"God revealed the Torah and the Gospel, but people changed them. That is why the Bible and the Qur'an disagree." Many Muslims hold this sincerely, and it deserves an honest answer.
Short answer: No. The Qur'an itself calls the Torah and the Gospel "guidance and light" and tells the Christians of Muhammad's day to judge by the Gospel they had. Manuscripts copied centuries before Muhammad show the same Bible we read today. Copies have real variants, and scholars study them openly, but the message was not replaced.
Key verses on the reliability of Scripture
- "the word of our God stands forever." (Isaiah 40:8)
- "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." (Matthew 24:35)
- "so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received." (Luke 1:4)
- "All scripture is inspired by God" (2 Timothy 3:16)
- "the word of the Lord remains forever." (1 Peter 1:25)
Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What Catholics Actually Teach
First, the Muslim view at its strongest. The Qur'an (Sahih International) speaks of "a party of them" who "used to hear the words of Allāh and then distort it [i.e., the Torah] after they had understood it" (2:75). It also warns:
So woe to those who write the "scripture" with their own hands, then say, "This is from Allāh," in order to exchange it for a small price. (2:79)
This charge is called tahrif (distortion). Muslim scholars have read it in different ways: some as twisting the meaning, others as changing the text itself. Many Muslims today hold the second view, which would explain why the Bible differs from the Qur'an about Jesus.
The Church's starting point is respect. Muslims "profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God" (CCC 841), and the Council urged Christians and Muslims "to work sincerely for mutual understanding" (Nostra Aetate 3).
On Scripture, the Church teaches: "God is the author of Sacred Scripture" (CCC 105). God's human writers were "true authors" (CCC 106), and "the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures" (CCC 107; Dei Verbum 11). And "the Christian faith is not a 'religion of the book'" but of the "Word" of God, "incarnate and living" (CCC 108).
What Catholics do not teach:
- That every handwritten copy is flawless. Inspiration belongs to the sacred books, not to each copyist's pen.
- That the Bible was dictated as one book. God worked through human authors who handed on the apostles' preaching (Luke 1:1–4).
- That variants should be hidden. Catholic Bibles note them.
The Biblical Case
1. The Qur'an treats the Torah and Gospel as guidance in Muhammad's day
The Qur'an asks why some come to Muhammad for judgment "while they have the Torah, in which is the judgement of Allāh?" (5:43). It says of the Torah, "in which was guidance and light" (5:44), and of Jesus, "We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light" (5:46). Then: "And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allāh has revealed therein" (5:47). It even tells Muhammad, if in doubt, to "ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you" (10:94). It goes further: "O People of the Scripture, you are [standing] on nothing until you uphold [the law of] the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord" (5:68). No one is told to uphold a book that no longer exists. These verses assume the Scripture in seventh-century Jewish and Christian hands could still be judged by.
2. The Bible they had is the Bible we have
We have copies made long before Muhammad (born in the late sixth century):
- The Great Isaiah Scroll, a Dead Sea Scroll dated by the Israel Museum to "ca. 125 BCE," is "the only one that is almost complete" of the biblical scrolls. The museum notes that it generally agrees with the traditional Hebrew text, while listing its variants and scribal errors.
- Papyrus 75, now in the Vatican Library, originally held the Gospels of Luke and John. It was "Copied in the early third century A.D." and is "one of the oldest surviving witnesses of the text of the New Testament."
- Codex Sinaiticus was "written in the middle of the fourth century" and contains "the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament." Codex Vaticanus, also fourth-century, is in the Vatican Library.
Codex Sinaiticus alone holds the whole New Testament, with Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, more than two centuries before Muhammad. If the Gospel was reliable enough in the seventh century to judge by (5:47), it is reliable now, since our Bibles rest on copies older than Islam.
3. God's word does not fail
"The grass withers, the flower wilts, but the word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:8). Jesus promised, "my words will not pass away" (Matthew 24:35). The Qur'an agrees in its own way: "None can alter His words" (6:115).
4. Scripture warns against twisting it
Scripture itself admits people distort it. St. Peter says St. Paul's letters contain "some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures" (2 Peter 3:16). Twisting the meaning is real, but different from replacing the text.
Objections Answered
(a) "The Bible admits it: Jeremiah 8:8."
At its strongest: "See, that has been changed into falsehood by the lying pen of the scribes!" (Jeremiah 8:8). The Bible itself seems to confess corruption.
Answer: The NABRE note explains: "because the teachings and interpretations of the scribes ran counter to the word of the Lord." The next verse says, "they have rejected the word of the LORD" (Jeremiah 8:9). Jeremiah condemns false teaching, not a rewritten Torah. Over a thousand years later, the Qur'an says those who came to Muhammad "have the Torah, in which is the judgement of Allāh" (5:43).
(b) "There are thousands of variants. No one knows the original."
At its strongest: Manuscripts differ, as even the Israel Museum notes for the Isaiah Scroll. How can anyone claim God's word?
