The Bible and The Koran
A Comparative Analysis
Christianity and Islam have several similar aspects. Both religions praise the same God, although they each have a different given name. Muslims refer to their god as Allah, and Christians simply refer to their god as God. Both religions are monotheistic, and both even have a set of religious laws that all who are righteous abide by. Muslims follow the Five Pillars of Islam, while Christians follow the Ten Commandments. Both religions even have their own religious texts: The Bible and The Koran. Christian missionaries declare that The Bible consists of true narratives based on actual revelations, and establish that the Prophet Muhammad is an imposter. However, it is extremely possible that The Bible is nothing more than a book of plagiarized stories taken from various ancient texts. The Koran seems to correct mistakes in the Bible and make true of its falseness, gives the true version of what really happened in the stories of Joseph, Noah, and Jesus.
In The Bible, the story of Joseph is a tale about a seventeen year old young man who was the oldest of his fathers' sons. He was also his father's favorite son. Joseph often had dreams which showed him as being a savior for his people. For this reason, he was sold into slavery by his own envious brothers. Joseph went on to make a better life for himself in Egypt, but it was not long before he was thrown into prison after being
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falsely accused. While in prison, Joseph became a dream interpreter, and eventually earned himself a position as the Pharaoh's advisor.
The story of Joseph in The Bible is almost the same in The Koran up until this point. In The Bible, after becoming a dream interpreter, Joseph became the leader of t...
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...ics, their religious texts contain tales that are almost completely opposite. Biblical scholars accuse Hebrews of borrowing and even plagiarizing stories from neighboring religions and cultures. So which stories can be deemed true within The Bible and The Koran? The truth is obvious and can be found within the revelations of Muhammad.
Works Cited
Asadi, Muhammed. Islam and Christianity Conflict or Conciliation: A Comparative
And Textual Analysis of the Koran and the Bible. Universe Inc. Jan 2002.
Brown, Stuart E. The Challenge of the Scripture: the Bible and the Qur'an.
Maryknoll, NY. Orbis Books Inc. 1989.
Lawall, Sarah. "The Bible." The Norton Anthology of World Literature.
Vol. A,B. NewYork, N.Y. Norton & Company. 2002.
Yurtsever, Savasan. "The Bible or the Koran." Booklocker.com, Inc. 2007
http://www.booklocker.com/books/157.html.
The seduction scene in these text teach us about good and evil. In the Bible, the character Joseph and in the Koran the character Joseph is clearly the one being seduced by a married woman. It is also stated that during this seduction in both text Joseph was the only male or the only other person in the home. With some basic knowledge of both religions it is safe to say that regardless of the religion the seduction is a clear sin and seen as evil tempting good. In this case evil is being portrayed as the king’s wife and good is Joseph. Although he didn’t commit a sin Joseph is thrown in jail for this incident. This occurs because the king’s wife was able to draw attention to her, claiming he was the seducer.
The first character trait that I see in Joseph is that he's very compassionate and emotional. There are several instances where he weeps for his family, and he cannot hold in his emotions. One such example is when he first sees Benjamin. He is reunited with his full brother after many years and is overcome by such emotion that he must rush out so no one can see his tears. Another example is when Jacob dies. Joseph weeps all over Jacob and kisses him. These two examples show how much Joseph valued his family despite all the hardships he had to bear. Joseph was not concerned with getting revenge on his brothers, but rather he wanted to make up for lost time and be with them once again.
(2) How did Joseph interpret their dreams? In which verse of 40:1-15 did Joseph mention God? What was the result of each dream interpretation?
You can read his story in Genesis, Chapters 37-50. The first note of him concerns his ability to dream and interpret dreams. Joseph was a dreamer and he had a dream. His dream took at least two forms. In one version of his dream he was a sheave of wheat and his family were also sheaves of wheat that had been gathered at harvest and were waiting to be carried in to be stored. In Joseph’s dream, all the other bundles of wheat bowed down to his. In another version of his dream he was a star. Again, his family were also stars and heavenly bodies. Again, all the other stars and heavenly bodies bowed down to his star in his dream.
Chapters thirty-nine through forty-one of Genesis chronicle a portion of the life of Joseph, the eleventh, and most favored, son of Jacob. “The book of Genesis is an account of the creation of the universe (Genesis 1-2), the origins of human communities (Genesis 3-11), and the beginnings of the people set apart by God (Genesis 12-50)” (Hauer and Young 67). The Joseph story begins in chapter thirty-seven, and spans nearly fourteen full chapters; the book ends, in chapter fifty, with the death of Joseph. The narrative of Joseph’s life is well crafted and highly detailed. It is, in fact, the most comprehensive narrative in the book of Genesis. The story flows, from beginning to end as a novel would. “Unique, too, is the somewhat secular mold in which the biography is cast. The miraculous or supernatural is conspicuously absent” (Sarna 211). Although God is mentioned, as a presence, he never overtly presents himself as he did with the many of the heroes that came before Joseph. The ending chapters of Genesis are a coming of age story; the tale of a boy, becoming a man.
...h offers his own life in exchange for Benjamin’s, Joseph reveals himself. Joseph persuades his brothers to return to Egypt with Jacob who was really happy, moved to Egypt with his family of seventy.
