Saturday, May 6, 2017

The Café Conversation: An Apologetic of Christianity versus Islam


This post is going to be a little different. For my final project in my World Religions class, my professor gave us a choice of possible topics. The topic I chose had the following description:

"Imagine that you are in a coffee shop and you meet the following three characters: (i) Adbul, a dedicated Muslim, (ii) Peter, a dedicated Christian, and (iii) an agnostic seeker or group of agnostic seekers. As you enter into conversation with these individuals, the seeker asks whether or Christianity or Islam--and the Bible or the Qur'an--is true, and whether the Christians or the Muslims have a more accurate interpretation of Jesus. Then research this topic so that you can create a dialogue that accurately represents what Abdul and Peter would say to this question."

In order to create the “dialogue” in a way that made sense to me, I completed the project in the form of a play, but using MLA8 style for the works cited page. I don’t know how much of the format will translate to the blog, so if anyone would like their own copy of the play to read, or if you get crazy and want to perform it at church, feel free to send me a note and I will more than happily send you a copy.
Without further ado, I present, The Café Conversation (I spent probably all of ten seconds thinking up that title, so I apologize if it doesn’t draw you in.)

The Café Conversation
__________________________

A Dialogue about Christianity and Islam in one scene.
by 
Robert Dietrich

Cast of Characters

Abdul bin Muhammad:                                  A dedicated Muslim

Peter Jonasson:                                               A dedicated Christian

Michael Wendell:                                           An agnostic seeker

Rob Dietrich:                                                  A mature Christian






























Scene

A coffeehouse.

Time

The Present.
ACT I

Scene 1

SETTING:                                          We are in a coffeehouse typical of college areas and arts districts. There are an eclectic mixture of furniture including couches, loveseats, chairs, lamps, and tables that, while mismatched, seem to go together and give the café a comfortable homey feel that says, “stay awhile, talk, and enjoy your coffee.” On the walls are a likewise eclectic collection of prints, recreations of famous art, original paintings by local artists, and various photography. The windows look out on a quiet street with historic buildings. The view is somewhat obscured by flyers advertising local events—everything from political rallies to performing arts events. There is also a giant corkboard adjacent to the entrance with a printed banner that reads, “Place Notices Here.” The rest of the corkboard is covered business cards, advertisements, and other examples of the patrons taking the banner’s advice.

AT RISE:                                            ABDUL BIN MUHAMMAD, PETER JONASSON, and MICHAEL WENDELL are sitting at a café table in the middle of the coffee house engaged in a spirited, but friendly conversation. ROB DIETRICH is at the counter waiting for his order. ABDUL is dressed in the traditional Islamic garb consisting of a grey kurta worn over loose fitting cotton pants and a black and grey embroidered kufi. He has a short haircut and a scraggly young man’s beard. PETER, a Christian, advertises his faith with a black NOT OF THIS WORLD T-shirt which he wears untucked over denim pants and flipflops. MICHAEL, a little more serious westerner, wears an oxford style button-down shirt, khaki slacks and Sperry Topsiders. ROB is dressed unassumingly, in a Mexican guayabera over khaki cargo pants and gently worn sneakers.

                                                            PETER
(slightly exasperated)
How can you say that?

                                                            MICHAEL
Hey, guys. We’ve been having a friendly conversation so far, let’s try and keep it that way.

                                                            PETER
You’re right.
(To ABDUL)
We’ve had this conversation before. I know what you are going to say, I guess I just get frustrated.

(ROB has gotten his order and seeing ABDUL and PETER walks to their table)

                                                            ROB
(sitting)
What’s up, guys?

                                                            PETER
I was talking to Michael after our philosophy class today because the subject of God came up.

                                                            ROB
(shakes MICHAEL’S hand)
Nice to meet you Michael.

                                                            MICHAEL
You too. So, Peter said some interesting things in class I had never considered before and I wanted to ask him some questions.

