Tahrif is not falsification; it’s different ways of understanding God’s words
The dogma that so many Muslims believe, that Jews and Christians have falsified (Tahrif) their own Sacred Scriptures in order to hide references to the coming of Prophet Muhammad, is a great misunderstanding.
It is true that the four Gospels have verses that quote things that Prophet Jesus said that are similar to, but differ some what from, what is quoted in a different Gospel but that is not Tahrif.
The Torah too is claimed by many Muslims to be filled with Tahrif; but Jews say that there are 70 different way of understanding God’s words and the differences are enlightening, and not falsifying.
For example, Dr. David Glatt-Gilad, a senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion University, points out (in the Times of Israel !/29/2025) that Exodus 12:40 declares that the Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years, yet another biblical text (Genesis 15:13) suggests a shorter time. Genesis 15:13 declares “And He [God] said to Abram: Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs (Canaan and Egypt) and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 15:14 But I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve (Egypt), and in the end they shall go free with great wealth.”
Dr. Glatt-Gilad writes: Two points need to be emphasized:
1) In the rabbis’ view, the 400 year period of Abraham’s descendants’ subjugation began as soon as Isaac was born, since even in Canaan, Isaac and Jacob were sojourners in a land that did not yet officially belong to them.
2) In order to account for the discrepancy between Exodus 12:40 that refers to 430 years of sojourning and Genesis 15:13 that speaks of 400 years, the rabbis suggested that God relayed the prophecy concerning the 400 years to Abraham 30 years before Isaac’s birth.
This is not Tahrif ! It is simply two different ways of measuring the length of the same event. There are many examples in the Qur’an where more than one verse is similar but not identical to another verse, and only a few Muslims argue about if this is Tahrif.
Anyone who studies the Hebrew Scriptures from a Rabbinic Bible is struck by the number of different commentaries that surround the few lines of the Biblical text on each page. Most religions that have a sacred scripture have editions that come with a commentary. Occasionally they do have an edition with two or three commentaries. The standard Jewish study Bible usually comes with at least 5-10 different commentaries.
All of this traces back to a verse in the Book of Psalms: “One thing God has spoken; two things have I heard” (Psalms 62:12) and its gloss in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 34a). In other words, multiple interpretations of each verse of Scripture can be correct, and the word of God, even if they contradict one another. The term for this concept of pluralistic interpretation is; Shivim Panim LaTorah (each verse of Torah has 70 different facets)
The earliest source for the term Shivim Panim LaTorah is in an early medieval text, Midrash Bamidbar Rabba 13:15-16. The term was used by the rationalist Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra (died 1167) in his introduction to his Torah commentary and, a century later by the mystic Rabbi Nachmanides (died 1270) in his Torah commentary on Gen. 8:4. It also appears several times in the Zohar.
That this concept was used both by rationalist and mystical Torah commentators indicates how fundamental it is to understanding the meaning of Divine revelation. Indeed, the concept, though not the exact wording, also appears in a post Talmudic midrash Otiot d’Rabbi Akiba as “Torah nilm’dah b’shiv’im panim”- Torah is learned through 70 faces/facets.
Of course, we know of no verse that has 70 different interpretations; yet. After all, if we knew all 70 glosses to a verse we would understand it as well as it author; which is impossible. Also, what would be left for future generations of Biblical scholars to do. But, most verses have at least three or four different glosses and some important ones have five or ten different insights.
Jewish tradition recognizes four general types of interpretation. P’shat; the plain simple meaning. Remez; the allegorical metaphorical meaning. De-rash; the moral educational meaning. And Sod; the mystical hidden meaning. For example: what kind of a tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:17 and 3:6). Most people think it was an apple tree. They have no idea why, or what that interpretation is supposed to mean.
The Rabbis offer four different interpretations of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; and each of them provides insights into the meaning of the Torah’s account of what makes humans special and what it means to be “like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5)
Rabbi Yose said it was a fig tree for as soon as they ate from it their eyes were open and they covered themselves with fig leaves. (Genesis 3:7) This is the simplest explanation and has the most textual support but it doesn’t tell us why figs represent morality.
Rabbi Judah bar Ilai said they ate from a grapevine i.e. wine (alcohol) represents good and evil because humans have the free choice to use wine to sanctify the Sabbath or to become an alcoholic.
Rabbi Meir said it was a wheat tree i.e. wheat was the first crop to be domesticated and thus is a good metaphor representing the beginning of farming and then urbanization and civilization. Settled life is a great test of social morality because nomads can always split apart if they can’t live together, but settled people must develop an ongoing legal system and abide by it.
Rabbi Abba said it was an etrog tree. An etrog, used for Sukkot-harvest festival, is called a goodly tree and it is good to thank God for the harvest (Leviticus 23:39-42). Gratitude is a spiritual personal value transcending ethics, involving attitude, personality and feeling. The etrog, according to the Rabbis is special because its outside (bark and wood) tastes the same as the inside of the fruit. Thus a good religious person should be the same inside and outside.
These four ways of interpreting a sacred text illustrate the four kinds of Midrash. The plain meaning of Rabbi Yose. The moral lesson pedagogic way of Rabbi Judah bar Ilai who wants to teach people that many things like the grapevine are capable of being used for good or evil purposes. They are not intrinsically good or evil. We can choose how we use them, so we make them good or evil. (Sex, money and meat eating are other examples.)
Rabbi Meir. who was reputed to know dozens of fox fables, thinks social morality is the primary sign of humanity. Farming brings about relatively dense settlements, property disputes, government and economic hierarchies. All of this calls for a just legal system. Thus wheat is a good metaphor.
The forth way is the personal insight, mystical psychological way of Rabbi Abba. The etrog is part of the citrus family. Unlike an orange, a lemon or a grapefruit an etrog has no commercial value. Jews give it a high value (each one costs 50-100 times what a lemon costs) for spiritual reasons. So too does morality have a spiritual value much greater than simple humanistic ethics.
Because there are 70 different faces to every verse in the Torah, there is a special blessing that should be said when one sees a crowd of Jews, that must contain within it, a large number of Jews with different ideas and opinions: “ One who sees a crowd of Jews should say: Blessed is the Sage of Enigmas; for their opinions are not similar one to another, and their faces are not similar one to another.” Talmud Berakhot 58a
We are all created in the image of the one God; and yet due to God’s greatness, we all look and think differently from one another.