Is today’s Torah the same as the Torah in Muhammad’s time?

Since we have established in the previous articles (Was the Torah corrupted at Muhammad’s time?, also see Does the Qur’an teach that the Torah was corrupted?) that the Torah of the 7th century—or at least, three major sections of the Torah—were reliable, the all-important question is this: Can we know what the text of this Torah said? If we cannot know, everything we have discussed so far is irrelevant. Because one might say, “Yes, the Torah of Muhammad’s day was intact, but people have corrupted it after his time!” That would mean that we still have a corrupted Torah today!

To know what the uncorrupted Torah said, we need to have copies of the Torah that are dated to the time of Muhammad or before. If we had such manuscripts, we would know the text that Muhammad trusted and be able to trust it as well. But do we have such copies?

In 1947, two Bedouin shepherds made perhaps the greatest archeological discovery of the 20th century. In a cave of the hilly region of the West Bank close to the Dead Sea, they found old Hebrew manuscripts of the Jewish Scriptures dating from around 870-550 B.H. (several hundred years before Muhammad). These manuscripts, called the Dead Sea Scrolls (see Figure 1), contain parts of the Torah. Following the initial find, archaeologists discovered numerous additional copies of the Torah, which taken together cover a large part of the Torah.

Archaeologists have also found complete manuscripts of the Greek translation of the Torah that are dated several centuries before Muhammad.In addition, early copies of the Syriac translation of the Torah have been found. These manuscripts are dated roughly to Muhammad’s lifetime or before.

When we compare the manuscripts of the Torah written before Muhammad, during his lifetime, and some centuries after his death, we find that they are remarkably similar (see Figure 2). Although there are some minor differences, the vast majority of these differences can be easily explained by the copying and transmission process and do not affect any major historical or theological claims of the Torah. This shows that the Jewish scribes preserved the text with incredible precision.¹

Since our modern translations of the Torah are based on these manuscripts shown in Figure 2, we can read a Torah today that reflects the text of the 7th-century Torah that the Qur’an mentions and approves of.

As already mentioned in our introduction article, the Qur’an points to the Torah as proof that it is true revelation from God and that Muhammad is a true prophet.

Surah 12:111 shows one way in which the Qur’an should confirm the Torah and prove that Muhammad was truly sent by God:

لَقَدْ كَانَ فِى قَصَصِهِمْ عِبْرَةٌۭ لِّأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَلْبَـٰبِ ۗ مَا كَانَ حَدِيثًۭا يُفْتَرَىٰ وَلَـٰكِن تَصْدِيقَ ٱلَّذِى بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَتَفْصِيلَ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ وَهُدًۭى وَرَحْمَةًۭ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يُؤْمِنُونَ

There was certainly in their stories [= the stories ofthe prophets] a lesson for those of understanding. Never was it [= the Quran] a narrated invention, but a confirmation of what was before it and a detailed explanation of all things and guidance and mercy for a people who believe

– Surah Yusuf 12:111 –

Here, the Qur’an says that it confirms the Torah even in the details of the stories of the prophets. Therefore, when comparing the stories in the Qur’an with the same stories in the Torah, we should expect them to match down to the details, or at the very least, not contradict each other. If they match, it proves that Muhammad is a true prophet. Him knowing the details of the stories without being able to read the Torah as an illiterate man would show that he must have received this knowledge through divine revelation. Let’s find out by comparing “the best of stories”—the story of Yusuf—in both books: