FRIDAY NOTES (31/5/'24) FROM THE QURAN - BIBLICAL AND NON BIBLICAL SIMILARITIES / PRECEDENTS

 

Non Muslims, especially Christians, may find this interesting. There are numerous characters and events mentioned in the Quran which are also mentioned in the Bible, Talmud. Mishnah etc. Bible meaning the Hebrew Bible or Torah, the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.

(The Jewish Mishnah is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. It is also the first major work of rabbinic literature. 200 - 250 AD).

(The Jewish Talmud is a compilation of ancient teachings, compiled in Mesopotamia (Babylonia) around 500 AD as well as the Jerusalem Talmud, compiled earlier around 400 AD).

However the details do differ substantially between the Quran and the other narratives.

Here are a few examples. 

1.  The Quran's "Companions of The Cave" (As-habul Kahfi) and the Christian 'Sleepers of Ephesus'.

In the Quran there is a story of the Companions of the Cave or As-habul Kahfi. It is found in Surah 18:9-26.

18:9     Or dost thou reflect that the Companions of the Cave and of the Inscription were wonders among Our Sign?.
18:25     So they stayed in their Cave three hundred years, and add nine
18:26     Say: "God knows best how long they stayed . . . .

This story has close parrallels with the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus  that is known to Christianity. However this is not a biblical story because the event of the discovery of the Sleepers of Ephesus is dated to the FIFTH century AD.

"The Seven Sleepers (also known in Christendom as Seven Sleepers of Ephesus is a late antique Christian  legend. The Christian legend speaks about a group of youths who hid inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus (modern-day Selçuk, Turkey) around AD 250 to escape Roman persecutions of Christians and emerged many years later."

OSTB :  The Christian version dates the Sleepers of Ephesus as hiding in a cave in the THIRD century AD during the rule of the Roman Emperor Decius. 

"during the persecution of Christians (250 AD) under the Roman emperor Decius, seven (or eight in some versions) Christians were concealed near their native city of Ephesus in a cave to which the entry was later sealed".

Then they were discovered in the FIFTH century AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor Theodosius II (408 AD to 450 AD).  

So this is a non-Biblical Christian story from the FIFTH century AD that is also narrated in the Quran.

2.  The son of Adam who killed his brother / The Biblical Cain and Abel.

In the Quran in Surah 5:27 onwards there is a story of a son of Adam who kills his brother. Both their names are NOT mentioned in the Quran.

5:27     Recite for them the true history of Adam's two sons. They made an offering, and it was accepted from one of them, but not from the other. He said, "I will surely kill you." He said, "Allah accepts only from the righteous.
5:28     "If you extend your hand to kill me, I am not extending my hand to kill you. For I reverence Allah, Lord of the universe.
5:30     His ego provoked him into killing his brother. He killed him, and ended up with the losers.

5:32     Because of this, we decreed for the Children of Israel that anyone who murders any person who had not committed murder or horrendous crimes, it shall be as if he murdered all the people. And anyone who spares a life, it shall be as if he spared the lives of all the people. . .

This story of one son of Adam killing his brother is found in the Old Testament in Genesis 4:1 - 16.

"The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

In the Quran's version of this narrative in Surah 5:32 this phrase :  " it shall be as if he murdered all the people. And anyone who spares a life, it shall be as if he spared the lives of all the people"    is not found in the Bible.   

However it is found in the non-Biblical references ie in the Jewish Mishna :

"..the Mishnah declares that they should be told: Therefore, Adam [from whom all humanity descended] was created singly, to teach us that whoever destroys a single life in Israel is considered by Scripture to have destroyed the whole world and whoever saves a single life in Israel is considered by Scripture to have saved the whole world".

The Mishnah was redacted in Palestine in the vicinity of 200 - 250AD."

(The Jewish Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a) says : “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world").

(The Mishnah or the Mishna is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. It is also the first major work of rabbinic literature).

So the narrative about 'murdered all the people versus saving all the people' is common to the Quran and the Jewish Mishna.

 

3. Fire be cool on Abraham

In the Quran there is a story of Abraham being thrown into the fire. But Abraham is saved from the fire.

21:68     They said, "Burn him and support your gods, if this is what you decide to do."
21:69     We said, "O fire, be cool and safe for Abraham."

This part "fire be cool on abraham" is found in the Jewish rabbinical writings.

“Nimrod, becoming weary of arguing with Abraham, decided to cast him before his god--fire--and challenged Abraham's deliverance by the God of Abraham, but God saved him out of the fiery furnace -  the story is narrated by Rabbi Hiyya who lived around the year 200 AD, over 400 years before the Quran.

The Jewish Talmud is a compilation of ancient teachings, compiled in Mesopotamia (Babylonia) around 500 AD as well as the Jerusalem Talmud, compiled earlier around 400 AD.  

The Midrash is also an ancient Jewish commentary on part of the Hebrew scriptures, attached to the biblical text. The earliest Midrashim come from the 2nd century AD.

 

4.  "easier for a camel to go through through the eye of the needle" 

In the Qur'an Surah 7:40 it says, 

"Indeed, those who deny Our verses and are arrogant toward them – the gates of the heavens will not be opened for them, nor will they enter the Garden  until a camel enters into the eye of a needle (حَتَّىٰ يَلِجَ ٱلْجَمَلُ فِى سَمِّ ٱلْخِيَاطِ ۚ ) And thus do We recompense the criminals. 

This part   until a camel enters into the eye of a needle  occurs in the Jewish Talmud and the New Testament.

The New Testament quotes Jesus as saying in Luke 18:25 that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god".

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God” (Mark 10.25)

".. parallel in the Babylonian Talmud (Berakoth 55b; Baba Mezi’a 38b): the difficulty of something is likened to an elephant being drawn through the eye of a needle"

The Jewish Talmud is a compilation of ancient Jewish teachings.

OSTB : These are just some similarities / precedents from the Jewish and Christian writings, both biblical and non-biblical.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.