Questions by Thomas, while studying Qur'a

Now I have seen both of them. Neither mentions Mary. One is Heli Joseph Jesus and the other is Jacob Joseph Jesus. Joseph is mentioned in both of them, Mary in neither. So shouldn't both be through Joseph?

Both Matthew 1 and Luke 3 contain genealogies of Jesus. But there is one problem--they are different. Luke's genealogy starts at Adam and goes to David. Matthew's genealogy starts at Abraham and goes to David. When the genealogies arrive at David, they split with David's sons: Nathan (Mary's side) and Solomon (Joseph's side). There is no discrepancy because one genealogy is for Mary and the other is for Joseph. It was customary to mention the genealogy through the father even though it was clearly known that it was through Mary. Some critics may not accept this explanation no matter what reasoning is produced. Nevertheless, they should first realize that the Bible should be interpreted in the context of its literary style, culture, and history. Breaking up genealogies into male and female representations was acceptable in the ancient Near East culture since it was often impolite to speak of women without proper conditions being met: male presence, etc. Therefore, one genealogy is of Mary and the other of Joseph--even though both mention Joseph. In other words, the Mary was counted "in" Joseph and under his headship.

Gen 6:19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. "Two of every sort, they shall be male and female" means 2 pairs Gen 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: "take to thee by sevens, male and his female" means 7 pairs. Isn't that a contradiction?

No, the first means "take pairs" (i.e. mating pairs, so that the species may reproduce) and the second means "take 7 pairs of the clean ones"

You said that Quran is not authentic since it contradicts with the Bible right? I just said that if Quran contradicts with the Bible, that does not make it unauthentic, since (as I proved) Bible is not authentic itself. Hence if Quran contradicts with a book which is unauthentic does not make Quran unauthentic.

It leads to question, not to draw conclusions.


However the Qur'an could also be shown to unauthentic if it contradicts itself, yes?

With much pain his mother bears him, and with much pain she brings him into the world. He is born and weaned in thirty months. When he grows to manhood and attains his fortieth year, let him say: �Inspire me, Lord, to give thanks for the favours You have bestowed on me and on my parents, and to do good works that will please You. Grant me good descendants. To You I turn and to You I surrender myself.� Such are those for whom We will accept their noblest works and whose misdeeds We shall overlook. We shall admit them among the heirs of Paradise: true is the promise that has been given them.

Believers, do not befriend your fathers or your brothers if they choose unbelief in preference to faith. Wrongdoers are those that befriend them. Say: �If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your tribes, the property you have acquired, the merchandise you fear may not be sold, and the homes you love, are dearer to you than God, His apostle and the struggle for His cause, then wait until God shall fulfill His decree. God does not guide the evil-doers.� S. 9:23-24

So you are commanded to love and show kindness to your parents even if they are unbelievers, for they raised you well and will be forgiven, but you cannot befriend them? You can find a more in depth analysis of this contradiction here: http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/disbelieving_parents.html

Likewise, claiming the Bible is faulty (though even I as a Christian believe that human error has been introduced into the record keeping of the Jewish histories and that mistranslations may occasionally occur) is a direct internal contradiction in the Qur'an

Surah 3:3 He sent down to you this scripture, truthfully, confirming all previous scriptures, and He sent down the Torah and the Gospel

Sura 6:115 The words of thy Lord are perfect in truth and in justice; NONE can change His words: For He is the one who heareth and knoweth all. Sura 6:34 There is none that can alter the words of Allah. Already hast thou received some account of those messengers.

Surah 34:50 If I go astray, I go astray only to my own loss

And yet Surah 4:89 commands Muslims to kill any who abandon Islam.

Surah 6:102-103 claims that Allah can not be seen, and yet Surah's
53, 69, 78, and 81 directly contradict this. For a more in depth analysis,
please take the time to read this: http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/allah_seen.htm


Furthermore, the Qur'an says angels are not to be worshipped (with which I agree) because
they can neither create life nor take it away yet elsewhere it says Allah sends His angel to it to
breathe into it the spirit and speaks of Those whom the angels CAUSE TO DIE

These are not matters of mere historical record written by a human, these are some of the fundamental beliefs of Islam that I hear defended
every time I debate and claim to be from the very mouth of God who can not err

We are not talking about one word. We are talking about chapters, loads of sentences. According to Muslims, the things, stories, sentences in the Bible attributed to God, most of them are not authentic. And in the gospel of Barnabas, the number of sentences which are true are relatively more.

The gospel of Barnabas was written more than a millenium and a half after Jesus's life. The 4 gospels in the Bible were written by people who lived through the events of his life and followed him around on a daily basis for the entire course of his ministry.

Why do you say that the first verse refers to pairs and the second refers to animals when the verses are clearly identical? And again, you touched only two out of the 15 contradictions I gave. I can give many more but first answer to the remaining 13.

Most of the translations I have say "pairs" and "7 pairs"   Clearly  7 pairs of something is still having pairs of something. However I think it equally likely that God was clarifying his instructions to Noah with regards to collecting clean animals. If I say to you please go get several bags of marshmallows and some cans of beans from the grocery store. And then I tell you to get 4 cans of beans, there is no contradiction, I'm merely being more specific about the beans then in the original instructions. Or, if two different people wrote down our conversation, and one person wrote that I told you to get beans and marshmallows, and one wrote that I told you to get 3 bags of marshmallows and 4 of beans, there is no contradiction there (assuming I told you to get 3 bags of marshmallows), one record is simply being more specific then the others.