Page 315 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

THE NEW TESTAMENT: AUTHORSHIP AND CORRUPTION 295

8. Early Manuscripts Negates the Prevalent Christian Doctrines

Whether through ongoing corruptions or the elimination of impurities which
had previously infiltrated the text, the NT as it now stands is often a sharp
antagonist of the very Christian doctrines it purportedly supports. To begin
with, the majority of Christians are only familiar with the few select pass-
ages that are regularly read or commented on during sermons. As Maurice
Bucaille notes, "With the exception of the Protestants, it was not customary
for Christians to read the Gospels in their entirety... At a Roman Catholic
school I had copies of the works of Virgil and Plato, but I did not have
the New Testament. "65 Now we discoverthat many of these choice passages,
traditional favouritesof evangelists and the bedrock of the average Christian's
knowledge of his own religion, are in fact spurious or at best unreliable,
and have either been weakened through cautionary footnotes in contem-
porary Bibles,or altogether omitted. These passages touch the very essence
of Christian doctrine.

The Trinity.
We have already discussed at length the 16th century interpolation
of the Comma]ohanneum into 1John 5:7, the statement of Trinity
concerning "the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these
three are one." So well-acknowledged is this interpolation that I
am unaware of any Bible,save the original 1611AuthorizedKmg]ames
Venion, which still includes this passage. The sole remaining Trini-
tarian passage of any clarity is Matthew 28:19, "Go therefore and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you" .66 Accordingly,

This late post-resurrection saying, not found in any other Gospel
or anywhere else in the NT, has been viewed by some scholars
as an interpolation into Matthew. It has also been pointed out

65 Maurice Bucaille,TheBible, TheQyr'an and Science, pp. 44-45. Even though the Bible
as a whole is available in 286 languages (at last count), in this era of mass publishing
it has achieved the status of a best-seller that very few actually care to read. Despite
its ubiquitous presence in supermarkets, hotels, on tape, and in pop culture generally,
only an estimated fifteen percent of those who possess a Bible actually read it. [M.
Abu Layla, "The Qur'an: Nature, Authenticity,Authority and Influence on the Muslim
Mind", TheIslamic Qyarterly, 4th Quarter 1992, vol. xxxvi, no. 4, p. 235. The author
quotes Manfred Barthel, WhatDoes the Bible Really Say?, England. Souvenir Press Ltd.,
1982.]
66 RSV, Matthew 28:19-20.