarid, page or hadith no. 1765) 

Note how the man informed the Prophet (peace be upon him) that one of the signs of the Prophet to come according to the Torah or Gospel is that the Prophet will have 70,000 followers who will enter paradise with no judgment passed on them.

Where do we see this great event in today's Torah or Gospel?
It is nowhere, thus indicating that it has been removed from the text, which in turn implies textual corruption.
Muslims are correct, our Torah or Gospel do not mention 70,000 followers of Muhammad or of anyone else for that matter, but there are mentioned in…

The Prophet said,…
"The people were displayed in front of me.. And then I looked and saw a large multitude of people, so I asked Gabriel, "Are these people my followers?' He said, 'No, but look towards the horizon.' I looked and saw a very large multitude of people. Gabriel said. 'Those are your followers, and those are seventy thousand (persons) in front of them who will neither have any reckoning of their accounts nor will receive any punishment.' I asked, 'Why?...

Interesting, is not it, here is a source of information about mysterious 70, 000 Muslims – an “angel” showing to Muhammad in a dream and explaining to him… for the first time. Muhammad never before this heard about it. He asked a question. In another Hadith Muhammad speaking before Muslims and relaying that info to them:

Narrated Sahl bin Sa'd:
The Prophet said, "Seventy-thousand or seven-hundred thousand of my followers (the narrator is in doubt as to the correct number) will enter Paradise holding each other till the first and the last of them enter Paradise at the same time, and their faces will have a glitter like that of the moon at night when it is full."

Now, according to the Hadith where a non-Muslim tells Muhammad about 70,000 of his followers; this information must be preserved in the Torah in the days of Muhammad. Wherefore we can come to a reasonable conclusion.

A REASONABLE CONCLUSION
The Torah could not have been changed BEFORE  the year 622 AD!

And Islam has even more problems; a contradictory statement from other Muslim source:

Narrated by Sa'eed ibn Juabair:
Ibn Abbaas said: The kings after the time of Jesus the son of Mary peace be upon him substituted the Torah and Gospel and there used to be amongst them believers who were reading the Torah. It was said to the kings: We do not find an insult greater than the insult of those that read "And those who do not rule by what Allah has revealed, they are disbelievers" and their recitation of these similar kind of verses which they shame us with in our daily activities. So tell them to read just as what we read and let them believe just as we believe.' So the king summoned them and gathered them together. He proposed either death to them or that they leave the recitation of the Torah and Gospel except what they substitute in place of it.
[(Sunan Al Nisaa'i, hadith no. 5305), Sheikh Nasr Al Deen Al Albani authenticated this narration in Sunan Al Nisaa'i, hadith no. 5400]

Is not it interesting how Qur’an and Muslims call Jesus a “son of a woman” while the Bible and Jesus himself called him “the Son of man”
And the name of Jesus in Hebrew is sounds like Yeshua, and in proper Arabic -Yasua, but the Qur’an and all Muslims called him by a strange name Essa (Isa) – sounds like a name of Esau, brother of Jacob? But that's another rabbit hole altogether.

Let us read Muslim explanation of Sunan Al Nisaa'i, hadith no. 5305. Here we see that Ibn Abbaas talks about how the kings of the past used to force people to switch to their corrupted version of the scriptures. Clearly indicating that their scriptures contained writings, which were false, thus the scriptures that the masses were using were textually corrupted. Since the kings forced the people to switch to their scriptures or had them killed, this meant that the true uncorrupted scriptures became lost or possibly remained safe with a very few number of people, but it seems clear that the corrupted copies were distributed more widely.  

First of all, Ibn Abbaas suddenly became a scholar in ancient Torah… and Muslims rely on his statements.
Secondly, we have a clear scriptural contradiction:

1.
Some Muslim sources tells us with confidence that Jews and Christians changed their Torahs AFTER meeting with Muhammad but this particular Muslim source tells us that Torah and Gospel was changed long before Muhammad was ever born, but some times after the birth of Jesus.

