Page 276 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

256 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

The preliminary assessment of some scholars, such as Oxford's Prof.
Driver, initially dated the Dead Sea Scrolls to the 6th17th centuries C.E.,
before others wrenched this back to the 1st/2nd centuries C.E. 123 And by
no means is this an uncommon phenomenon: a fragment of Leviticus taken
from Qumran, and written in Old Hebrew script, caused great conster-
nation among scholars concerning its date of origin. Suggestions ranged
from the 5th to the first century B.C.E., with the final consensus being that
it could be as recent as the first century C.E., thus giving this fragment a
total breathing space of six hundred years.!" Analysis of this sort suffers
from subjectivity on a massive scale. Based on the concrete evidence above,
the contention that the OT text was standardised between 70-135 C.E. is
completely unsustainable.

8. Some Major Examples if Deliberate 'Textual Corruption

Let us examine a passage in the OT which I believe illustrates a very early
deliberate corruption, specifically,Chapter Seventeen of Genesis. Abraham's
wife, Sarah, gave him her handmaid Hagar "to be his wife", and from her
was born his first son Ishmael. We pick up the story thirteen years later.

Genesis 17 (KingJames Version)
I And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared
to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before
me, and be thou perfect.
2 And I willmake my covenant between meandthee, and will multiply thee
exceedingly.
3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a
father of many nations.
5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name
shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of
thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
7 AndI will establish my covenant between meandthee andthy seed after thee in
their generations fOr an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee.
8 And I will giveunto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein
thou art a stranger,all the land of Canaan, for an everlastingpossession;
and I will be their God.

123 See M. al-'Abidf, Makh{ii{iit al-Bahr al-Mayyzt, pp. 96, 101.
124 Wurthwein, p. 160.