1. Historical Textual Divergence:
The text depicts Pharaoh's magicians suddenly falling in prostration and professing faith. This departs from Exodus 7–8, where the magicians acknowledge the "finger of God" (Exodus 8:19) but do not undergo a group religious conversion or abandon polytheism.
2. Theological Retrofitting:
Polemically, this alteration represents historical retrofitting. The text reshapes the biblical event to mirror the conversion scenes typical of Muhammad's career, where opponents are suddenly overwhelmed by signs and submit, projecting 7th-century Arabian dynamics onto ancient history.
3. Compromise of Narrative Integrity:
Transforming historical pagan magicians into instant monotheistic believers prioritizes homiletic drama over scriptural accuracy. This indicates a reliance on an oral, highly dramatized retelling of the Exodus rather than a strict preservation of the established biblical record.
The Quran Verses
Surah 7:120–122:
And the magicians fell down in prostration. They said, "We have believed in the Lord of the worlds, The Lord of Moses and Aaron."
The Relevant Source Text (The Bible)
Exodus 7–8:
In the biblical account, the magicians recognize the "finger of God" (Exodus 8:19) during the plague of gnats, but they do not convert to the faith of Moses, nor do they prostrate themselves in a group confession of monotheism.
The Quranic version dramatizes the event into a sudden, mass conversion of the Egyptian sorcerers. To the scholar, this is a "theological retrofitting."
The author takes a biblical event and reshapes it to mirror the "conversion scenes" typical of Muhammad’s own prophetic career, where opponents are suddenly overwhelmed by signs and submit to Islam.