2. The last statement by Ibn Abbas we conclude that Torah and Gospel was changed in parts where they condemn evil style of living of unnamed kings (strangely coming together and together addressing to unnamed group of Christians and Jews) but other Muslim sources tells us that the Torah was changed ONLY in connection with the name of Muhammad.

3. As we could clearly see from Today’s Torah and the Bible, all righteous rebukes by God are still intact and in fact condemning not only certain kings in the past but many people even today in our society. So, what was changed? If 10 Commandments are still in our modern Torah, why did these mysterious kings not remove them? Or maybe Ibn Abbaas thought that it was 12 Commandments or 14 and only 10 were left in the “corrupted” Torah? Can Ibn Abbaas statement could be supported by evidence rather just by his words which contradicts other Muslim scholars?

4. As you know, most of Jewish people do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. The Old Testament has many predictions about coming of Messiah which we apply to Christ, especially Isaiah 53, Book of Daniel 9, etc. Jewish people in synagogues are not reading this chapter of Isaiah, they do not study Daniel 9.
But they do not dare to take these very inconvenient chapters from THEIR Tanah (Torah). They try simply to avoid them or misinterpreted them. But never to destroy them, simply because they believe that the entire Tanah is from God. Please tell me, why they decided to change Tanah in connection with Muhammad, but kept everything about Jesus intact, so we can easily find Him on the pages of their Scrolls? It is a very big inconsistency on their behalf.

Ancient manuscripts do not contain any mention of:
» 70,000 followers
» Arabia as his birthplace

All Ancient manuscripts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, Christian Bibles, and Early Church Fathers writings make no mention of Muhammad either by description or by name, or of his 70,000 followers or Arabia as his birthplace. Therefore, Muslims need to shift back in time their claim that the Torah would have been changed in 624 AD, to a new time period as early as 250 BC. But in doing so, they would render the statement by Adbullah bin Sallam and Hadith Al Fultaan ibn A'asim, how can it be said politely, unreliable.

Neither Jesus, nor His disciples, nor early Christians believed the Torah was unreliable.
We will never find any statement uttered by Jesus, his disciples or any early Christians that the Torah was unreliable. 

It makes the Global Torah Change Conspiracy (GTCC) all the more illogical.

CHRISTIAN AUTHORS AGREE — BIBLES AGREE
No Christian author up to the 7th century ever accused the Jews of corrupting their Torah, and the Christian Bibles from that time period are in agreement with their Jewish counterparts, that is, the scrolls of the Tanakh.

So, we can make a simple conclusion based on these facts:
» No ancient scrolls mention Muhammad
» Since Muslim sources allege that the Torah had been corrupted only during or after the 7th century AD, why do none of the ancient scrolls of the Torah in Hebrew, Greek, Armenian, Georgian, Syriac, Latin and Coptic languages found in Jewish and Christian possession all across the known world, predating the birth of Muhammad, make mention at all of Muhammad, either by name or by description?
» Where did Abdullah bin Sallam see any mention of Muhammad in the Torah? Where in the Bible is the reference to the 70,000 followers of Muhammad? We do not have these references in our modern-day Bibles and these Bibles are virtually identical to all known ancient manuscripts.

The Torah could never have been changed in the 7th century!

GOD CONTRADICTS HIS OWN WORD?
There is another claim made that Jews predicted the coming of Muhammad and preemptively removed his name from the Torah. Who could have had the foreknowledge to remove references to Muhammad hundreds of years BEFORE he became a prophet?
Does that make any sense? Or are we just walking down longer and wider roads of insanity?
Diagram - 17
In order to conduct the fraud of GTCC of such global proportions (such as removing part or parts of the Torah from ALL Jewish scrolls across the Europe and Asia, and from ALL Christian Bibles in different languages) it would be virtually impossible to do now and even more impossible in the 7th century AD, and certainly not even 250 BC.

Massive change before the 2nd century BC in ALL Torahs EVERYWHERE

BUT the Qur’an, the Hadith and Sira speak of an uncorrupted Torah.

