It’s on Justin Brierley’s Unbelievable radio show, from the UK!

The show starts with introductions by each speaker, then the debate begins.

James White’s opening address:

The Bible:

• most Christians have a naive view of how holy books come to us from antiquity
• the Bible and Koran were written and transmitted in two different ways
• the Koran was written down and spread in a controlled way
• the Bible was written in an uncontrolled way
• Christianity was illegal until 313, so early Christians were persecuted
• the Bible had to be copied and spread illegally by individuals
• people risked their lives to copy pieces of the text
• the good part of this is that there are tons of manuscripts
• the manuscripts are earlier than the Church councils that define the Canon
• a persecuted minority would not have been able to conspire to change the text
• there are tons of minor variants from misspellings and typos in the manuscripts

The Koran:

• the Hadith (writings that post-date the Koran) record how the Koran was written
• the authorities worried that many fragments and manuscripts would cause disputes
• the authorities got together and created an approved version to distribute
• all the other Koranic materials (fragments and manuscripts) were burnt
• this happened soon after the death of Mohammed
• there are fewer variants with this centralized, top-down approach

Adnan Rashid’s opening speech:

The Bible:

• the Bible we have today is not infallible, was not transmitted infallibly
• none of the 4 gospels are written by eyewitnesses
• there are around 400,000 variants in the manuscripts (cites Ehrman)
• the huge number of variants touches on virtually every line of text
• the manuscripts have differences – which manuscript is the inspired one?
• editors are needed to adjudicate between all of the variants (cites Metzger)
• editors have to rely on probabilities in order to choose the text itself

The Koran:

• the text of the Koran was selected by Mohammed’s immediate successor
• the purpose of this selection was to unify the Arab tribes on one text
• rejected fragments and manuscripts were burned
• no coercion was used to get the bad manuscripts burned

James White’s rebuttal:

• 99% of the variants are technicalities of the Greek language
• only 1500-2000 variants change the meaning of the text
• there are many variants is because there are many manuscripts
• more manuscripts makes it harder for any authority to change the text
• the editors don’t hide the variants – that why everyone knows about them
• the photographs of the fragments and manuscripts are available, not burnt

Adnan Rashid’s rebuttal:

• we are in the process of photographing our fragments and manuscripts
• what the photographs show is that the Koran has no shocking variants
• Metzger is clear that editors are deciding the text based on probabilities

Crosstalk about Metzger:

• James: editors decide the main reading and the rest goes in footnotes
• James: Metzger doesn’t think that this makes the Bible unreliable
• Adnan: prove it

Crosstalk about the Koran:

• James: The Koran has variants too and manuscript issues
• James: Mohammed appointed Ibn Masoud as the authority on the Koran
• Adnan: actually Mohammed pointed out four authorities, not just one
• Adnan: we don’t have manuscript problems or variant problems as bad as yours

Crosstalk about the crucifixion of Jesus:

• James: the crucifixion is denied in Surah 4:157
• James: the Koran is written 600 years after the cruficixion
• James: the Koran is written hundreds of miles from the crucifixion site
• James: non-Christians like Ehrman and Crossan do not deny the crucifixion
• James: for 600 years after, history is unanimous that the crucifixion happened
• Adnan: the gospel of Thomas doesn’t mention the crucifixion
• Adnan:  Thomas predates Mark and is contemporaneous with Q
• James: Thomas contains NO HISTORY – just sayings of Jesus
• James: Thomas is not written by eyewitnesses to the events
• James: Thomas is written in Coptic, originated in Syria, in the 2nd century
• James: Thomas reflects gnostic theology, not Christian theology
• Adnan: if the Koran says that the crucifixion didn’t happen, then it didn’t
• James: Adnan believes one person 600 years later instead of the eyewitnesses
• Adnan: Paul invented the crucifixion out of nothing
• Adnan: The gospels are just theology, not history, written to confirm Paul
• Adnan: some scholars say Thomas isn’t gnostic
• Adnan: some scholars say Thomas is early
• Adnan: Metzger says Thomas was rejected because it was non-Christian
• James: I agree that it was rejected for theology because it’s gnostic

It’s on Justin Brierley’s Unbelievable radio show, from the UK!

