FACTS about The Bible, The Torah and The Qu'ran

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Storytelling is common to every culture. Most people enjoy listening to stories. Storytellers have catered for the need for a 'good story' since the beginning of civilization.

Most people have their own favourite story from childhood and, often, these tales are both fascinating and frightening. These stories include legends, myths and folktales.

What are legends?

A legend is a semi-true story, which has been passed on from person-to-person and has important meaning or symbolism for the culture in which it originates. A legend usually includes an element of truth, or is based on historic facts, but with 'mythical qualities'. Legends usually involve heroic characters or fantastic places and often encompass the spiritual beliefs of the culture in which they originate.

What are myths?

A myth is a story based on tradition or legend, which has a deep symbolic meaning. A myth 'conveys a truth' to those who tell it and hear it, rather than necessarily recording a true event. Although some myths can be accounts of actual events, they have become transformed by symbolic meaning or shifted in time or place. Myths are often used to explain universal and local beginnings and involve supernatural beings. The great power of the meaning of these stories, to the culture in which they developed, is a major reason why they survive as long as they do - sometimes for thousands of years.

What are folktales?

A folktale is a popular story that was passed on in spoken form, from one generation to the next. Usually the author is unknown and there are often many versions of the tale. Folktales comprise fables, fairy tales, old legends and even 'urban legends'. Again, some tales may have been based on a partial truth that has been lost or hidden over time. It is difficult to categorize folktales precisely because they fit into many categories.

What is the difference between legends, myths and folktales?

Myths, legends and folktales are hard to classify and often overlap. Imagine a line (or continuum) as illustrated below, with an historical account based on facts at one end and myths or cultural folktales at the other; as you progress towards the mythical/folktale end of the line, what an event symbolises to people, or what they feel about it, becomes of greater historical significance than the facts, which become less important. By the time you reach the far end of the spectrum, the story has taken on a life of its own and the facts of the original event, if there ever were any, have become almost irrelevant. It is the message that is important.

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The proposition on offer is that the Bible qualifies as a collection of fairy tales. The letter is to disambiguate from other versions of the same debate.

Obviously by collection, I mean that there are more than one in the same book ("something that is collected; a group of objects or an amount of material accumulated in one location, esp. for some purpose or as a result of some process" - Dictionary.com). And by fairy tale, I mean the following:

Fairy Tale:
–noun
1. a story, usually for children, about elves, hobgoblins, dragons, fairies, or other magical creatures.
2. an incredible or misleading statement, account, or belief: His story of being a millionaire is just a fairy tale.

Thus, the resolution is satisfied if the Bible contains more than one story that is either about magical creatures or has incredible/misleading content.

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There are a number of magical and mythical creatures mentioned in the Bible. A short list:

Giants
Dragons
Cockatrices
Unicorns
The Cheldean's Horses
Sorcerers/Witches
Other Gods

The Bible also contains a number of stories with misleading (deceptive; tending to mislead -> to lead or guide wrongly or into error of conduct, thought, or judgment.; lead astray) or incredible (so extraordinary as to seem impossible, not credible; hard to believe; unbelievable). A short list:

Creation of Earth and Man
The Temptation and Fall of Adam and Eve
Life Spans of Adam, Noah, Methuselah, et al
Plagues of Egypt
Parting of the Red Sea
Jonah and the Great Fish

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Evidence for each of these:

1. Giants - http://en.wikipedia.org...(mythology)

Gen 6:4 - "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."

Num 13:33 - "And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

2. Dragons - http://en.wikipedia.org...

Rev 12:7 - "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,"

Isa 13:22 - "And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged."

3. Cockatrices - http://en.wikipedia.org...

Isa 11:8 - "And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den."

Jer 8:11 - "For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD."

4. Unicorns - http://en.wikipedia.org...

Job 39:9 - "Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?"

Psa 29:6 - "He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn."

5. The Cheldean's Horses - http://en.wikipedia.org...

Hab 1:8 - "Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat."

6. Sorcerers/Witches - http://en.wikipedia.org...

Acts 13:8 - "But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith."

1 Sam 15:23 - "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king."

7. Other Gods - http://en.wikipedia.org...

Jud 2:13 - "And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth."