CONTRADICTION!
These kinds of MASSIVE changes EVERYWHERE in EVERY Torah had to be enacted no later than the 2nd century BC; therefore no Jew and no Christian for almost 800 years before Islam was created would have had a reliable Torah in their hands.

Yet the Qur’an, the Hadith and Sira clearly speak of an uncorrupted Torah being in Jewish and Christian possession even in Al Yathrib in the 7th century AD.

Is there historical evidence of any such change?
Can any Muslim produce even some tiny historical evidence equal to that which can be found contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Coptic, the Armenian, the Byzantium and other ancient Bibles in order to prove that it was indeed some OTHER Torah in circulation?

There is no such ancient document!
There is not any single ancient scroll with that kind of description. There is NO mention of the existence of such a Gospel among any historical documents dated prior to the birth of Muhammad .

As a matter of fact, we have many so called “Apocrypha Gospels” dated 200-300 AD.

NONE of them have any description of 70,000 Muslims or Muhammad  himself.

“Apocrypha Gospels” dated 200-300 AD.

1. NONE have any description of 70,000 Muslims or Muhammad himself. Isn’t that strange?

2. A change to the Torah in 250BC necessitates the unreliability of the Hadith and Sria Rasool Allah
If the date of the alleged corruption of the Torah supposedly happened in 250 BC, rather than in 624 AD,  then the Hadith and Sira Rasool Allah would have to be declared as unreliable.
As I understand, it can’t be done.
Therefore there is only one possible logical explanation remaining:

3. Two different copies must have existed simultaneously in 250 BC
Somehow at least two different copies of the Torah must have simultaneously existed in 250 BC. One would have contained a complete description of Muhammad, the other would not. Not only the Torah, but parallel Gospels as well would have had to contain a description referring to the 70,000 Muslims and the Torah with the name of Muhammad  in it.

Let us look into this option…
Diagram - 18
250 BC
In order for this third option to have legitimate and logical right to exist, we must make an assumption that must have been TWO Torahs in 250 BC. 

The “Common Torah” = the Dead Sea Scrolls
Let’s call the Torah found in the Dead Sea Scrolls – the “Common Torah”.

The “Muslim Torah” = the second Torah
We’ll call the second Torah with the name Muhammad in it –the “Muslim Torah”.

The “Changed Muslim Torah” = an altered “Muslim Torah
As we saw historically, the “Common Torah” had not being changed during 2,260 years and survived completely intact in the pages of our modern Bibles. This fact leave us with only option:

The “Muslim Torah” supposedly was in the possession of Jews in Al Yathrib during the time of Muhammad. This “Muslim Torah” would have to be the one that supposedly changed. Let’s call this new Torah- the “Changed Muslim Torah”.

As a matter of fact, if we will trust Sira Rasool Allah, we must conclude that even Christians from Abyssinia had in their possession the Gospel with description of Muhammad.

Here is a chart 3 Torahs supposedly being in existence from 250 BC until today.

» 250 BC Common Torah — 250 BC Muslim Torah
» 400-500 AD Common Torah — 622 AD Changed Muslim Torah
» 10/25/2011 Common Torah — 10/25/2011 Changed Muslim Torah

Muslim Torah” contains name of Muhammad and 70,000 Muslims

Abdullah Bin Sallam and Christians have a “Muslim Torah

Ibn Khazem has a “Changed Muslim Torah

All Christians since the 11th century have only a “Changed Muslim Torah

Then we could say that Abdullah Bin Sallam read the name of Muhammad   written in the “Muslim Torah”, and Christians also read about the 70,000 Muslims in the same Torah or Gospel, but Ibn Khazem had the “Changed Muslim Torah” and Bin Abbas also referred to it (Volume 9, Book 93, Number 614).

Also, ALL Muslims since the 11th century absolutely and confidently claim to Jews and Christians that they have in their possession the “Changed Muslim Torah”.

They say to me straightforwardly: “Your Torah had been changed!”. Correct?

So, according to modern Muslims, we now have a “Changed Muslim Torah” in our era.

