Home > Surah 3 - The Family of Imran
In this verse, the Quran shifts from general theological debate to a pointed rhetorical question, accusing the Jews and Christians of a deliberate rejection of the truth that they themselves can see within their own scriptures.
Surah 3:70:
O People of the Scripture, why do you disbelieve in the verses of Allah while you witness?
In a debate, the Christian polemicist focuses on the act of witnessing. To "witness" something means to observe it directly.
If the Quran says the Jews and Christians were witnessing the "verses of Allah" in their scriptures in 625 AD, then those verses must have been pure and authoritative at that moment.
Since we have biblical manuscripts from that exact era (and centuries earlier), we can confirm that what they were "witnessing" then is exactly what we have in our Bibles today.
If the modern Muslim apologist claims the Bible was corrupted before Muhammad, they contradict Surah 3:70. If it was already corrupted, the People of the Book were not witnessing the "verses of Allah"; they were witnessing "man-made lies."
However, the Quran calls what they were reading Ayat Allah. Therefore, the Quranic author clearly believed the text in their hands was the Word of God, not a forged substitute.
A polemicist can ask: "How can Allah hold these people accountable for disbelieving if the evidence (the verses) had been tampered with?" Accountability requires a clear standard.
By accusing them of disbelieving while witnessing the truth, the Quran guarantees that the truth—the uncorrupted Bible—was accessible, readable, and recognizable during the time of the Islamic revelation.
Surah 3:70 is a devastating verse for the theory of Tahrif (textual corruption). It identifies the 7th-century Bible as the "verses of Allah" and states that its owners were "witnessing" those very verses.
This anchors the Islamic Dilemma firmly:
the Quran certifies the Bible as the preserved Word of God during Muhammad’s life.
If the Quran is correct about the Bible's status, then the Bible's message (which denies Muhammad's prophethood and affirms Christ's deity) must be true, which would make the Quran FALSE.