The MP3 file is here. (60 minutes of debate)

The show starts with introductions by each speaker, then the debate begins.

James White’s opening address:

The Bible:

• most Christians have a naive view of how holy books come to us from antiquity
• the Bible and Koran were written and transmitted in two different ways
• the Koran was written down and spread in a controlled way
• the Bible was written in an uncontrolled way
• Christianity was illegal until 313, so early Christians were persecuted
• the Bible had to be copied and spread illegally by individuals
• people risked their lives to copy pieces of the text
• the good part of this is that there are tons of manuscripts
• the manuscripts are earlier than the Church councils that define the Canon
• a persecuted minority would not have been able to conspire to change the text
• there are tons of minor variants from misspellings and typos in the manuscripts

The Koran:

• the Hadith (writings that post-date the Koran) record how the Koran was written
• the authorities worried that many fragments and manuscripts would cause disputes
• the authorities got together and created an approved version to distribute
• all the other Koranic materials (fragments and manuscripts) were burnt
• this happened soon after the death of Mohammed
• there are fewer variants with this centralized, top-down approach

Adnan Rashid’s opening speech:

The Bible:

• the Bible we have today is not infallible, was not transmitted infallibly
• none of the 4 gospels are written by eyewitnesses
• there are around 400,000 variants in the manuscripts (cites Ehrman)
• the huge number of variants touches on virtually every line of text
• the manuscripts have differences – which manuscript is the inspired one?
• editors are needed to adjudicate between all of the variants (cites Metzger)
• editors have to rely on probabilities in order to choose the text itself

The Koran:

• the text of the Koran was selected by Mohammed’s immediate successor
• the purpose of this selection was to unify the Arab tribes on one text
• rejected fragments and manuscripts were burned
• no coercion was used to get the bad manuscripts burned

James White’s rebuttal:

• 99% of the variants are technicalities of the Greek language
• only 1500-2000 variants change the meaning of the text
• there are many variants is because there are many manuscripts
• more manuscripts makes it harder for any authority to change the text
• the editors don’t hide the variants – that why everyone knows about them
• the photographs of the fragments and manuscripts are available, not burnt

Adnan Rashid’s rebuttal:

• we are in the process of photographing our fragments and manuscripts
• what the photographs show is that the Koran has no shocking variants
• Metzger is clear that editors are deciding the text based on probabilities

Crosstalk about Metzger:

• James: editors decide the main reading and the rest goes in footnotes
• James: Metzger doesn’t think that this makes the Bible unreliable
• Adnan: prove it

Crosstalk about the Koran:

• James: The Koran has variants too and manuscript issues
• James: Mohammed appointed Ibn Masoud as the authority on the Koran
• Adnan: actually Mohammed pointed out four authorities, not just one
• Adnan: we don’t have manuscript problems or variant problems as bad as yours

Crosstalk about the crucifixion of Jesus:

• James: the crucifixion is denied in Surah 4:157
• James: the Koran is written 600 years after the cruficixion
• James: the Koran is written hundreds of miles from the crucifixion site
• James: non-Christians like Ehrman and Crossan do not deny the crucifixion
• James: for 600 years after, history is unanimous that the crucifixion happened
• Adnan: the gospel of Thomas doesn’t mention the crucifixion
• Adnan:  Thomas predates Mark and is contemporaneous with Q
• James: Thomas contains NO HISTORY – just sayings of Jesus
• James: Thomas is not written by eyewitnesses to the events
• James: Thomas is written in Coptic, originated in Syria, in the 2nd century
• James: Thomas reflects gnostic theology, not Christian theology
• Adnan: if the Koran says that the crucifixion didn’t happen, then it didn’t
• James: Adnan believes one person 600 years later instead of the eyewitnesses
• Adnan: Paul invented the crucifixion out of nothing
• Adnan: The gospels are just theology, not history, written to confirm Paul
• Adnan: some scholars say Thomas isn’t gnostic
• Adnan: some scholars say Thomas is early
• Adnan: Metzger says Thomas was rejected because it was non-Christian
• James: I agree that it was rejected for theology because it’s gnostic