Holy Books Named after Women

I think I heard a Muslim claim, in passing, that there are no books in the Bible named after women, unlike the Quran, which has the book of Maryam.  This was in the context of a discussion of Women's rights. Actually there are at least two books in the Bible named after women, namely Ruth and Esther.
Also, in the Old Testament, there is the deuterocanonical book of Judith.  There is really not a problem with mentioning apocryphal or deuterocanonical books with Muslims, as they have exactly the same problem as anyone else as to their status.  Just because they have a simple solution (reject them all), that does not mean they are right.
Furthermore, on a similar topic, I believe there are extremely few women mentioned in the Quran.  The only woman mentioned by  name is Mary.

See this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_figures_in_the_Quran

The Old Testament also mentions the female prophet Deborah:

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
--Judges 4:4

As well as the female prophet Huldah:


So Hilkiah, and they whom the king [had commanded], went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah
--2 Chronicles 34:22


The New Testament mentions four more ladies who prophesied:

We entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.
--Acts 21:8

Women in The Bible:

http://youtu.be/uZ-vB2ePzmU

The video above points out that Jesus actually had female followers who provided for Jesus and the  disciples.  These women stayed with Jesus even when many of his male disciples fled:

 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
--Luke 8:1-3

Many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to Him.
Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee
--Matthew 27:55-56

Therefore the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
--John 19:25

Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid.
Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
--Luke 23

This is only a small sample of women in ministry in the Bible.
There is a lot more if you read the book "The Woman Question" by Kenneth E. Hagin.

Is Music Haram? -

One time I was there happened to be some music playing, and I asked a Muslim, "Isn't this haram"?
Well this music is.", he replied, and mentioned all those musical instruments in the song.
I in turn pointed out that many psalms specify musical instruments that they should be played on.
Here is one example from Psalm 5.

For the Chief Musician, with the flutes. A Psalm by David.

This is not a header added by the translators but is part of the text.
The muslim opined that this was a corruption of the original text.

For me, if a verse has a footnote that says that it is not present in some manuscripts, then, my rule is that I cannot use it by itself to prove or disprove a doctrine.

For example, for 1 John 5:8 we read this note in the NIV:

Footnotes:

1. 1 John 5:8 Late manuscripts of the Vulgate testify in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. ⁸ And there are three that testify on earth: the (not found in any Greek manuscript before the fourteenth century)

On the other hand if there is no such footnote then we have no reason to believe that the text is in dispute.  What criteria do Muslims use to decide what verse can be used and what cannot?  That is a point worth clarifying.

Bible Corrupt: Some responses

When I first read the Quran, I immediately saw that it is very different from the Bible, both in form and in content.
Muslims often say this is because the Bible has been changed. With Muslims, the Bible gets no "benefit of the doubt", while the Quran is assumed to be true without question.

Some responses:

1) If you read the footnotes of most modern translations of the Bible, you will sometimes see mention that a verse has alternate readings in other manuscripts. However, the number of such verses in question make up just a small fraction of the Bible, and it is not enough to change the meaning.In particular not able to account for the large difference between the two books.

2)  Since the footnotes in modern translations show what verses are under dispute, then everything that does not have a footnote is not disputed.  So, it is easy to show that the text of  most of the Bible is not disputed. For the rest of the Bible (when there is no footnote), the burden of proof to to show that the text is corrupt is on the Muslim.

3) The King James Version of the Bible is 400 years old, and was based on about a dozen manuscripts.  Since that time there has been a huge amount of scholarship.  The "Nestle Aland" critical Greek text is in its 28th revision as of  2015. Yet all the scholarship that has been devoted to the study of  manuscripts has shown very few changes compared to the King James version of 400 years ago, and it is still very much in use today.

4) You can look up The Writings of The Early Church Fathers (38 Vols.)  22896 pages (twenty-two thousand pages).  If we had no New Testament manuscripts at all, we could find all but eleven verses in this set of ancient works.  The Early Church Fathers are were within two generations of the original 12 Disciples.

5) The manuscript of the "Codex Sinaiticus" is available online in digital form. It is typical for manuscripts to be accessible to scholars.

6) The Bible was translated into many languages such as Syriac, Latin, and Coptic. Jerome's Latin Vulgate is from around the year 400.

7) There was never a time when all the Bible manuscripts were in the hands of one person or group.

