Chapter 28: More Mixed Up Bible Stories

2:243 to 2:253 are another 11 longwinded and mostly obscure verses. These verses relate some confused biblical narratives. Let’s see what we have here.
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Various Matters

2:243 “Have you not seen those who went forth from their homes, for fear of death, and they were thousands, then Allah said to them, ‘die’. Then he gave them life, for Allah is Gracious to people, but most people are not grateful.”
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This obscure verse gave much trouble to commentators. The closest biblical narrative to our verse could be the passage in Ezekiel 37, where God brought up flesh upon the many bones in the valley, and put breath in them and brought them to life.
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2:244 we dealt with in the chapter on Jihad.
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2:245 “Who is he that will lend Allah good loan, and He will multiply it for him manifold? Allah clenches, and outspreads, and unto Him you shall be returned.”
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This verse seems to have its origin in the Book of Proverbs 19:17: “He that is gracious unto the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and his good deed will He repay unto him.”
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In this verse, the lending metaphor is used to describe a deposit of a good deed with the Lord, which will be repaid on the Day of Reckoning.
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If Proverbs 19:17 is the source for our verse, then it misses the point, which is helping the poor, not giving the Lord a good loan.
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Islamic commentators, however, tell us that Allah does not really need a loan, and this is just a test to see how generous the Believers are in providing funds to the struggle in Allah’s cause (Jihad), saying nothing about helping the poor.
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The Quran too makes repeated assertions that Allah is rich and self sufficient.
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The First King of the Jews

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2:246 “Have you not seen the leaders of Israel after Musa? They said to their prophet, ‘If you appoint a king to lead us, we will fight in the cause of Allah.’ He said, ‘Is it your intention that, if fighting is decreed for you, you will not fight?’ They said, ‘Why should we not fight in the cause of Allah, when we have been deprived of our homes, and our children?’ Yet, when fighting was decreed for them, they turned away, except a few. Allah is aware of the transgressors.”
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This verse seems to suggest that the Children of Israel were prepared to engage in Jihad if they had a king appointed over them. This verse almost certainly relates the story of the biblical Samuel and Saul, where the people came with this request to Samuel, a real prophet this time. Now why wasn’t he mentioned by name in the Quran?
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If you relate biblical events, why won’t you provide the proper names of the biblical personalities involved? Is it too much to ask? The Jews are telling you Bible stories – ask for names! Write them down, or get someone to write them down for you if you are illiterate. Just make sure you get the names!
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On the subject of collecting biblical material from the Jews, some commentators suggest that the Jews were selling Muhammad Bible stories “for a small price”, as many Quranic passages allege.
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The Quran consistently omits specifics. Is it a deliberate strategy, to be as vague as possible? Vagueness does make it difficult to be proven wrong. Am I wrong?
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Anyway, here is the apparent biblical source (Samuel I 8:4-5):
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“Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah. And they said unto him: ‘Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways; now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.’”
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Of course there is nothing in the biblical passage about “fighting in the cause of Allah”. I think this was added to legitimise the idea of Jihad, and to show that most of the Jews were cowards who turned away from fighting when the time came, and the Allah is not pleased with such cowardly conduct.
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2:247 “And their prophet said to them: Lo, Allah has raised Talut to be a king over you. They said: How can he hold kingship over us while we have a greater right to kingship than he, and he has not been granted an abundance of wealth? He said: Surely Allah has chosen him in preference to you, and He has increased him abundantly in knowledge and physique, and Allah grants His kingdom to whom He pleases, and Allah is Ample giving, Knowing.”
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We have a name! Talut is the name of the proposed king of the Children of Israel. But there is no king by this name in the Bible. Is this another case of Tah’rif, corruption of biblical message, committed by the Jews?
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Some commentators claim that since King Saul was an exceptionally tall man, the Quran gave him a nickname that sounds like tall (“taweel” in Arabic means tall), but not really.
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And as usual, the Quranic account bears little resemblance to the biblical text, except that “Allah has chosen him” to be the king of the Children of Israel.
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As to disputing his right to kingship: it was Saul himself who expressed doubts (Samuel I 9:21 “… not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? …”), and some base fellows, who said (Samuel I 10:27 “… shall this man save us?’ And they despised him, and brought him no present …”)
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The Divine Presence