Jud 10:6 - " And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him."

8. Creation of Earth and Man (Genesis 1, 2)

God snaps his fingers and makes the world, then forms man from some dust and woman from one of man's ribs.

9. The Temptation and Fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 1-3; 4-5)

God, who knew the natures of Adam and Eve allows Satan to tempt them and then evicts them from the Garden of Eden. They subsequently begin breeding the human race.

10. Life Spans of Adam, Noah, Methuselah, et al (Genesis 1-5; 6; 5)

These Biblical characters supposedly lived for 390, 600, and 900 years respectively.

11. Plagues of Egypt (Exodus 7-12)

Seven plagues strike Egypt in the space of about a week and a half. Highly improbable, and some of the plagues are physically impossible (water to blood).

12. Parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 13-15)

Somehow Moses strikes a body of water with a piece of fabric and the water moves out of the way long enough for a bunch of people to walk across the sea, but not long enough for hundreds of chariot-riding Egyptians to catch them.

13. Jonah and the Great Fish (Book of Jonah, 2 Kings 14)

Somehow Jonah lives inside the belly of a large fish for three days. The fish then decides to regurgitate him conveniently on the beach somewhere.

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This is just a short list of the absurdities and nonsense the Bible contains. It is easy to see how this qualifies as a collection of fairy tales. Even if all these stories are metaphorical, they are still about mythical creatures. In other places, the Bible delivers stories that seem to suggest that seeking complex medical attention is wrong (Jam 5:14-15; 2 Chr 16:12). I would call that misleading. Stories of physical impossibilities, highly improbable events... all incredible stories.... and all qualify as fairy tales.

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From Where Did Muhammad/Allah “Borrow” The Stories in the Quran?

There is very little in the Quran that is original thinking. Practically all of it is “borrowed” from older times, or from sourrounding cultures. The laws mainly are from old Arab traditions, added by some ideas from mainly the Jews, the Christians and Persia. Also ethical and moral ideas came from the same sources – partly originally from Hellas. (But then Islam never really had a philosophy of moral or ethics – they never was interested in knowledge for the sake of knowledge and actively fought against things like philosophy – a war Islam won in 1095 with a book attacking just philosophy and written by “the second greatest Muslim ever” al-Ghazali. They instead followed the few and sometimes inhuman orders in the Quran). And the same goes for knowledge and sciense – mainly from Hellas and Persia and some from India. But actually knowledge and science was in short supply at the times of Muhammad – translation of the old books to Arab came much later.

At the times of Muhammad Arabia simply was in a permanent barbaric state with little education except the basic learning – and that only for a selected few – and with the tribes constantly fighting each other in a real anarci. The only form of art that existed was storytelling and poetry. The country was even more barbaric than the worst places in north Pakistan and Afghanistan and Africa today. (This may be a reason why Islam had success in Arabia after it was changed to a war religion – the Arabs were by culture – or rather by anarchism – warriors by heart because that was they had been brought up to become, and a war religion fitted their not-culture. Barbarism is not a culture, no matter what semi-intellectuals say).

In such situations Muhammad was not to blame for stealing good ideas from the surroundings – actually not to do so would just be stubborn stupidity – like what you see some places even today: Everything from the outside, and especially from the west, is bad, instead of picking the good ideas and leaving the bad ones. Muhammad – or Allah – was wise enough to try to pick the good ideas from where he found them.

But Muhammad was no thinker himself (sorry, but hardly any real scientist today believe the Quran was made by a god – nothing points towards a god, everything towards Muhammad and/or human helpers). And also in the Quran there is little or nothing of original stuff. The stories are all taken from other sources known in Arabia at that time (why should a god do so?)

Much is taken from the Bible, but “adjusted” to fit Muhammad’s teaching. But much of this really is not from the Bible, but from religious fairy tales and folk tales or from texts made up by different fringe sects – gnostics f. ex. made up quite a number of “gospels” and other “holy” stories. If we say that Muhammad made up the Quran himself, it is easy to see why he frequently missed here:

I. He did not know much about Jewish religion, until after he came to Medina, and then it was too late.

II. He never knew much about the Christian religion.

III. Perhaps he did not know how to read, and for sure he never had a Bible.

IV. There was a myriade of stories and poems also about religious subjects in Arabia – as I said storytelling (and story making) and poetry were the only arts in Arabia, and also one of the few pastimes in such cultures during long evenings.

It often was impossible for him to know what really was a true story and what not.

Besides he had to mix divinity into the stories, if it was not there before – it may as well be there from before, because then an intelligent but rather short of fantasy brain like Muhammad’s only had to name the god behind the stories “Allah“. Actually he used both religious and non-religious stories and changed them enough to fit his teaching.

But as for stories presumably from the Jewish and even more so from the Christian religion some of them were just twisted a little or a lot, whereas others were plainly from made up folk and fairy tales, legends and myths known in Arabia at that time.

I do not comment the places the Quran twists the Bible – most of my readers will recognize them. I only ad that in Syria and Arabia there were many from the partly Christian Gnostic sects living, and actually many of the stories pretending to be from the Bible in the Quran, are from made up Gnostic tales. But I will take some of the others – and a couple of Gnostic ones (sources: Among others Slot-Henriksen: Comments on the Quran):

001 Moses and the fish – from Arabic folk tales about search for eternal life. May be originally from Babylon – the Babylonian Ugarit texts has a very similar story about the god El (not unknown in and around Arabia).

002 Solomon listening to the ants – fairty tale perhaps inspired by the Bible, Sol. 6/6.

003 Jinns working for Solomon – from local fairy tales, folk tales and myths (jinns were beings in Arab folklore that are incorporated in Islam). Anyone who has read f. ex. 1001 Nights knows that supernatural beings sometimes worked for humans.

004 Mary working in the temple (in Jerusalem) as child/youth – from “The Proto Gospel after Jacob”, part 8,1 and 8,1b.

005 Jesus talking in the crib – from the religious legend “The Egyptian Child Gospel” perhaps via the as made up “The Arab Child Gospel” (originally from Syria) – both fairy tales about fantastic things concerning the child Jesus. “The Arab Child Gospel” also got stories from “The Proto Gospel after Jacob” and “The Thomas’ Child Gospel” – both made up religious legends or myths.

006 Jesus making birds from clay – read the heretical Gnostic “Child Gospel after Thomas” verse 1 – 4, a very made up child gospel. (Actually none of the storeys about Jesus in the Quran is reckoned by scientists to be true. Actually most of what is said in the Quran about Christian religion, is from apocryphal – made up – sources. Not unnatural as there f. ex. were many Gnostics and other semi-Christian and semi-Jewish sects in the fringes of Christianity. sects. Syria and Arabia definitely were in – and outside – those fringes).

007 Mary and the palm – from the made up religious fable “The Proto Gospel after Mathew”, chapter 20.

008 Muhammad’s Night Journey to Heaven – read about different such travels in Jewish Merabah mysticism or even more the gnostig “Enoc’s Journy to Heaven” (nearly identical to Ibn Ishaq’s by Islam accepted story after Abu Said al-Chudri)

009 The sleepers in the cave – the even today well known religious fable from Efesus, about the 7 youths that fled from emperor Decius (a real emperor reigning only 2 years around 250 AD) and went to sleep in a cave, and then woke up maximum 196 years later (the Quran says 300 or 309 years) under the more well known emperor Theodocius). Just read it – it normally even is better told than in the Quran.

010 Alexander the Great/Duh’l Quarnayn – anyone knowing the story of Alaxander; read this part oft Surah 18 and weep – or laugh. Copycatting at its most naïve. (He f. ex. was no Muslim, he never went west – this we know from history, there no place in the world was enough iron blocks to close off a whole valley around 330 BC, etc.).

012 The story about Ad (many times repeated) – copied from Arab folk tales, presumeably a story from more than 2000 years before Muhammad (before Moses (around 1230 BC) according to the Quran), and Muhammad had no written sources. Besides all the other: How big is the chance that a folk tale is true and identical with the reality after 2ooo years?

013 The stories about Thamud – copied from Arab presumably 2ooo years old folk tales. See the tales about Ad just above.

014 The stories about Median – copied from Arab folk tales.

If you look, may be you will find more copycatting.