The Bible, the Qur'an and Science

Endnotes Endnotes

1. What is meant by Torah are the first five books of the Bible, in other words the Pentateuch of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).

2. Pub. Ancora, Rome.

3. Pub. Cerf, Paris

4. Pub. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris "Que sais-je?" collection

5. Translator's Note: Published December 1975 by Les Editions du Cerf and Les Bergers et les Mages, Paris

6. So called because God is named Yahweh in this text.

7. So called because God is named Elohim in this text.

8. From the preachers in the Temple at Jerusalem.

9. Paris, 1974 edition, Vol. a, pp. 246-263.

10. We shall see in the next chapter, when confronted with modern scientific data, the extent of the narrative errors committed by authors of the Sacerdotal version on the subject of the antiquity of man on Earth, his situation in time and the course of the Creation. They are obviously errors arising from manipulation of the texts.

11. Pub. w. M. Collins & Sons for the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1952.

12. No. 38, 1974, pp. 95-112)

13. Introduction to Genesis, page 35.

14. Ibid., page 34

15. Pub. Le Centurion, Paris

16. Pub. Le Centurion, 1966, Paris

17. Pub. Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1973

18. Pub. Desclée and Co., Paris.

19. Pub. Editions du Cerf, Paris

20. Pub. Beauchesne, Coll. 'Le Point théologique'. Paris. 1974

21. Pious XII was Pope from 1939 to 1959

22. One could note here that all these writings were later to be classed as Apocrypha, i.e. they had to be concealed by the victorious Church which was born of Paul's success. This Church made obvious excisions in the Gospel literature and retained only the four Canonic Gospels.

23. Pub. Editions du Cerf et Les Bergers et les Mages, Paris.

24. Pub. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1967

25. The three Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke.

26. The fact that it is in contradiction with Luke's Gospel will be dealt with in a separate chapter.

27. The Samaritans' religious code was the Torah or Pentateuch; they lived in the expectation of the Messiah and were faithful to most Jewish observances, but they had built a rival Temple to the one at Jerusalem.

28. It has been thought that the Judeo-Christian community that Matthew belonged to might just as easily have been situated at Alexandria. O. Culmann refers to this hypothesis along with many others.

29. An American film which parodies the life of Jesus.

30. In another part of his Gospel Matthew again refers to this episode but without being precise about the time (16, 1-4). The same is true for Luke (11, 29-32). We shall see later on how in Mark, Jesus is said to have declared that no sign would be given to that generation (Mark 8, 11-12).

31. It is not possible to establish a comparison with John because he does not refer to the institution of the Eucharist during the Last Supper prior to the Passion.

32. Words.

33. Nestlé-Aland Pub. United Bible Societies, London, 1971

34. The Gospels sometimes refer to Jesus's 'brothers' and 'sisters' (Matthew l3, 46-60 and 64-68; Mark 6, 1-6; John 7, 3 and 2, 12). The Greek words used, adelphoi and adelphai, indeed signify biological brothers and sisters; they are most probably a defective translation of the original Semitic words which just mean 'kin'. in this instance they were perhaps cousins.

35. A. Tricot, Little Dictionary of the New Testament (Petit Dictionnaire du Nouveau Testament in "La Sainte Bible", Desclée, Pub. Paris)

36. Pub. Desclée, coll. 'Parole et Prière', Paris.

37. Pub. Editions du Seuil, Paris.

38. Although the author assures us that he knows of the existence of these supposed family archives from the Ecclesiastic History by Eusebius Pamphili (about whose respectability much could be said), it is difficult to see why Jesus's family should have two genealogical trees that were necessarily different just because each of the two so-called 'historians' gave a genealogy substantially different from the other concerning the names of those who figure among Jesus's ancestors.

39. 'No other New Testament author can claim that distinction', he notes.

40. It is difficult to see how there could have been!

41. i.e. the eleven Apostles; Judos, the twelfth, was already dead.

42. In fact, for John it was during the Last Supper itself that Jesus delivered the long speech that mentions the Paraclete.

43. Nestlé and Aland. Pub. United Bibles Societies, London, 1971.

44. This manuscript was written in the Fourth or Fifth century A.D. It was discovered in 1812 on Mount Sinai by Agnes S.-Lewis and is so named because the first text had been covered by a later one which, when obliterated, revealed the original.

45. Many translations and commentaries of the Gospel, especially older ones, use the word 'Consoler' to translate this, but it is totally inaccurate.