But in reality, Christians and Jews have only the “Common Torah
Here it is on the chart. Our “Common Torah” that appears in modern Bibles is virtually identical to the ancient Torah scrolls found in the Dead Sea Scrolls 250 years before the birth of Christ and 820 years before the birth of Muhammad. And it is identical in Christians Ancient Bibles in 4th to 6th century AD as well.

Today’s Torah has remained virtually unchanged for over 2,260 years
The Torah that we have today has never been changed over the past 2,260 years!
We do not have other one!
We never did!

"Changed Muslim Torah” = unsubstantiated
Common Torah” = proven authentic
Muslims unwillingly agree with this statement by saying that we have now the “Changed Muslim Torah”, but textual, historical and archeological facts prove that we really have only the “Common Torah”.

The “Common Torah” readily available
Changed Muslim Torah” does not exist

We are referring to the same Torah, but simply using different names…

So, the facts tell us that we have in our possession today, the “Common Torah” and nobody has the “Changed Muslim Torah” in his/her possession, as of and up until today.

Therefore, we do not have in our possession the “Changed Muslim Torah”, we have only the “Common Torah”.

So, what is there to say about the “Changed Muslim Torah”? There is no evidence and no proof for this particular Torah to exist anywhere on this planet during any century!  All what Christians and Jews had in 7th century was a Common Torah, not a Changed Muslim Torah!

Changed Muslim Torah” never existed
And if this is true, then the “Changed Muslim Torah” never existed in the first place!
Now we could replace this unreliable name of the “Changed Muslim Torah” with a reliable one – the “Common Torah”!

And if this is true, there would be nothing to change in the “Common Torah” before Muhammad was ever born! The “Common Torah” has never been changed in 2,260 years of its existence. Because there is no such book as the “Changed Muslim Torah” there is also no evidence and no proof to support the existence of the “Muslim Torah”.

And if this is true, then the so-called “Muslim Torah” never existed in the first place!  Its existence simply defies all logic.

Muhammad had in his hands the same Torah as is available today
For all these years, Jews and Christians had only the “Common Torah” and that was the one that Muhammad held in his hands!

Why do modern Muslims agree with Ibn Abbaas and Ibn Khazem, but disagree with Muhammad? Why Modern Muslims do not follow
Muhammad and teaching of the Qur’an? And why they are going against historical, archaeological facts and against a simple logic?
It is impossible to defend such claim of the Torah being corrupted at ANY time in history!

Therefore, using facts and logic we could put aside the third option as also unreliable.

GOSPEL OF BARNABAS?
FRAUDULENT!
In order to fill the blank, someone produced the so-called “Gospel of Barnabas”, a very interesting document!
I highly recommend everyone to read it. You will have a good time, I assure you! Especially in part of circumcision and creation of dog and Adam.

By the way, the name of Muhammad appeared 17 times in this so-called “gospel”. This “gospel”  denounced the written Torah as a work of Rabbis, called Ishmael not Isaac the promised seed etc. This “gospel” is so Muslim in a contrast with every other Gospels and even the Apocrypha, that even it is not correct to talk about it seriously.

Its existence simply proves that certain Muslims were so desperate to justify the existence of the GTCC and could not find any support in ancient manuscripts and in modern Torahs and Bibles, so they committed simple fraud by writing such a “Gospel”.

Unsubstantiated in any court of law!
How can such an outlandish claim still be insisted upon?  Does this make any sense? If such an accusation were brought to a court of law they who will do it  would lose, trying to defend this theory!

While I ask my Muslim friends to think about logical answer to this question, I will continue.

THE BIG PROBLEM
Prerequisite: The Torah and entire Old Testament must be true

Therefore: Christianity and the New Testament are true
In order for Christianity and the New Testament to be true, it is a prerequisite that the Torah and the entire Old Testament be considered true.

Since Christianity claims to be the subsequent and complete revelation from the same God of the Old Testament, it must be supported by the Old Testament. In the same way that the second floor of a two-storey building must totally rely on the first floor as its support.

