God's Preservation of the Bible
While the falsity of Muslim claims for the revelation of the Qu'ran and its subsequent lack of change have been previously exposed, the Muslim charges concerning the corruption of the Bible ought to be addressed briefly. Islam has yet to produce any textual evidence to demonstrate the corruption of the Biblical texts. Thus, the assertion rests entirely on blind faith in what amounts to a tradition handed down through Islam for roughly 1500 years. Facts show, however, that the texts used to produce the King James Bible are the preserved, uncorrupted words of God.
The Old Testament was written originally in Hebrew (except for certain portions of Daniel and Ezra which are in Syriac). Therefore, we must look at the history of the Hebrew texts to examine for corruption. Romans 3:1-2 tells us, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." This passage clearly illustrates to us that it was the Jews who had been given the responsibility and privilege of passing on and protecting God's Word. This they did, too, through their Masoretic school. The Hebrew Masoretes followed a very prescribed, very rigourous means of transcribing copies of the Hebrew scriptures . Among other things, they had to have an authentic copy of the texts before them when copying. They couldn't copy anything from memory, but had to have an authentic copy in front of them, sounding out each word before copying it. The copyist had to have the word on his lips, not just in his mind. Rules governed everything involved with the copying, even the colour of the ink used, the number of lines per column of text, the preparation of the parchment skins used, etc. Strict rules were followed which governed the style of letter formation, space between letters, the handling of the pen used to copy. Care was taken not just to transfer words, but to standardise them so rigourously that the copy was as nearly a perfect replica of the original as was humanly possible. The quality of copying from this method would be light-years beyond what we would see from a copying machine today. Further, if one mistake was found on a sheet of parchment, the sheet was destroyed and the work started over. If three mistakes were found on any one page, the ENTIRE MANUSCRIPT was thrown out and copying began fresh. Thus, if a Masorete who was copying the entire text of the Hebrew Bible started in Genesis and got all the way to the end of II Chronicles (the last book in the original Hebrew ordering of the books) and made three mistakes on a page, the ENTIRE document was thrown out, along with months of work, and started anew.
This sort of effort was perpetuated by the Masoretes and protected God's Word in Hebrew from any sort of corruption. Islam cannot even begin to make the same sort of claim for the Arabic texts of the Qu'ran, which evidence shows had already been corrupted by the time of Uthman. The result of the Masoretes' work was what was used to translated the Old Testament in the King James. The King James translators used the Ben Chayyim Masoretic text, produced by Rabbi Abraham ben Chayyim iben Adonijah, and published by Daniel Bomberg in 1524 3. Thus, the King James Old Testament comes from a text that can be considered completely trustworthy and a preserved replica of the originals.
Likewise, the Greek New Testament underlying the King James remained uncorrupted. There are currently in the possession of scholars 5,255 copies, either partial or full, of the Greek New Testament, in various forms such as uncials, lectionaries, papyrus fragments, and cursive texts. Of these, 5,210 most generally agree with the Received Text (Textus Receptus) which is the Greek text from which the King James New Testament was translated 4. Hence, 99.14% of all existing Greek New Testament texts agree with one another and with the Textus Receptus which Beza edited in 1598. What this means is that the VAST BULK of Greek manuscripts for the New Testament were translated accurately down throughout the entire Church Age, right up to the time when Beza used them to render a complete Greek text. Further evidence for the accuracy of their translation is the fact that over 60% of quotations from early church fathers who died before 400 AD were from texts that agreed with the Textus Receptus 5. The remaining 40% quote from other texts, and most often did so to support heretical beliefs related to Montanism or the various Gnosticisms.
The tiny remaining number of false Greek texts (that other 0.86%, or 45 manuscripts) all bear evidence of their not being used by the church of God. The two primary manuscripts of this class, Codex Aleph and Codex B, both have earmarks of Gnostic corruption. They are touted by modern day textual critics as being the oldest, and therefore most trustworthy, manuscripts. However, one fact that needs to borne in mind is this: When a text written on vellum is used constantly, it wears out and needs to be recopied. Conversely, when a text is never used, it remains in a more pristine condition. Given that the Codex Aleph and Codex B texts are the oldest, the obvious point is then that they were never used, and thus never had to be recopied. This doubly supports the notion that the Textus Receptus (TR) texts have been preserved uncorrupted in that it tells us the early church and men of God through the ages recognised THEM, and not the small minority of heretical texts, as being the authentics. It also tells us that no significant mistakes were made throughout the course of transcribing and re-transcribing the TR texts over the centuries, for them to all agree with each other by the thousands of manuscripts, spread across the old Roman world. A point that bears making is that it is the small number (45) of heretical texts from which the 'modern' versions of the Bible like the NIV, NASB, RV, Berkeley, Living Bible, etc. are translated. The textual support for these modern versions is very small, and certainly does not outweigh the vast textual support which the King James enjoys. These modern versions carry through many of the heresies that their parent manuscripts contained, such as denying or downplaying important doctrines like the efficacy of Christ's blood, His virgin birth, His resurrection, etc. Christians interested in having and studying the true Word of God would do well do dump their 'modern' versions in the garbage can and get ahold of a solid King James Version.
God has again preserved His Word, by retaining for us a text in Greek, the Textus Receptus, which has been copied and carried through for centuries without error. Combined with the protection He afforded to the Hebrew Masoretic texts, we see that God has preserved and protected His Word through the ages. This is not surprising though, as God has promised to us to preserve His Word. "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever." (Isaiah 40). Truly He has done this with His Word, the Bible, and truly the same cannot be said for the Qu'ran!
Timothy W. Dunkin's 10 myths of Islam