46. At a certain period of history, hostility to Islam, in whatever shape or form, even coming from declared enemies of the church, was received with the most heartfelt approbation by high dignitaries of the Catholic Church. Thus Pope Benedict XIV, who is reputed to have been the greatest Pontiff of the Eighteenth century, unhesitatingly sent his blessing to Voltaire. This was in thanks for the dedication to him of the tragedy Mohammed or Fanaticism (Mahomet ou le Fanatisme) 1741, a coarse satire that any clever scribbler of bad faith could have written on any subject. In spite of a bad start, the play gained sufficient prestige to be included in the repertoire of the Comédie-Francaise.

47. Lumen Gentium is the title of a document produced by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1966)

48. God.

49. Translators of the Qur'an, even famous ones, have not resisted the secular habit of putting into their translations things that are not really in the Arabic text at all. One can indeed add titles to the text that are not in the original without changing the text itself, but this addition changes the general meaning. R. Blachère, for example, in his well-known translation (Pub. Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris, 1966, page

115. inserts a title that does not figure in the Qur'an: Duties of the Holy War (Obligations de la guerre sainte). This is at the beginning of a passage that is indisputably a call to arms, but does not have the character that has been ascribed to it. After reading this, how can the reader who only has access to the Qur'an via translations fail to think that a Muslim's duty is to wage holy war?

50. Muhammad's departure from Makka to Madina, 622 A.D.

51. Muhammad was totally overwhelmed by these words. We shall return to an interpretation of them, especially with regard to the fact that Muhammad could neither read nor write.

52. In the text: Qur'an which also means 'reading'.

53. The absence of diacritical marks, for example, could make a verb either active or passive and in some instances, masculine or feminine. More often than not however, this was hardly of any great consequence since the context indicated the meaning in many instances.

54. The Biblical description mentioned here is taken from the so-called Sacerdotal version discussed in the first part of this work; the description taken from the so-called Yahvist version has been compressed into the space of a few lines in today s version of the Bible and is too insubstantial to be considered here.

55. 'Sabbath' in Hebrew means 'to rest'.

56. See table on last page of present work for equivalence between Latin and Arabic letters.

57. It is to be noted that while the Bible calls both Sun and Moon 'lights', here, as always in the Qur'an, they are differently named; the first is called 'Light' (nur) and the second is compared in this verse to a 'lamp (siraj) producing light'. We shall see later how other epithets are applied to the Sun.

58. Apart from the Qur'an, we often find the number 7 meaning plurality in texts from Muhammad's time, or from the first centuries following him, which record his words (hadiths).

59. This statement that the Creation did not make God at all weary stands out as an obvious reply to the Biblical description, referred to in the first part of the present book, where God is said to have rested on the seventh day from the preceding days' work!

60. As regards the Moon, its gradual separation from the Earth following the deceleration of its rotation is an acknowledged probability.

61. This text completely overshadows the few lines contained in the Yahvist version. The latter is too brief and too vague for the scientist to take account of it.

62. Pub. Presses Universitaries de France, Paris, 1952.

63. I have often heard those who go to great lengths to find a human explanation-and no other-to all the problems raised by the Qur'an Bay the following: "if the Book contains surprising statements on astronomy, it is because the Arabs were very knowledgeable on this subject." In so doing they forget the fact that, in general, science in Islamic countries is very much post-Qur'an, and that the scientific knowledge of this great period would in any case not have been sufficient for a human being to write some of the verses to be found in the Qur'an. This will be shown in the following paragraphs.

64. Here, the sky and a star are used to bear witness to the importance of what is to come in the text.

65. It is known that when a meteorite arrives at the upper layers of the atmosphere, it may produce the luminous phenomenon of a 'shooting star'.

66. Pub. Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, Lahore (Pakistan)

67. This verse is followed by an invitation to recognize God's blessings. It forms the subject of the whole of the sura that bears the title 'The Beneficent'.

68. Whenever the pronoun 'We' appears in the verses of the text quoted here, it refers to God.

69. 1. The city of Sanaa, the capital of the Yemen, was inhabited in Muhammad's time. It lies at an altitude of nearly 7,900 feet above sea level.

70. It is secreted by the reproductive glands and contains spermatozoons.

71. We saw in the Introduction to the third part of this book what one was expected to believe about predestination in its application to man himself.

72. One might note in passing, that this last verse is the only one in the Qur'an that refers to the possibility of a remedy for man. Honey can indeed be useful for certain diseases. Nowhere else in the Qur'an is a reference made to any remedial arts, contrary to what may have been said about this subject.