If Muhammad said that Islam is a further and complete revelation from the same God, then Islam absolutely must rely on the Torah, the Old Testament and New Testament, as if they were three parts of the same structure. The third floor of the building would be Islam, with the roof, being totally supported by the building’s foundation and its two lower floors.

Allah and Muhammad never said that all previous Scriptures must be disregarded.

All three must make sense together, and be logical in its entirety.
Let’s read again what Muhammad said:

Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "My similitude in comparison with the other prophets before me, is that of a man who has built a house nicely and beautifully, except for a place of one brick in a corner. The people go about it and wonder at its beauty, but say: 'Would that this brick be put in its place!' So I am that brick, and I am the last of the Prophets."  

…built a house nicely and beautifully
…except for the place of one brick in a corner
…I am that brick

As Muhammad clearly stated, he did not come to build a new house/religion, he simply is the last “brick” among many in the already NICELY AND BEAUTIFULLY build house.

Muhammad here endorses Jewish and Christian Scriptures and Religions as standing True in his own days. And he completely relied on its support.

His claim made sense only if he was indeed the last in the line of biblical prophets… but.

ANOTHER MUSLIM PARADOX:
In order for the Qur’an to be the true book from God in the eyes of modern Muslims such as all of you, it demands to consider the Torah, the Old Testament and the New Testament ALL to be wrong!

Is the Torah, Old Testament, and the New Testament erroneous? Yet Islam confidently asserts that we all believe in one God, as it is written in the Qur’an:

We believe in that which hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto you; our Allah and your Allah is One!
Diagram - 19

The modern Muslim “Global Torah Change Conspiracy” undermines the very words of Muhammad  himself in the Hadith and words of Allah in the Qur’an.

DOES THIS MAKE LOGICAL SENSE?
The facts contradict the “Global Torah Change” conspiracy
This “Global Torah Change Conspiracy” theory can’t be proven because simple logic, historical facts, textual facts and archeological facts contradict it.

It has no common sense to support it!

What is the possible explanation for this paradox?

Occam’s razor principle

Occam's razor principle, which generally recommends, when faced with competing hypotheses that are equal in other respects, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions.

Do you remember the question at the beginning of this presentation, “Could the Global Torah Change Conspiracy Theory be the only correct one, or could it be that the Jews and Christians have never corrupted their Torahs and this theory is therefore false?”

Which one of these two conflicting ideas have “the fewest new assumptions”, according to Occam’s razor principle? The GTCC? Or an unchanged Torah?

I think that in order for the GTCC to be correct, we need to bring in many assumptions to support it. But these assumptions are not even supported by historical, textual, archeological facts and simple logic. They have many problems within themselves. To the contrary, to prove that the Torah had never been changed, all we need is to bring all the facts mentioned above and they will absolutely, undeniably support our claim that Torah has never been changed. In this case there are no unreliable assumptions.

Therefore, the GTCC has no “legs” to stand on,  as a legitimate theory. It remains only a wishful fantasy.

GTCC IS A WISHFUL FANTASY
I strongly suggest to you, my Muslim friends, to consider it very seriously.
Do not try to defend false theory, do not try to justify wrong position, do not support fantasy, do not reject logic and common sense, but simply look into all the historical and scriptural facts in order to make the only one logical and correct decision, because hellfire in the hereafter is very real and we, as Christians, do not want any of you, our dear Muslim friends, to dwell in it for eternity.

If you really consider the following four questions you will find that they are impossible to answer without the Living Word Jesus Christ and the truth found in our unchanged Torah and Gospels. They are:

1. How could ALL Christians and ALL Jews have simultaneously changed their Torahs?
2. Why do all ancient manuscripts which predate the birth of Muhammad not mention his name anywhere?
3. Why are ALL Muslims absolutely sure that we have changed the Torah in 7th century, but in reality we have the same Torah as all the ancient manuscripts?
4. Why does Islam claim to be “the last religion”, but rules two prior religions, Judaism and Christianity, to be condemned to hell?

May you come to glorify Jesus Christ in your life,
Alex

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