Nobody likes to hear a stranger criticise the book they love. So this article begins with the Bible's own scholars and prophets saying in print what they found. Only then do we open the Quran, and its first word on the matter is not a taunt but an explanation.
The manner is fixed in advance: "Do not argue with the people of the scripture (Jews, Christians, and Muslims) except in the nicest possible manner - unless they transgress - and say, "We believe in what was revealed to us and in what was revealed to you, and our god and your god is one and the same; to Him we are submitters."" (29:46).
The Bible's own prefaces
Open a Revised Standard Version at the Preface. The revisers praise the King James Version as "the noblest monument of English prose." Then: "Yet the King James Version has grave defects," and "these defects are so many and so serious as to call for revision." These are the words of men who loved the book enough to repair it.
The Gospel of Luke opens with a preface of its own (KJV): "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us… It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus." Luke, not an eyewitness, says "many" had already written before him.
The Collins RSV, as the popular presentations report it, prints a table of the books with their authors. Against 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings and Job it prints one word: "Unknown." Against Isaiah: "Mainly credited to Isaiah. Parts may have been written by others." Against Exodus to Deuteronomy: "Generally credited to Moses," an entry that sits oddly beside Deuteronomy 34:5–10 (KJV), where "Moses… died… and he buried him… and there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses." The book credited to Moses closes with the account of his death.
A prophet's complaint, and a seer's confession
The Bible's prophets said this first. Jeremiah, to the religious men of his day (KJV): "How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain." (Jeremiah 8:8).
A later seer went further. In the Book of Ezra the Seer (4 Ezra, Quran-aligned edition, rendered from G. H. Box), Ezra prays after the fall of Jerusalem: "For Your Law has been burned, and so no one knows the things which have been done or will be done by You" (4 Ezra 14:21), and asks to be inspired to write it again. The community that kept this book believed the Law had once been lost.
What any modern Bible's footnotes will show
The one verse that states the Trinity in so many words, 1 John 5:7 (KJV), "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one," was removed by the RSV. The Scofield Reference Bible's note says: "It is generally agreed that this verse has no manuscript authority and has been inserted."
Mark 16:9–20, the longer ending of that Gospel, and the words "and carried up into heaven" in Luke 24:51 were set outside the text in the 1952 RSV because the oldest manuscripts lacked them; the 1971 Preface records that, after proposals from "two denominational committees," "two passages, the longer ending of Mark (16:9–20)… and Luke 24:51 are restored to the text." The woman taken in adultery (John 7:53–8:11) had the same history: out in 1952, back in 1971.
The Bible's boundaries differ by church: sixty-six books in the Protestant Bible, seventy-three in the Catholic. Where two books tell one story, the numbers sometimes disagree: 1 Kings 4:26 gives Solomon forty thousand stalls, 2 Chronicles 9:25 four thousand. Whole chapters are shared word for word: 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37. That is the Bible's own testimony; any study Bible's footnotes carry it, and we have said nothing the reader's own Bible does not say.
The Quran's answer: an explanation, not a taunt
The Quran was revealed to people who held these scriptures, and it describes their condition as the prefaces do. "Therefore, woe to those who distort the scripture with their own hands, then say, "This is what GOD has revealed," seeking a cheap material gain. Woe to them for such distortion, and woe to them for their illicit gains." (2:79). Of the book Moses brought: "You put it down on paper to proclaim it, while concealing a lot of it." (6:91).
Notice what the Quran does not say. It never says the earlier books are worthless. "We have sent down the Torah, containing guidance and light." (5:44). Its messenger came "to proclaim for you many things you have concealed in the scripture" (5:15). The believer must say: "We believe in GOD, and in what was sent down to us, and in what was sent down to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Patriarchs; and in what was given to Moses and Jesus, and all the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction among any of them. To Him alone we are submitters." (2:136).
The revelation was real, the transmission was human, and a criterion is needed to tell them apart. "Then we revealed to you this scripture, truthfully, confirming previous scriptures, and superseding them." (5:48). Khalifa's footnote to 5:44: the Torah "is a collection of all the scriptures revealed through all the prophets of Israel prior to Jesus Christ, i.e., today's Old Testament. Nowhere in the Quran do we find that the Torah was given to Moses."
The Quran invites the same scrutiny of itself
A book that says this of other books must accept the same test, and the Quran asks for it: "Why do they not study the Quran carefully? If it were from other than GOD, they would have found in it numerous contradictions." (4:82). No examination paper ends with a note telling the examiner to find a mistake if he can. This one does.
