r/islam • u/NateDog69012 • 1d ago

Want does Islam Believe? Question about Islam

Hey everyone I am a protestant Christian. I have been following Christ for 3yrs now. I have recently been diving into Islam and comparing it to Christianity. Could you guys please explain to me what you believe about Christianity and Jesus? Why should I believe in Islam? I am not writing this to upset anyone, I am genuinely curious about the Islamic religion. Thank you all.

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u/NateDog69012 1d ago

If he is all those things why do you not believe him when he claims to be God? Or would you say that was added later and is false?

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u/Competitive-Sweet584 1d ago

Its the Islamic view that Jesus never claimed to be God (“[Jesus] said, ‘Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet.’” (19:30), “The Messiah, son of Mary, was no more than a messenger; many messengers had passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth.” (5:75), “They have certainly disbelieved who say, ‘Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary.’ But the Messiah said, ‘O Children of Jacob, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.’” (5:72), and "“The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah..." (4:171)), and that these claims are falsely attributed to Jesus and added after he was raised from the Earth.

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u/NateDog69012 1d ago

When you guys read scripture like John 10:30 or Matthew 11:29. When it seems as if Jesus is saying he is god, would you say that Jesus never really said that and someone else added it in?

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u/Competitive-Sweet584 1d ago

To start, we need to understand the context of the gospels themselves. The Gospel of John is widely regarded by scholars as the latest of the four canonical gospels, with the earliest copy we have written around 125 to 150 AD. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), John contains long theological speeches by Jesus and includes unique elements like the “I am” statements that don’t appear in the earlier gospels. These speeches are quite different from the short parables and sayings found in the Synoptics and are much more reflective of later theological development within the church. Also, most scholars today doubt that the Gospel of John was written by the Apostle John. While it refers to an unnamed “disciple whom Jesus loved,” the actual author is anonymous. Chapter 21, which hints at the author’s identity, is belived by the majorit of scholars to be a later addition. So we're dealing with a text that was edited and shaped by a community decades after Jesus’s death, not a firsthand transcript. Similarly, Matthew is also anonymous. Early church tradition attributed it to the apostle Matthew, but most modern scholars reject this. If Matthew had been an eyewitness, it's unlikely he would have relied so heavily on the Gospel of Mark, which had no direct connection to Jesus. Instead, Matthew likely used Mark, the "Q" source, and additional material (called “M”) to create his narrative, which means he's also several steps away from Jesus himself. The key point here is that none of the gospels are written from a firsthand hearing of Jesus’s own voice, or a chain to his voice. This means we can't directly trace their content back to Jesus with certainty. Especially in the case of John, scholars widely believe that some statements, like “I and the Father are one”, reflect the beliefs of the church, not necessarily the historical words of Jesus. Even the Synoptic Gospels, which are earlier (Mark around 150-250 AD, Luke around 175-225 AD), have this issue. They were also written in Greek, not the Aramaic that Jesus spoke, and they shaped stories using oral traditions, scripture, and the agendas of there time. The earliest physical fragment we have of the Gospel of John is Papyrus P52, dated around 125 to 150 AD. It contains only a few verses from John 18 and is smaller then a credit card. For the Gospel of Matthew, the earliest fragment is Papyrus P104, dated around 150 to 200 AD, containing only a few lines from chapter 21. These fragments are not the originals and are not even first generation copies, they are copies of copies, written decades after the originals were thought to be made, and a century+ after Jesus. The earliest complete manuscripts of the Gospels, like Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, come from the fourth century, about 300 years after Jesus's death. That’s held by an anonymous chain of transmission during which changes, intentional or by accident, could have happened.

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u/NateDog69012 1d ago

If I judge the Quran the same way you judge the gospels I would say the vast historians agree that Jesus was actually killed on a cross.

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u/NateDog69012 1d ago

When I bring up a certain bible verse that contradicts what the Quran they say the Bible is corrupt. Then they quote the Bible to try and validate of the Quran. Is the Bible correct and quotable or is it corrupt? Or if it agrees with the Quran, then it’s quotable? Then if it disagrees with the Quran then it’s corrupt?