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Historical analysis of the Bible vs the Qur'an (2002)

ChristianityIslam
Documentary evidence
  • Moses didn't write?, yet Black Stele found = laws of Hammurabi 300 yrs. before Moses.
  • Daniel not 2nd but 6th BC, East India Inscription= Dan.4:30 = Nebuchadnezzar's building.
  • Dead Sea Scrolls=100BC =Massoretic MS=916AD (except Essene cult variations Lam.\Jer.)
  • Armana tablets: (Egypt) "Apiru@ = Hebrew (?), 1st given to Abraham (Gen.14:13)
  • Ebla tablets: (Syria) 17,000 = Tell Mardikh, 2300 BC = Deuteronomy law code, included the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, Zoar = Gen. 14:8
  • Mari tablets:(Euphrates) Arriyuk = Arioch = Gen.14; Nahor, Harran = Gen.24:10, Benjamin
  • Nuzi tablets: (Iraq) speaks of 7 Patriarchal customs found in Genesis:
    1. a barren wife giving a handmaiden to her husband (i.e. Sarah, Haggar)
    2. a bride chosen for the son by the father (Isaac and Rebekah)
    3. a dowry paid to the father-in-law (i.e. Laban and Jacob)
    4. work done to pay a dowry (i.e. Jacob)
    5. the unchanging oral will of a father (i.e. Isaac)
    6. a father giving his daughter a slave-girl (i.e. Leah, Rachel)
    7. the sentence of death for stealing cult gods (i.e. Jacob).
  • Torah could not have written with such accuracy in 5th or 2nd century BC.
JEWS:
  • split with Muhammad in 624 AD, in Medina (S.2:144-150), yet:
  • Doctrina Iacobi = in 642ADJews/Saracens were still allied
  • Armenian Chronicler 660AD=Jews/Ishmaelites=common Abrahamic ancestry
  • Hijra historical accounts show from Arabia to the north, not Mecca to Medina.
MECCA:
  • (S.3:96)=1st sanctuary, Adam=1st city, Abr. & Ish. rebuilt Kaaba=trade centre
  • No reference till 724AD [Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius]
  • note: Pliny's AMakoraba@ not Mecca, [MKK vs. KRB, >ma= = >place of=]
  • Sources: Orientalists used Lammens, who used Periplus (50AD), Pliny (79AD)
  • Should have used Cosmas, Procopius, Theodoretus (5th-6th cent) closer to events
  • No overland trade post-1st cent., all international trade= maritime via the Red Sea.
  • For obvious reasons, it was cheaper 1,250 miles by ship than 50 miles by camel!
  • Trade declined post-3rd cent, Ethiopians controlling trade (capital = Adulis)
  • Mecca in a valley, little water and off trade route, unlike Taif 50 miles away.
  • If no Mecca/sanctuary then no historical credibility, thus Sura 2 and tradition in doubt

 

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