It issues a challenge: "If you have any doubt regarding what we revealed to our servant, then produce one sura like these, and call upon your own witnesses against GOD, if you are truthful." (2:23). It binds its own messenger with a clause no forger writes against himself: "Had he uttered any other teachings. We would have punished him. We would have stopped the revelations to him." (69:44–46). And it claims what no other scripture claims about its text: "Absolutely, we have revealed the reminder, and, absolutely, we will preserve it." (15:9).
A claim of preservation is only a claim; the honest reader asks how it can be checked. Khalifa's footnote to 2:23–24 concedes that eloquence will not settle it: literary giants "have answered the literary challenge, but they had no awareness of the Quran's mathematical composition. It is the Quran's mathematical code… that is the real challenge - for it can never be imitated."
"Over it is nineteen"
The Quran announced the mechanism fourteen centuries before anyone counted. "Over it is nineteen." (74:30). The next verse says what the number is for: "We appointed angels to be guardians of Hell, and we assigned their number (19) (1) to disturb the disbelievers, (2) to convince the Christians and Jews (that this is a divine scripture), (3) to strengthen the faith of the faithful, (4) to remove all traces of doubt from the hearts of Christians, Jews, as well as the believers, and (5) to expose those who harbor doubt in their hearts, and the disbelievers; they will say, "What did GOD mean by this allegory?" GOD thus sends astray whomever He wills, and guides whomever He wills. None knows the soldiers of your Lord except He. This is a reminder for the people." (74:31). Four verses on: "This is one of the great miracles." (74:35).
Here are the figures, in Khalifa's words and no others. Appendix 1 of the Authorized English Version opens with "The Simple Facts": "1. The first verse (1:1), known as 'Basmalah,' consists of 19 letters. 2. The Quran consists of 114 suras, which is 19 x 6. 3. The total number of verses in the Quran is 6346, or 19 x 334. [6234 numbered verses & 112 un-numbered verses (Basmalahs) 6234+112 = 6346] Note that 6+3+4+6= 19. 4. The Basmalah occurs 114 times, despite its conspicuous absence from Sura 9 (it occurs twice in Sura 27)…" Of the Basmalah's four words: "The first word 'Ism' (Name) occurs 19 times. The second word 'Allah' (God) occurs 2698 times (19x142). The third word 'Al-Rahman' (Most Gracious) 57 times, 19x3. The fourth word 'Al-Raheem' (Most Merciful) 114 times, 19x6."
The footnotes carry the same facts. Khalifa's footnote to 1:1: "This important statement consists of 19 Arabic letters, and every word in it occurs in the whole Quran in multiples of 19." Khalifa's footnote to 2:1, on the initials A.L.M.: "the frequencies of occurrence of these three initials in this sura are 4502, 3202, and 2195, respectively. The sum of these numbers is 9899, or 19x521." Khalifa's footnote to 96:1–19: "The first revelation (96:1-5) is 19 Arabic words, 76 letters (19x4). The sura consists of 19 verses and 304 Arabic letters."
This is the mechanism of 15:9 as the AEV understands it: a structure that any alteration disturbs. Khalifa's footnote to 9:1 and 9:127 gives the case where the AEV says an alteration was caught: "the number of occurrences of the word "God" at the end of Sura 9 is 1273 (19x67). If the two false verses 128 & 129 are included, this phenomenon - and many more - will vanish." The AEV therefore ends Sura 9 at verse 127; readers of other editions should know why.
Two footnotes reach back to the earlier scriptures, which is why the proof belongs in a series about common ground. On 46:10, where "A witness from the Children of Israel has borne witness to a similar phenomenon" (46:10), Khalifa's footnote names "Rabbi Judah the Pious (11th Century A.D.), who discovered the same 19-based mathematical code in intact fragments of the scripture." Khalifa's footnote to 11:17 adds: "Moses' book was also mathematically composed, with ``19'' as the common denominator." If so, the code is the signature on every book GOD sent, surviving in fragments of the old and intact in the last.
A Sunni confirmation, and a Sunni objection
The core counts are not the property of one school. Harun Yahya, a widely read Sunni author, reproduces them in Miracles of the Qur'an: the Basmalah of 19 letters; 114 suras as 19 × 6; Sura 96 as 19 verses, its first five verses 19 words and 76 letters; the Basmalah missing from Sura 9 and doubled in Sura 27, nineteen suras later; the A.L.M. total of 9,899 in Sura 2; "Rahman" 57 times. He does not name Khalifa, and in one place his figure differs (285 letters for Sura 96 against the AEV's 304), a reminder that counts are to be checked, not repeated. But a Sunni author who rejects Khalifa's conclusions affirms Khalifa's counts.