Answer: Variants are real. Most involve spelling, word order, or a copyist's slip. The NABRE itself notes that some manuscripts end Mark differently, and that the longer ending's "vocabulary and style indicate that it was written by someone other than Mark," while the Church accepts it as canonical (note on Mark 16:9–20). The Church never claimed one untouched copy. With many early copies spread across many lands, scholars can compare them and see where a copy went astray. No one could have rewritten every copy at once.
(c) "God promised to guard only the Qur'an."
At its strongest: "Indeed, it is We who sent down the message [i.e., the Qur’ān], and indeed, We will be its guardian" (15:9). The Torah, by contrast, was "entrusted" to rabbis and scholars (5:44), so it could be lost.
Answer: That is a fair reading of 15:9's wording. But the Qur'an also says, without limiting it to one book, "None can alter His words" (6:115) and "No change is there in the words [i.e., decrees] of Allāh" (10:64). And it still assumes the Torah and Gospel in seventh-century hands could be judged by (5:43–47; 5:68; 10:94). So the claim must be that the text was corrupted after Muhammad's day. The manuscripts rule that out: we still have the copies made before he was born, and they say what our Bibles say.
(d) "The Gospel of Barnabas is the true Injil."
At its strongest: Some Muslims point to the Gospel of Barnabas, in which Jesus denies being the Messiah, foretells Muhammad, and Judas is made to look like Jesus and crucified in His place. It fits the Qur'an, so, they argue, it must be the original Gospel the Church suppressed.
Answer: Apply the same test applied to the Bible: the manuscripts. The two known early copies are in Italian and Spanish; scholars date the Italian manuscript to the late sixteenth century, roughly a thousand years after Muhammad, and no ancient copy has ever been authenticated. It also contains errors no first-century writer would make, such as a Jubilee every hundred years, when the Law fixes it at fifty (Leviticus 25:10–11). And its Jesus contradicts the Qur'an itself: the Qur'an calls Jesus "the Messiah" (3:45), while the Gospel of Barnabas has Him deny it. A text that fails both the manuscript test and the Qur'an's test cannot be the Injil. The four Gospels pass the first, and the Qur'an itself pointed Christians to the Gospel they already had.
The Early Church Agrees
- St. Irenaeus (c. AD 180), four centuries before Islam, names the same four Gospels and their authors: "Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect"; St. Mark "did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter"; "Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him"; "Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord" published his (Against Heresies III.1.1). And he insists: "It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are" (III.11.8). These are the four Gospels the Church read for centuries before Islam.
- St. Augustine (c. AD 405) trusted Scripture completely: "of these alone do I most firmly believe that the authors were completely free from error." He was also honest about copies: "if in these writings I am perplexed by anything which appears to me opposed to truth, I do not hesitate to suppose that either the manuscript is faulty, or the translator has not caught the meaning of what was said, or I myself have failed to understand it" (Letter 82.3).
Conclusion
Muslims and Christians agree that God spoke through prophets. The Qur'an's own verses and the manuscripts from before Islam point to the same answer: the Torah and Gospel were not lost. The Gospel the Qur'an told Christians to judge by is the Gospel in your hands today.
We invite you to read the Gospel of Luke, one of the two Gospels in Papyrus 75. For how the Church recognized these books, see Who Decided Which Books Are in the Bible?
Come and see. The four Gospels that were read for centuries before Islam are still proclaimed today, unchanged in their message, at every Mass of the Catholic Church. Jesus did not leave only a message. He founded a Church and sent her to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). That Church is the Catholic Church, and she teaches that "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body" (CCC 846). We invite you to meet Jesus in the Catholic Church.
Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.
FAQ
Does the Church say the Bible has no errors? Scripture teaches "without error" the truth God willed for our salvation (CCC 107). Copyists' slips in individual manuscripts are a separate matter.
Why four Gospels instead of one Injil? The Gospel is the good news about Jesus, handed on by eyewitnesses (Luke 1:2). Four inspired accounts witness to one Gospel.
Can I see these manuscripts? Yes. Codex Sinaiticus and the Great Isaiah Scroll are online at codexsinaiticus.org and the Israel Museum's Digital Dead Sea Scrolls.
Sources
Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Leviticus 25:10–11; Isaiah 40:8; Jeremiah 8:8–9 (with the NABRE note); Matthew 24:35; Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:9–20 (NABRE note); Luke 1:1–4; 2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 3:16.
Qur'an (Sahih International, quran.com): 2:75; 2:79; 3:45; 5:43–47; 5:68; 6:115; 10:64; 10:94; 15:9.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 105–108; 841; 846.
Second Vatican Council (vatican.va): Dei Verbum 11; Nostra Aetate 3.
Church Fathers (newadvent.org): St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies III.1.1 and III.11.8; St. Augustine, Letter 82.
Manuscripts: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, "The Great Isaiah Scroll," The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls; Vatican Apostolic Library, "The Hanna Papyrus 1 (Mater Verbi)"; Codex Sinaiticus Project, "The Codex"; Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Codex Vaticanus". On the Gospel of Barnabas manuscripts and anachronisms: "Gospel of Barnabas," Wikipedia (summary of scholarship).