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Holy Books Have a History: Textual Histories of the New Testament and the Qur'an
Holy Books is a new study of textual histories of the New Testament and Qur'an based on study of their earliest available manuscripts.
126 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 11, 2015
I highly recommend this book. In the everyday Christian-Muslim dialogue, things often get muddy very quickly. A big knot in the conversation often comes when the Muslim asserts that the Bible was corrupted so much that a new revelation, the Qur'an, had to be sent. Keith Small does some really commendable work in untangling this defeater in an intellectually honest interrogation of the textual histories of the New Testament and the Qur'an. Questions include: "was the New Testament ever changed in the ways that Muslims assert?", "has the Qur'an been preserved as faithfully as Muslims claim?" and "why should answering these questions make a difference to Christians, Muslims, and others?".
January 31, 2021
Not the most well-written book. It definitely needed more editing. It helps to have some background about the Qur'an and New Testament before reading as a lot is referenced regarding textual criticism that would be difficult to understand without some basics. That being said, I think the overall ideas were interesting and I would love to learn more, albeit in a more organized and well-explained manner. The main idea explores the common Muslim claim that the New Testament has been corrupted. The book explores how the New Testament compares to the Qur'an in the area of corruption, aka change and incorrect transmission over the years, and it turns out that if Islam continues to claim such a thing, it necessarily has some explaining to do about its own text.
January 5, 2023
Too short.
The main part of the book was an interesting comparison of a group of NT manuscripts to a group of Qur'an manuscripts. Then, suddenly, the chapter titled "Conclusions" introduced a number of new topics. I think those additions were complementary to the book, but I'd have hoped to have them fleshed out more. In such a short chapter he couldn't substantiate all of his claims which left one wanting for more.
The main part of the book was an interesting comparison of a group of NT manuscripts to a group of Qur'an manuscripts. Then, suddenly, the chapter titled "Conclusions" introduced a number of new topics. I think those additions were complementary to the book, but I'd have hoped to have them fleshed out more. In such a short chapter he couldn't substantiate all of his claims which left one wanting for more.
October 9, 2023
Great informative guide. The conclusions he draws are much broader than the initial study documented, so in this book you don't see all of his working, but it's valuable and clear information.
April 9, 2015
"The Bible has been corrupted because it has been translated and copied so many times for hundreds of years." Have you ever heard that argument or that claim? The question is: is it true? Do Christians who believe in the Bible as the authoritative Word of God put all their faith in a book that has been corrupted, changed, distorted and altered? There is plenty of manuscript evidence to evaluate that claim.
"Holy Books is a new study of the textual histories of the New Testament and Qur'an based on study of their earliest available manuscripts. Sanaa manuscripts and the Topkapi Mushaf are just some of the 21 Qur'an manuscripts used in this work. The conclusions verify the reliability of the New Testament and raise serious questions concerning traditional views of the Qur'an's text."
"Holy Books is a new study of the textual histories of the New Testament and Qur'an based on study of their earliest available manuscripts. Sanaa manuscripts and the Topkapi Mushaf are just some of the 21 Qur'an manuscripts used in this work. The conclusions verify the reliability of the New Testament and raise serious questions concerning traditional views of the Qur'an's text."
January 7, 2016
Excellent read for those interested in the Quran and the Bible through the study of textual criticism.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews