World's oldest Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus

Assalaamu Alaykum all,

For any Christians who might read this, peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance (the greeting our prophet told us to use with the people of the book, the Jews and the Christians)

Many brothers and sisters who come across Christians on a regular basis, either in their lives or in Da'wah activities might have heard them mention in response to Muslim allegations of the Bible being corrupted and from differing, contradictory manuscripts, that there is an old version of the Bible that has been found and so therefore this allegations are incorrect and can no longer be used.

So lets examine this claim, regarding this 'bible,' the world's oldest and see if it does indeed hold true that this disproves the claims of Islamic scholars on the Bible, that it is from contradictory and fragmented sources and therefore cannot be relied upon for guidance and salvation.

The Codex Sinaiticus is indeed very old, much older than any other Bible, and was set down sometime around or just before 350 CE. (So could easily be corrupted before then anyway)

Like the Bible, it is a collection of earlier works, scrolls which were copied from other scrolls, copied from other scrolls, etc, etc, going back 300 years to the time of Jesus Christ (upon him be peace), with no recorded chain of narration, i.e you don't know who passed on the information and indeed whether they were reliable or liars, or people with bad memories etc.

However this is where the similarity ends, and where the claims of the Christians to hold an 'original Bible' come seriously unstuck.

As already mentioned, the Codex Sinaiticus comes from the time of about 350CE, the time the Bible was also being put down but contains serious differences with the modern Bible, whole different books added which were stuck out by the people who put together the Bible.

So rather than having the world's oldest Bible, what the Christians really have is yet another version of the Bible, to put alongside their 5600 scraps and scrolls, another set of more contractions to sort through and decide whether to keep or discard from their book. The Bible and the Codex seem to be rival manuscripts, not at all similar in the detail.

'The Shepherd of Hermas,' a book supposedly from the 2ND century CE is included in the Codex, but this is struck out of later Bibles. One whole section, are the Christians gong to restore this book now? even though they struck it out for disagreeing with their doctrine later?

The wording of the lord's prayer is different once again, from the 5600 fragments and scrolls which exist, as well as now the codex the Christians don't even have an agreed upon version of the Lord's prayer, the only line all versions agree upon is "Our Father who art in heaven," every line there after being up for dispute and argument.

Yet this book full of contradictions, where the last words that Jesus is supposed to have spoken is also up for dispute when he was supposedly on the Cross, and even the modern Bible has two different version of his last words, is held up as the word of God! As if the almighty creator of the heavens and the earth makes mistakes in what the Christians consider to be his last guidance to mankind.


How can they possibly compare such a book to the Quran? Unchanged and unchangeable by the hands of man. How can the Muslims let such a claim to go unchallenged?

Could Muslims imagine following a Quran, where we were not even sure of the wording of al-Fatihah? Never mind the rest of the book.

This is what the Christians ask you to follow, this book, full of flaws and contradictions, lies and mistakes which they pass off as the word of Allah, blaspheming against him as if he was unable to preserve his word if he wished it.

So next time the Christians tell you about this oldest bible they have found be ready, challenge them, don't let them keep telling people these lies.

Remember, the codex differs in the text in each book and in the books included, the codex is therefore not a world's oldest bible, but a different version of the bible, a rival to the bible, with different wordings and meanings to it but just as flawed and contradictory as later Bibles.

The codex itself is contradictory, both to itself and to the later Bibles used today, so in fact rather than destroying only reinforces our argument of the Bible being corrupted and from differing and contradictory texts.

Explain to the Christians the problems with the Bible, whether it be the codex or modern version, that these contradictions show this book is not protected by Allah, unlike the Quran, that it therefore cannot be the word of almighty Allah as Allah does not lie, nor does he make mistakes.

Finally call them to Allah, show them the Quran, a book unchanged for 1400 years, a book that has no flaws and no contradictions and challenge them, challenge them by saying "if I can prove to you that the Bible has contradictions and flaws, will you agree with me it is not from God? and if you can prove to me the Quran has one single flaw or contradiction it is not from God?"

Get them to agree to this challenge, don't be afraid, the Quran has no flaws and no Christian out of the hundreds I have spoken to has ever, EVER been able to produce one. Whereas the bible is so full of flaws it is easy to show them the errors and problems with it.

Once you have shown them the Bible is flawed and contradictory, whereas the Quran has been preserved without contradictions and flaws then ask them which is truly God's word? which should be followed therefore and relied upon for guidance so we can be saved?

Assalaamu alaykum,
Abu Abdillah