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Allen S. Maller

Tahrif, Zero Sum, and Religious Pluralism

Professor Marc Zvi Brettler points out in his article on Times of Israel (1/13/25) that the Book of Exodus begins with an accounting of the members of Jacob’s family who went with him to Egypt. Our Torah, the Masoretic Text, lists 70 people. But Dead Sea Scroll manuscript 4QExb, records 75 people.

How do we account for this differences between the texts?

Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls come from Qumran, (northwest of the Dead Sea), where beginning in 1947 thousands of fragments of biblical and other works were discovered. All these date from the third century BCE through 68 CE, when the Romans destroyed Qumran as part of the Great Jewish Revolt. In addition, a much smaller number of scrolls were found in a variety of other sites around the Dead Sea that were destroyed during the Bar Kochba revolt in 132-135 CE.

The Dead Sea Scrolls offer us remarkable insight into the biblical text in the pre-Talmudic period. Sixteen (different) copies of Exodus were discovered at Qumran—all are fragmentary, and several are part of scrolls that copied Genesis and Exodus together. Unlike Isaiah, where we have a complete copy of the book that may be seen as the centerpiece of the Shrine of the Book in Israel, only small parts of Exodus have been preserved.

The number of descendants listed in Dead Sea Scroll manuscript 4QExb, is 75 not 70. The original text might have been 75 and the number 70 was meant to be a symbolic number like the 70 elders who went up with Prophet Moses to receive the Torah. In any case, it seems that different traditions existed concerning this matter in antiquity.

Professor Brettler states that support for the 75 reading comes from the first Greek translation (the) Septuagint, which also reads “seventy-five.” Philo of Alexandria (Egypt) active in the first century CE, considered to be the first Jewish philosopher, also uses the number seventy-five in one of his works. Finally, the Book of Acts, the fifth book of the New Testament, reads: “Then Joseph sent and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five in all.”

This particular example is one of hundreds. The difference between 70 and 75 descendants of Jacob is not great, but the principle that stands behind this difference is. We have always known that the rabbinic period was one of great differences of interpretation, and we might have thought that “Jewish differences” began there. But this evidence suggests that if anything, the previous period had even bigger differences—not “merely” of how various texts should be interpreted, but of what the biblical text itself said!

When Muslim scholars learned about the many variants of Jewish and Christian sacred texts they misunderstood it as something designed to explain why Prophet Muhammad is not mentioned by name in their text which had come from God himself. Under the label of tahrif (alteration) they regarded it as falsification in both Jewish and Christian scriptures (Quran 3:78; 4:46; and 5:15).

All of these pre-Qur’an influential religious thinkers were themselves influenced by a non-religious pagan Greek philosopher named Aristotle (384–322 BC) who believed that truth had to be what is called today: a Zero Sum Game.

Greek philosophy, with its requirement that truth must be unchanging and universal, influenced most teachers of sacred scripture during early Medieval times to believe that religion itself was a zero sum game; the more truth I find in your scripture the less truth there is in mine.

Instead of understanding differing texts as complementary, polemicists made them contradictory and declared the other religion’s sacred text to be false.

If religion is to promote peace in our pluralistic world we must reject the zero sum game ideology and develop the pluralistic teachings that already exist within our own sacred scriptures, and especially in the Qur’an.

After all “all prophets are brothers. They have the same father (God) but different mothers (mother tongues, motherlands and unique historical circumstances that account for all the differences in their scriptures).

“Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said, “Both in this world and in the Hereafter, I am the nearest of all people to Jesus, son of Mary. Prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one.” (Bukhari, Book #55, Hadith #652)

And “Prophets are brothers in faith, having different mothers. Their religion however; is one“. (Muslim, Book #030, Hadith #5836)

All of these factors produce different rituals and legal systems, but their basic theology can differ only in small and unessential details. As the sage of Konya, Jalal al-Din al-Rumi says, “Ritual prayer might differ in every religion, but belief never changes.” (Fihi Mafih 49)

Religions differ because the circumstances of each nation receiving them differ. Where sacred Scriptures differ they do not nullify each other; they only cast additional light on each other.

The Qur’an states, in opposition to the Greek Zero Sum Game theory of truth, that: “If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (God’s plan is) to test you in what He has given you: so compete in all virtues as in a race. The goal of you all is to (please) Allah who will show you on judgment day) the truth of the matters in which you dispute.” (Qur’an 5:48)

So until judgement day humans here on earth are limited to the particular truth of there own specific religion.