Question for Muslims:
If the New Testament was corrupted, then Who? How? When? where? Why?  What insight does the Quran give on these four questions?

Jesus Killing Innocent Babies

One time I was challenged to offer an objection to Islam.  I replied with the topic of Love in the Quran, or lack thereof.

This very knowledgeable sheikh replied by quoting a verse from the Old Testament that pertained to God and violence.  I do not know much about the Old Testament, so I asked if he had anything from the New Testament.
He then proceeded to quote from the book of Revelations:

The Son of God, the One whose eyes are like a fiery flame and whose feet are like fine bronze, says: ¹⁹ I know your works—your love, faithfulness, service, and endurance. Your last works are greater than the first. ²⁰ But I have this against you: You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and deceives My slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat meat sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. ²² Look! I will throw her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her practices. ²³ I will kill her children with the plague.
(Revelations 2:18-23)

Fine, this may be a valid point. 
But then he went on to say something like this: "Do you see now how Jesus is killing these innocent babies?" 

He specifically used the phrase "innocent babies".  The text does not speak of "babies", and the children mentioned are likely to refer to people seduced into sexual immorality.

Christ has The High Moral Ground

Jesus was once asked what the most important commandment is.

²⁹ “This is the most important,” Jesus answered:

Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One.  ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

³¹ “The second is: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

 

(Mark 12:29-31)

 

Jesus is our most important prophet, and this is the most important commandment.  How can anything in the entire Bible supersede these verses?

Many so-called Christians have done bad things throughout history.  How could they justify their acts when confronted with this verse?  The Christian standard is higher than what is proposed in the Quran.  How this or that Christian actually behave is secondary.  If they do not follow the teaching of Jesus then how are they Christian?

 

⁴⁶ Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?

(Luke 6:46)

 

 

Jesus even tells us to love our enemies and to forgive:

 

²⁷ But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also. And if anyone takes away your coat, don’t hold back your shirt either. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and from one who takes your things, don’t ask for them back. ³¹ Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.

(Luke 6:27-31)

 

Paul places the value of love above all spiritual gifts in the entire chapter of  1 Corinthians:

 

¹³ Now these three remain:
faith, hope, and love.
But the greatest of these is love.

(1 Corinthians 13) but this is just a summary of the entire chapter.

 

One time I heard a  Muslim scholar being asked about Luke 6:27-31 above.  He answered that in Islam they have things like that too.   One time he was holding a Quran study and he read these verses to his students without telling them where they came from.  His students guessed they must have come from the hadiths.  The Scholar did not immediately volunteer specific verses in the Quran that have the same moral standard. 

If Muhammad  came to replace Christianity, did he also bring a higher moral standard?

 

 

 

 

Trinity: Jesus Breathes on His Disciples

When Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection he did something strange; he breathed on them:

²² After saying this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit."
(John 20:22)

Compare this to the creation account in Genesis 2:

⁷ Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
(Gen 2:7)

To people familiar with the creation account, Jesus is putting himself in the position of God by breathing on his disciples.

Was Jesus Only Sent To Israel?

Muslims often use the argument that Jesus was only sent to Israel, while Mohammed and the Quran was sent to the whole world.  Therefore Mohammed supersedes Jesus.

Here are some verses they give as evidence:

⁵ Jesus sent out these twelve after giving them instructions: 
“Don’t take the road leading to other nations, and don’t enter any Samaritan town. 
⁶ Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
--Matthew 10:5

[Jesus] replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
--Matthew 15:24

This may be convincing in the Muslim mindset, where Jesus is one in a series of prophets, each to different people groups. but Christians regard Jesus as a prophet only incidentally.  

However, we believe that Jesus made atonement for the sin of the whole world, and thereby fundamentally changed the relationship between God and Man (John 3:16).  Consistent with most other Old Testament prophets, his message was primarily directed at the Jewish people.  His disciples were given the job of proclaiming the gospel to the world.

Jesus directly says his work does is not just for the Jews of his time:

14 I am the good shepherd. I know My own sheep, and they know Me, 
¹⁵ as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. I lay down My life for the sheep. 
¹⁶ But I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.
--John 10:14-16

Also, if the message of Jesus was only limited to Israel, that would make us ask what the meaning of the following verse is:

  ¹⁴ This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.
--Matthew 24:14

It was Peter's vision in Acts 10:19 that caused the early Jewish Christians to realize they had to proclaim this message to the world.