To convince the doubters, the (unnamed) prophet gives them a sign (2:248):
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“And their Prophet said to them, ‘The sign of his kingship is that the Ark will come to you, in it a Shekhina from your Lord, and a remnant of what the folk of Musa and Haroon’s folk left behind, the angels bearing it. Surely in that shall be a sign for you, if you are believers.’”
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Haroon is the Islamic version of biblical Aaron, brother of Moses.
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In the Book of Samuel I, chapter 7, a story is related describing some mishaps with the Ark of covenant. But this event took place before the time of Saul, and contained no proof of his kingship.
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The Hebrew word Shekhina (“sakeena” in the Arabic text) is used here and it is another proof that the Quran is not written in pure Arabic. Apparently, Muhammad heard the word from the Jews and liked so much that he decided to adopt it. It means “Divine Presence”.
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This concept comes the biblical verse Exodus 25:8 “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” The word Shekhina is derived from the Hebrew verb that means “dwell”.
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This word appears in the Quran 6 times, once here, twice in surah 9 (26,40) and three times in surah 48 (4,18,26), where it is used to describe reassurance and encouragement sent down by Allah unto the Messenger and his militants.
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The Exploits of Talut and Dawood

2:249 “So when Talut departed with the forces, he said: Surely Allah will try you with a river; whoever then drinks from it, he is not of me, and whoever does not taste of it, he is surely of me, except he who takes with his hand as much of it as fills the hand; but with the exception of a few of them they drank from it. So when he had crossed it, he and those who believed with him, they said: We have today no power against Galut and his forces. Those who were sure that they would meet their Lord said: How often has a small party vanquished a numerous host by Allah’s permission, and Allah is with the patient.”
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Here the authors of the Quran get really confused. In addition to the misplaced story of the Ark in 2:248, the drinking test by the river is misplaced as well. It occurred many years before the events of Saul’s time.
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It concerned Gideon, one of the Judges. His story is related in the Book of Judges, chapter 7, where the test was to see who drinks like a dog with his tongue and who collects water in his hand and brings it up to his mouth, the latter being the righteous way. 300 out of 10,000 passed the test, and Gideon chose them to fight and defeat the Midianites.
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This is one of a long line of mixed up biblical personalities in the Quran.
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Galut is the name given in the Quran to Goliath the Philistine.
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2:250-251 “And when they went out against Galut and his forces they said: Our Lord, pour down upon us patience, and make our steps firm and assist us against the unbelieving people. So they put them to flight by Allah’s permission. And Dawood slew Galut, and Allah gave him kingdom and wisdom, and taught him of what He pleased. And were it not for Allah’s repelling some men with others, the earth would certainly be in a state of disorder, but Allah is Gracious to the creatures.”
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Here we jump straight to Dawood (the Islamic version of King David) slaying Goliath, skipping quite a lot, but who cares, as long as you accept that (2:252):
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“These are the signs of Allah We recite to you in truth, and indeed you are one of the messengers.” I think this verse is related by Gabriel, reassuring Muhammad, but taking the liberty of using the royal (divine) “We”.
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Don’t get me wrong: I am not claiming that the Quranic version of the events is wrong. I have no problem in accepting and respecting as legitimate scripture the stories of the exploits of Talut and Dawood as related in the Quran.
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I do not, however, agree that these people are the Saul and David of the Hebrew Scriptures, and I reject the allegation that the Hebrew Scriptures have it wrong.
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And I think I am entitled to expect those who believe in the Quran to reciprocate by respecting my position.
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Favourite Messengers

And on the subject of messengers, they may all be equal before Allah, but some are more equal.
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Allah had a special thing for Jesus. Still, he was not his son.
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2:253 “And those Messengers, some We have preferred above others. Some there are to whom Allah spoke, and some He raised in rank. And We gave ‘Isa son of Maryam the clear signs, and confirmed him with the Holy Spirit. And had Allah willed, those who came after him would not have fought one against the other after the clear signs had come to them. But they fell into variance, and some of them believed, and some disbelieved. And had Allah willed, they would not have fought one against the other. But Allah does whatsoever He desires.”
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Who were the messengers who came after Jesus and fell into variance, fighting each other, Believers against Disbelievers, the Quran does not tell us. Jewish tradition and history records contain no messengers of god living after the time of Jesus.