05 · The conversation
Lead with questions, respond to objections and examine the text together. The aim is a line of reasoning that can be followed—and an open conversation about Jesus Christ.
The Quran speaks positively of the Torah and the Gospel and calls on the people who possess scripture to judge according to it. At the same time, it contradicts central statements of the transmitted Gospels. In your view, which scripture and which contents does it affirm? Let us look at a specific passage together.
Listen to the answer first. Whether the other person argues for complete preservation, partial alteration or a lost original determines the next step.
Minutes 1–2: Let the other person explain their understanding of scripture, and summarize it in a way they can agree with. Ask whether “Injīl” refers to the original revealed content, an oral message or an accessible body of texts.
Minutes 3–4: Read Surah 5:43–48 together. Explicitly include 5:48 and the term muhaymin. Do not conceal the claim to oversight.
Minutes 5–6: Choose one point of dispute. For the crucifixion: what is denied in 4:157? For Jesus: what does John 1 actually say? Avoid pursuing several side debates at once.
Minutes 7–8: Examine the alleged history of the text. When is the change supposed to have occurred? Which witnesses predate it? What positive reasons are there for a different original content?
Minutes 9–10: Express the result reached in one sentence. Agree on the one open question that must be examined next. An unresolved issue may remain open.
The Bible was altered. That is why it cannot be used against the Quran.
Textual variants and the claim of a lost original message are different things. Which specific statement do you mean, and when is it supposed to have been altered?
Choose a passage. Examine the earliest relevant witnesses, and then what content the Quran presupposes. A pre-Islamic reading rules out an origin only after Islam, but not every conceivable early alteration.
Muhaymin means that the Quran judges earlier scripture.
That is an interpretation of 5:48 that deserves serious consideration. How does it fit with the instructions to judge according to the Torah and the Gospel? Which contents remain acknowledged?
Distinguish an internal standard of faith from an independent argument. If the Bible is supposed to confirm Muhammad, the selection of passages that fit must not follow exclusively from already assuming that the Quran is true.
You believe your own scripture is true too.
Yes, as a Christian I confess Holy Scripture as God's Word. Here, however, I am examining the Quranic claim to affirm earlier revelation in light of its own statements. In doing so, I must show that the alleged conflict really concerns the same content.
State your Christian conviction openly. Apply the same logical standard to your own arguments: alleged contradictions must concern the same respect.
Read more: Quran 5:48 · Al-Ṭabarī on Surah 5:48 · Quran 5:47 · Al-Qurṭubī on Surah 5:47 · John 19 · Jesus' crucifixion · Quran 4:157
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