Muslims says:  Quran was written down in its entirety at the time of Muhammad’s death and the Sira (prophetic biography) of Muhammad lists the names of 17 scribes of the Quran.  By distinction, the prophetic books of OT were posthumous writings and scribes are not even named. What happened to prophetic scrolls during Exile? Nothing is known to Jews/Christians. Nebuchadnezzar enslaved the Jews in 587 BCE and deported them to Babylon. How did they collect their prophetic words? Don’t know. Then Christian scholars claim that every word of Bible is reliable!  What’s your response?

This Muslim argument is a logical fallacy.  The implication is that if we have more documentation, then that means that it is true.  The important question is not whether there is sufficient documentation.  The question is whether the prophecy is true.  All the scribes in the world do not make Muhammad a true prophet.  Some of the most heinous people in history have had lots of scribes.  Hitler had many people in Germany recording his deeds for history.  Not that I would put Muhammad in the same camp with Hitler!  The point is that having people record our sayings does not make those sayings true.  Besides, Muhammad has many traits which disqualify him from even being a good person, never mind a great prophet.  He oversaw the massacre of several hundred Jews in Medina.  He led a number of piratical raids on caravans, basically robbing people of all their possessions.  He took at least two dozen wives, some of whom were barely into their teens.  He sent his people on wars of conquest.  Why should we accept Muhammad as a prophet?  All the scribes in the world does not make the Qur’an the Word of God. He taught that Jesus was not crucified and that he was not God.  Well, Jesus was crucified and Jesus is God-in-the-flesh.  Muhammad is a false prophet and the 17 scribes who recorded his words do not make his supposed prophecy true.  The Qur’an is loaded with false statements.  I am attaching a set of notes with a lot of examples.  Apologetics and Islam

Besides, this critic is exaggerating his case to try to discredit the Old Testament.  The Book of Jeremiah was written by Jeremiah himself.  His scribe was Baruch and we even have a seal of Baruch which was discovered by archaeologists.  The Book of Ezekiel was written by Ezekiel himself.  Few question these facts.  The book of Ezra was written by Ezra.  We do not always have the name of the scribe in this case because these Ezra was probably written by Ezra, not by a scribe.  As for scrolls during the exile, there were 10,000 Jews carried into exile by Nebuchadnezzar.  From the activity of Ezekiel, we can see that they continued a strong Jewish presence and they had the prophet Ezekiel with them there.  They were still reading the Old Testament while in exile.  They had a continuous communication while in exile with the Jews in Jerusalem. In Daniel 9:1 we can see Daniel reading the book of Jeremiah while in exile.  The Jews had plenty of access to the Old Testament writings while in exile.  In fact, one of the largest groups of Jews, even up to the time of Christ, was in Mesopotamia.  They maintained a vibrant Jewish religion right up to the time of Christ.  This implication that the Old Testament scrolls would have been lost during the exile shows an ignorance on the part of the Muslims of the situation of the Jews during the exile.

The reason I believe that every word of the Bible is reliable is because of the wonderful evidence for this reliability.   The evidence for the inspiration of the Bible is wide and deep.  This is in strong distinction to the Qur’an, which has literally no clear evidence for its inspiration or reliability. None!  The Bible has hundreds of historical prophecies that were fulfilled later. I am attaching a document with literally hundreds of examples and with explanation.  Notes on Prophecy  The Bible has incredible historical reliability.  The Bible had Jesus to testify to it and Jesus worked the most amazing miracles in history, including being raised from the dead.  The evidence for reliability of the Bible is VASTLY greater than that for the Qur’an.  The evidence is clear.  Let me suggest you do some research into this.  Please read my book Reasons for Belief (www.ipibooks.com).  Look at the evidence from prophecy, historical accuracy, scientific reliability, evidence for miracles, and then ask yourself if the Qur’an has any of these kinds of evidence.  The answer will be clear as crystal.  The Bible is inspired by God, whereas, the Qur’an clearly is not.  Being able to list 17 scribes does nothing to change this.

John Oakes