now lets see what bible did mohammad have at his time:
NORTH OF MUHAMMAD
North of Muhammad lay Syria. These states were also bordered on the South by the minor Arab states of the Ghassan and Hira tribes. Bernard Lewis writes in "The Arabs in History, [17] page 32:
“The two states of Ghassan and Hira were both Christian, the former Monophysite, the latter Nestorian. Both had a tincture of Aramaic and Hellenistic culture…The Ghassanids resided in the neighborhood of the Yarmuk river and were recognized rather than appointed by Byzantium…Though a vassal of the Persians, it (the Hira state) drew its culture mainly from the West, from the Christian and Hellenistic civilization of Syria. At first pagan, it was converted to Nestorian Christianity brought by captives.”
Bell writes on pages 18, 1 “Within the bounds of the Roman Empire in Syria we may assume that in the course of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries Christianity had become fairly general, and must have extended to the more or less settled Arabs who dwelt under the protection of the Roman power. … In all these ways, from the settled land of Syria, growing ever more Christian, the knowledge of Christianity must have been continually percolation to the inhabitants of the desert.”
From Ibn Ishaq, page 79, - 81 we read that when Muhammad was a boy, he traveled with his uncle Abu Talib to Syria as part of a caravan
"… When the caravan reached Busra in Syria, there was a monk there in his cell by the name of Bahira, who was well versed in the knowledge of Christians…There he (Bahira) gained his knowledge from a book that was in the cell, so they allege, handed on from generation to generation.
From the above we see two things:
- Muhammad conversed with a Christian who had Christian books with him. Of course he could have learned Christian teachings from Bahira.
- These books though not in the Hijaz, existed, and the people of the caravans had opportunity to learn of Christianity from the Christians in Syria. They too would have disseminated their knowledge back in Mecca.
By Muhammad’s time, the Syrian church was using the Peshitta because the Diatesseron had been destroyed and removed from use.
Consequently, if Muhammad were to have encountered Scriptures from the Syrian church, he would encounter what we basically have today.
NORTHEAST OF MUHAMMAD
To the Northeast was Mesopotamia and Persia. Persia was generally not Christian, but there were Christian communities living under Persian rule. In Mesopotamia, there was a strong Christian church.
Bell writes on page 24:
“Be we can safely say that by the end of the third century there was a flourishing Church at Edessa and that Christianity had already crossed the Tigris.”
As has been already shown, the canon used by the church offshoots in Mesopotamia and Persia was equivalent to what the Syrian church used.
If Muhammad encountered the Scriptures of the Persian churches, he would encounter what we basically have today.
SOUTH OF MUHAMMAD
From “The Life of Muhammad”, pages 14 - 18 the story is told how Christianity began in Najran. Najran is about 350 miles south east of Mecca. The story describes how a Christian preached in Najran, healed the sick, and performed miracles. The whole city converted to Christianity…
“The people of Najran accepted the religion of Abdullah al Thamir according to the Gospel and the law which Isa b. Maryam brought.”
Later on, the story states that some 20,000 Najran Christians were killed by a king who wanted them to become Jews.
On pages 270, 271 of Ibn Ishaq, Christians from Najran visit Muhammad. Ibn Ishaq notes that they were affiliated with the Christians of Byzantium:
"A deputation from the Christians of Najran came to the apostle. There were sixty riders, fourteen of them from their nobles of whom three were in control of affairs…
Abu Haritha occupied a position of honor among them and was a great student, so that he had an excellent knowledge of their religion, and the Christian kings of Byzantium had honored him and paid him a subsidy and gave him servants, built churches for him and lavished honors on him, because of his knowledge and zeal for their religion."…
The relevant point here is that there was a Christian city in the Saudi peninsula south of Mecca and they were affiliated with the Byzantines. Certainly there would be cultural exchanges between the cities since Mecca was a center of commerce and religions, and many people traveled to and from there. The Byzantines were primarily Greeks. Hence, it is logical to believe that they used the Greek canon of Scripture. That means they were using what we basically have today as our Bible.
If Muhammad were to encounter the Najran Scriptures, or Byzantine Scriptures, he would basically encounter what we have today.
if you want to answer it here go ahead but do not digress more please …tomorrow we’ll resume our initial thread.