context, whether it be the Bible or the Qur'an. No Muslim should
resort to such an approach. God wants us to spread the truth by honest
means only. Having said that, it shouldalso be said that Muslims,
Christians and Jews do notbelieve in every single thing that the Bible
says. No reasonable person can do that.
I Samuel chapter 17, verses 23 & 50 says that David killed Goliath. II
Samuel 21:19 says that Elhanan killed Goliath. I Chronicles 20:5 says
that Elhanan killed not Goliath but the brother of Goliath whose name
is given as Lahmi. Obviously, no reasonable person should believe all
three reports.
Knowing this, the editors of the King James Bible decided to fix this
problem by making a slight correction to the Bible. They inserted
three words in II Samuel 21:19 to make it say there also that Elhanan
killed the brother of Goliath. You will notice that the three words
the brother of appear there in italics to distinguish them from
therest of the Bible.
The Interpreter's One Volume Commentary on the Bible calls this
a"conflict of tradition about Goliath" (p.179; seealso p. 212). It
says further that the author of Chronicles changed the story where it
said that Elhanan killed Goliath to make it say that Elhanan killed
Lahmi the brother of Goliath. The same commentary says further that
the statement in I Chronicles is "incorrect" (p.180). So here we have
a Bible commentary writtenby Christians, published by Christians, and
sold in Christian bookstores - yet it openly disagrees with a
statement in the Bible. This was done not because Christians wantedto
disbelieve in the Bible, but because they had to choose, among
different statements in the Bible, which statement is more believable.
Now, this approach to theBible does not mean that Christians cannot
refer to the Bible or quote from it or write commentaries onit.
Likewise for Muslims. Although Muslims, like their Christian and
Jewish neighbors, do not believe in every single thing the Bible says,
students of comparative religion should be allowed to study both the
Qur'an andthe Bible. Every honest student, however, will pay close
attention to the context of what he or she reads, and apply scrupulous
exactitude when quoting from eitherbook.
May God help us and guide us all to understandHis true message
regardless in which book that truth is contained.
--
- - - - - - -