When Josephus is debating on whether he should give himself up to the Romans as a slave or flee the city to save the people. It is mentioned that Josephus was considered their “only comfort” because of his extreme militaristic abilities. Indeed, the Romans were eager to do away with him because of this precise reason. All of the townspeople beg him not to leave them and “...Children, old men, women with infants in their arms fell down before him”. Obviously by just analyzing this scene, it is heavily inferred that Josephus was a great militant and an enormous asset to the Jewish people. Moreover, Josephus had divine favor, for it is mentioned that he received many visions and dreams from God. Particularly, during his last strife with the Romans, “Josephus, helped by some divine providence, had stolen away from them…” Not only is Josephus favored by all his people, but by God, further showing his
...e Biblical story weighs heavily on Joseph’s divine dream interpreting ability and the story it provides, focusing on the theme of God caring for His people and fulfilling his divine plan. The Qur’an appreciates this but sees it as a means to the end of the spread of faith to non-believers. The Christian and Jewish version of Joseph’s trials serves a greater literary purpose than the Qur’an’s version, advancing belief by showing God’s abilities and the way they may be manifested in others in order to fulfill his divine plan. However, the Qur’an expands upon the Biblical version by including additional plot points and explicitly portraying Joseph’s goals and how they align with Islamic theology. The accounts differ in functionality, but both are crucial to the holistic understanding of the story of Joseph and some of the fundamental differences between the religions.
Both Christianity and Islam mirror Judaism. From Judaism, Christianity and Islam derived the doctrines of monotheism, prophecy, resurrection, and a belief in the existence of heaven and hell. Both Islam and Christianity have a holy book. Christians consider the Bible the inspired word of God, however Muslims believe that the Koran is the literal word of God. Mohammed was merely transcribing the words of Allah, much as a court reporter does. Muslims therefore attribute greater spiritual
Both Christianity and Islam mirror Judaism. From Judaism, Christianity and Islam took hold of the concepts of monotheism, prophecy, resurrection, and a belief in the existence of heaven and hell. Both religions also have a sacred text; Christians consider the Bible the inspired word of God, His words written and spoken through his followers. However Muslims hold the belief that the Koran is the literal spoken breath of God. Mohammed was merely transcribing the words of Allah, much as a court reporter does. With this knowledge they hold to be true Muslims hold the Koran and Islam at a higher level of truth and authenticity then the beliefs held by Christians and the Bible.
While Joseph was in prison he interprets a couple of dreams, those dreams came from the cupbearer and the baker of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Later Pharaoh has a dream, but no one knew what it meant and the Cupbearer reminders Joseph after the cupbearer had been out of prison for two years and tells the Pharaoh about Joseph interpreting his dream. Joseph got to interpret the Pharaoh's dream, and Joseph saves the people from starving. Joseph was loyal to the Lord and that is what led him to his position of influence and
Joseph’s weakness is his pride from being able to interpret the dreams he has. The first dream Joseph had, he told his brothers that he would rule over them and the brothers would bow down to him. Of course this made the brothers jealous, but also made his brothers hate him more. Joseph didn’t have any qualms of making his brothers upset. The reason is because he knew/believed his dreams would come true, since God was by his side and showed him the way to interpret the dreams. In verse 9, Joseph has another dream of “the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing before him.” The sun represented his father, the moon represented his mother, and the eleven stars represented his eleven brothers. At this point, Joseph’s father, Jacob starts to question the dream that Joseph had. Jacob might have seen Joseph’s pride, but till Jacob pondered the dream, while his eleven sons became highly jealous. In the next verses, Joseph’s weakness brought him to the problems that would change his life. Joseph was thrown into a pit by his brothers and was then sold as a slave. Since his brothers couldn’t go back home without Joseph, they took the robe of many colors splattering sheep’s blood on it. When they took it back home, Jacob presumed his favorite son to be dead, while Joseph is taken to Egypt. This passage really describes the reason why Joseph had a weakness
Similarities and difference exist between the two sacred texts of Islam and Christianity and although the Qur’an and the Bible are considered sacred text and their impact on modern society is ever present. Sacred texts are a collection of historical writings that date back thousands of years and are used by many traditions to have a special significance especially scriptures and holy books as they are often used to show hoe to live an honest and meaningful life. The Qur’an is the sacred text of Islam. It is believed to be the word of Allah who spoke to directly to the prophet Muhammad. The Holy Bible is the sacred book of Christians, and has two parts to it, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Combined they contain writing from the time before Christ and after Christ. Sacred texts were written in a time of oral tradition where stories were passed down and perhaps some of their meaning may have been lost in translation due to the time each book was written. One most consider what was going on during politically and socially at time of writing understand the intention of the writers.
However, there are few differences in the accounts of his life between the Quran and the Bible. One is the adoption of Moses into the palace. In the biblical account, pharaoh’s daughter adopted Moses but in the Quran, the wife of the pharaoh adopted him. Similarly, the order of plagues and the nature of plagues that afflicted the people of pharaoh in the Quran and the Bible differ. In conclusion, despite these minor differences, the Quran and biblical accounts of the role, life, purpose, and figure of Moses are similar with several lessons, which can help us become better people in our society.
Joseph as an individual started as a lost, depressed individual with no insight on what is happening in his life which leads to constant flashbacks to his father. The loss of Joseph 's father pointed out the feeling of how many children across this world might feel especially in places where conflict and war are still existent. This story did have a little bit of the plot focused on racism but the idea of being new and unique dominated the