73. Pub. Flammarion, 1972, Paris.

74. It makes this journey over a period of six months, and comes back to its departure point with a maximum delay of one week.

75. Pub. G. P. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1966, Paris,

76. Pub. Club Français du Livre, 1971, Paris.

77. It is estimated that in one cubic centinletre of sperm there are 25 million spermatozoons with, under normal conditions, an ejaculation of several cubic centimetres.

78. God is speaking

79. In another verse (sura 6, verse 98) a place of sojourn is mentioned. It is expressed in a term very similar to the preceding one and would also seem to signify the maternal uterus. Personally, I believe this to be the meaning of the verse, but a detailed interpretation would involve much lengthier explanation which is beyond the scope of this book.

80. Now that certain notions concerning the chronology of ancient times have been established, and the imaginary dates given by the authors of the Sacerdotal text of the Old Testament are no longer credible, those dates have quickly been suppressed in Bibles. In the case of those genealogies that have been preserved, modern commentators of books intended for mass publication fail to draw the readers' attention to the errors they contain.

81. Surely 'seven' here indicates 'many', as it often does in the Semitic languages of the time.

82. We shall later see that the figure has been grossly exaggerated.

83. In Hebrew 'yam souf'.

84. We shall return to this subject later, when we call upon Father de Vaux's help in examining this reference in Kings I.

85. Pub. Delachaux and Niestlé, Neufchatel, 1959.

86. The skin lesions are clearly visible on the mummies of these Pharaohs preserved in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

87. Pub. Desclée de Brouwer, 1970, Paris.

88. Pub. J. Gabalda and Co., 1971, Paris.

89. There can be no doubt that in the Golden Age of the ptolemies, historical documents on Antiquity were preserved at Alexandria, only to be destroyed at the time of the Roman conquest; a loss which is keenly felt today.

90. In the Holy Histories of the early 20th century, as in the History by Abbe H. Lesetre, intended for religious instruction, the Exodus is mentioned as having taken place during Merneptah's reign in Egypt.

91. Pub. Delachaux and Niestlé, Neuchatel, 1959.

92. The letter 'e' figures as the ayin in Hebrew.

93. It is strange to note moreover, that in old editions of the Bible, commentators did not understand the meaning of the word at all. In the French edition of the Clementine Bible, 1621, for example, an interpretation of the word 'Ramesses' is given which makes total nonsense: 'Thunder of Vermin' (sic).

94. The period spanning the two reigns Sethos I-Ramesses II, which is said to have lasted roughly eighty years, is out of the question: Sethos I's reign-which was too short for this-does not square with the very long stay in Midian which Moses made as an adult and which took place during the reign of the first of the two Pharaohs he was to know.

95. The word is followed by a generic determinative which leaves no doubt as to the fact that this term signifies a 'human community or group'.

96. In his book 'The Ancient History of Israel' (Histoire ancienne d'Israël)

97. "The name 'Israel' (in the stele) is accompanied by the generic determinative 'people' instead of the determinative 'country', as is the case for the other proper names in the stele" writes Father B. Couroyer, Professor at the Biblical School of Jerusalem, in his commentary to the translation of the Book of Exodus (Pub. Editions du Cerf, Paris, 1968, page 12).

98. L'Exode (Exodus), 1968, page 73, Pub. Les Editions du Cerf, Paris.

99. There can be no doubt that this commentator is referring to the Bible.

100. November, 1975 for the First French edition.

101. The mummy of Ramesses II, who was another witness to Moses's story, has been the subject of a study comparable to the one carried out on the mummy of Merneptah; the same restoration work is required for it.

102. Pub. Sethi Straw Board Mills (Conversion) Ltd and Taleem-ul-Qur'an Trust, Gujranwala, Cantt. Pakistan. 1st edition 1971, for Sahih Al Bukhari.

103. Muslim specialists designate the first by the word Zanni and the second by the word Qat'i.

104. The Hegira was in 622, ten years before Muhammad's death.

105. The truth of the hadiths, from a religious point of view, is beyond question. When they deal, however, with earthly affairs there is no difference between the Prophet and other humans. One hadith gives an account of an utterance of the Prophet: "Whenever I command you to do something related to Religion do obey, and if I command you something according to my own opinion (do remember this) I am a human being". Al Saraksi in his 'Principles' (Al Usul) transmitted this statement as follows: "If I bring something to you on your religion, do act according to it, and if I bring you something related to this world, then you have a better knowledge of your own earthly affairs".