The objection comes from an unsigned Sunni booklet, "Descriptions of Allah": "some perverted people evolved some so-called miracles around number 19"; the Basmalah "is, in fact, 21 letters and not 19"; the theory "falls to ashes." The answer is in the AEV's own terms. The AEV counts the letters as written in the Arabic text; the footnote to 1:1 says so and leaves the reader to copy the verse and count. A count reaching twenty-one counts something else, sounds that are not written, and the booklet does not show its work; Harun Yahya counts nineteen. More importantly, the booklet attacks a numerology of "1 and 9" that the AEV never proposes. The AEV's proof is a structure of multiples running from the first verse to the count of the word "God" across the whole book; a quarrel over two letters in one verse does not touch the A.L.M. frequencies of Sura 2 or the 1,273 at the end of Sura 9. Its complaints about a date and about Khalifa's messengership concern the appendices, not the verses. The verse that announced the number also announced the reaction: "they will say, "What did GOD mean by this allegory?"" (74:31).
What to show first
Begin with the RSV Preface and Luke 1:1–4, read from the listener's own Bible, so the first voice heard is a Christian scholar's. Show the footnotes on 1 John 5:7, Mark 16:9–20, Luke 24:51 and John 8 in any modern edition, and one numerical pair, lightly. Only then read 2:79 and 5:44: the Quran's account of the earlier books is the Preface's account, except that the Quran honours the revelation behind the text. Read 4:82 and 15:9, and say that a claim of preservation needs a mechanism. Read 74:30–31 before any figures; then the Simple Facts in Khalifa's words. Leave the listener with a Quran and the instruction to count.
Where the evidence is strong, and where it is not
"You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them." (17:36).
The strongest material is the Bible's own: the RSV Preface, Luke's preface, Jeremiah 8:8, the doubtful passages, the 66 and 73 canons, Deuteronomy 34, the 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37 parallel, and the numerical pairs between Kings and Chronicles. These are verbatim or are undisputed facts of textual scholarship. The Collins author table is quoted from the popular presentations; its wording must be re-checked against the printed edition before publication.
Two popular claims are deliberately not used. Deedat's statement that "(as was supposed)" in Luke 3:23 is absent from the Greek is false; the Greek has it. His description of John 3:16's "only begotten" as an "interpolation" is imprecise: the RSV's "only Son" is a translation choice. Nor are the pairs in which God "repents" or "tempts" used as evidence of corruption; they are figurative language.
On the Quran's side, 4:82, 2:23, 15:9 and 74:30–31 are plain text. The literary challenge is strong as a statement and only moderate as an argument, since eloquence is a matter of judgment. The 19-based figures are strong exactly as far as they are Khalifa's published figures; this project adds no counts of its own and declines the word-pair "matches" and date calculations found in other authors, Harun Yahya included, which are numerology rather than structure. The Simple Facts are quoted from Appendix 1 of the printed AEV, which the project's verse-checking file does not yet contain. The "21 letters" objection is weak as a refutation, because its count is asserted and not shown, but it must be known and answered.
Nothing here narrows or widens salvation: "anyone who (1) believes in GOD, and (2) believes in the Last Day, and (3) leads a righteous life, will receive their recompense from their Lord. They have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve." (2:62).
The next article, Were they created from nothing?, turns to the reader with no scripture, and to the question the Quran put to such people in Mecca.
Sources
- The Bible, King James Version: Luke 1:1–4; Jeremiah 8:8; Deuteronomy 34:5–10; 1 John 5:7; Mark 16:9–20; Luke 24:51; 1 Kings 4:26; 2 Chronicles 9:25; 2 Kings 19; Isaiah 37. Revised Standard Version, Preface (1952/1971) and Collins RSV notes and author table; Scofield Reference Bible note on 1 John 5:7.
- The Book of Ezra the Seer (4 Ezra) 14:21, Quran-aligned edition, Theory of Everything project.
- The Final Testament: Quran, Authorized English Version, Rashad Khalifa — 2:23, 2:62, 2:79, 2:136, 4:82, 5:15, 5:44, 5:48, 6:91, 15:9, 17:36, 29:46, 46:10, 69:44–46, 74:30–31, 74:35; Khalifa's footnotes to 1:1, 2:1, 2:23–24, 5:44, 9:1 and 9:127, 11:17, 46:10, 96:1–19; Appendix 1, "The Simple Facts."
- Harun Yahya, Miracles of the Qur'an (expanded edition), "Mathematical Miracles of the Qur'an"; "Descriptions of Allah," unsigned booklet (the "21 letters" objection).
- Theory of Everything project, master document One Message, Many Witnesses, Strand 9, ledger rows 9.1–9.8, 9.11–9.16, 9.18–9.22; Methodology Document rules R1–R7, R16, R19–R23, R33–R37.
- Popular presentations consulted: Ahmed Deedat, Is the Bible God's Word? and Combat Kit; Zakir Naik (IRF), Is the Qur'an God's Word?; Gary Miller, The Amazing Qur'an.