My own belief is based on an important Hadith of Prophet Muhammad. Abu Huraira relates, “The people of the Book used to read the Torah in Hebrew and then explain it in Arabic to the Muslims. Allah’s Apostle said (to the Muslims). “Do not believe the people of the Book, nor disbelieve them, but say, ‘We believe in Allah, and whatever is revealed to us, and whatever is revealed to you.”’ This is the beginning of true religious pluralism.

Following Muhammad’s teaching I too neither believe nor disbelieve the Qur’an. If I believed in the Qur’an, I would be a member of the Muslim ummah (community). But I cannot disbelieve in the Qur’an because I believe that Muhammad was indeed a non-Jewish, Abrahamic prophet; and I respect the Qur’an as a revelation to a kindred people, in a kindred language. In fact, the people, the language and the theology are closer to my own people, language and theology than that of any other religion on earth.

Unlike those in the past who played the zero sum game, I do not seek some verse in the Qur’an I can dispute or object to. Indeed, this is what the Qur’an itself teaches. “For every community We have appointed a whole system of worship which they are to observe. So do not let them draw you into disputes concerning this matter.” (22:67)

And the Qur’an clearly states: “Those who believe (Muslims), those who advocate Judaism, Christians, Sabeans, whoever truly believes in God and the Last Day, and does good righteous deeds, surely their reward is with their Lord, they will not fear, nor will they grieve.” (2:62)

Thank God, in 21th century America the majority of most religious groups now believe the teachings of the Qur’an cited above.

A survey of over 35,000 Americans in 2008 found that most Americans agree with the statement: many religions – not just their own – can lead to eternal life. Among those affiliated with some religious tradition, seven-in-ten say many religions can lead to eternal life.

This view is shared by a majority of adherents in nearly all religious traditions, including 82% of Jews, 79% of Catholics, 57% of evangelical Protestants and 56% of Muslims. (From the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2008, Pew Research Center.)

Thus, in 21th century United States most Christians, Jews, and Muslims have rejected the zero sum mind set and believe in the Qur’an’s pluralism teachings. Only those who reject God by disbelief or by unrepentant evil activities will be the losers when Judgement Day comes.

Although many, perhaps most theologians will learn that they might not be as smart as they thought they were.

It is also very important to understand that ‘religious pluralism is the will of God’ is different from religious, moral or cultural relativism. Relativism teaches that all values and standards are subjective, and therefore there is no higher spiritual authority available for setting ethical standards or making moral judgments.

Thus, issues of justice, truth or human rights are, like beauty, just in the eye of the beholder. Most people, especially those who believe that One God created all of us, refuse to believe that ethics and human rights are simply a matter of taste. Religious pluralism as the will of God is the opposite of cultural or philosophical relativism.

The fundamental idea supporting religious pluralism is that religious people need to embrace humility in many areas of religion. All religions have always taught a traditional anti self – centered personal egoism type of humility.

Religious pluralism also opposes a religious, philosophical, and self righteous intellectual egoism that promotes a tendency to turn our legitimate love for our own prophet and Divine revelation into universal truths that we fully understand and know how to apply.

Religious pluralism teaches that finite humans, even the most intelligent and pious of them, can not fully understand everything the way the infinite One does.

This is true, for every human being, even for God’s messengers themselves. When prophet Moses, “who God spoke with face to face, as a person speaks with a friend” (Exodus 33:11) asks to see God face to face, he is told, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see My face and live.” (33:20)

Similarly, in the Qur’an prophet Jesus admits to God, “You know everything that is within myself, whereas I do not know what is within Yourself”. (7:116) And when prophet Jesus was asked, in private, by his disciples, “What will be the sign for your coming (back) and the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3) Jesus warns his disciples about upheavals and false Messiahs that will come. Then Jesus concluded by saying, “But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, not even the son: only the Father”. (24:36)

A similar statement was made by Prophet Muhammad when he was asked, “Tell me about the Hour”. He said: “The one questioned about it knows no better than the questioner.” (Muslim book 1 Hadith 1&4)

God taught the general principle of epistemological humility through his Prophet who taught his followers “I am no novelty among the messengers. I do not know what will be done to me, or to you.” (Qur’an 46:9)

In truth, the only universal truth should be the humility to admit: “Only God knows”

About the Author
Rabbi Allen S. Maller has published over 850 articles on Jewish values in over a dozen Christian, Jewish, and Muslim magazines and web sites. Rabbi Maller is the author of "Tikunay Nefashot," a spiritually meaningful High Holy Day Machzor, two books of children's short stories, and a popular account of Jewish Mysticism entitled, "God, Sex and Kabbalah." His most recent books are "Judaism and Islam as Synergistic Monotheisms' and "Which Religion Is Right For You?: A 21st Century Kuzari" both available on Amazon.
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