                                                            ABDUL
And I overheard Peter inviting Michael to coffee to talk about Christianity and thought that Michael could use another perspective.

                                                            ROB
So, what’s the problem. It looked like you were having a nice conversation when I came in, but it looked like things were about to get a bit heated just now.

                                                            MICHAEL
Well, I have always had this sort of undefined belief that God could exist and if he did, all religions are essentially just different ways of trying to figure out who he is, but Peter said something to the effect of “If God exists and wanted us to worship Him, why would He just let us flounder about in uncertainty? If God is good, He would want us to know about Him and if He is all powerful, He would let us know the Truth.” Then he said that he thought that truth was in the Bible.

                                                            ABDUL
And of course, I disagree with that premise.

                                                           
                                                            PETER
(rolling eyes)
Of course, you do.

                                                            MICHAEL
(to PETER, calmly pleading)
Come on man.

                                                            PETER
Rob. You’ve been a Christian a while, taught Sunday school and stuff what do you think?

                                                            ROB
I agree with your premise that God would want us to know about Him, that He would provide us with a revelation of who He is and how He wants us to relate to Him, and that He has done that in two ways: Through His Word in the Bible, and in the person of Jesus Christ.

                                                            ABDUL
How do you support your position?

                                                            ROB
If you’ll allow me.
(reaches into his backpack and pulls out a tablet and taps the screen)
I would like to read you a verse from the book of Acts—Acts 1:8, “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” The Bible is our best source of information about the life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and it even says there are proofs for this.

ABDUL
How can you trust the Bible? It has been retranslated and changed so many times over the years. The Qur’an, on the other hand, is pure. The Prophet, peace be upon him, has stated in Sura 18:1, “Praise to Allah, who has sent down upon His Servant the Book and has not made therein any deviance.” All current copies have been translated from the original so that the Qur’an today is the preserved form of the original. The Prophet, peace be upon him, also stated at the end of Sura 85, “But this is an honored Qur’an, inscribed in a Preserved Slate.” So, the Qur’an clearly has the more reliable record regarding the Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him.



                                                            PETER
The Bible has its claims of preservation too. Psalm 12:6-7 for instance says, “The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. You, O Lord, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever.”

                                                            MICHAEL
But just saying that they’re preserved doesn’t mean they are.

                                                            ROB
Michael brings up a good point. It’s not enough to just say the Bible or the Qur’an are preserved, we must look at the evidence of preservation and what methods have been used to preserve these books. There is a branch of scholarship called textual criticism that examines ancient works of literature to attempt to determine what the original works were like to the highest level of accuracy.

                                                            MICHAEL
How do textual critics determine the accuracy of ancient works?

                                                            ROB
Well, they examine all the available ancient copies, paying particular attention to the oldest copies available. In the case of the New Testament, there are almost 6,000 manuscripts in Greek, the language the New Testament was written in and many of those manuscripts were written in the second century (Taylor). Just a few years ago, a Greek manuscript fragment of the gospel of Mark was discovered that dates to the first century (Wallace). In addition to the Greek manuscripts, there are around 20,000 manuscripts in other languages, hundreds of which date to the early second century (McDowell 34-38). The next thing that textual critics do is they compare all the texts, which is a big job when you realize that there are nearly 26,000 ancient texts to look at, and try to figure out what the original said (“Textual”). The current consensus among biblical textual critics is better than 99% certainty about the accuracy of the New Testament text with none of the variations being of any real significance to theology (Weldon).

                                                            ABDUL
Ah, but the Qur’an is 100% accurate.

                                                            ROB
I’m going to have to respectfully disagree. After Muhammad’s death, even Muslim scholars will tell you that there was no single copy of the Qur’an. The first Caliph, Abu-Bakr charged Zayd to collect all the chapters and verses of the Qur’an to create a single book. By the time of Caliph Uthman, just twenty years later, there were multiple variants of the Qur’an being used, so Uthman ordered the Qur’an to be standardized. The problem is that when early manuscripts of the Qur’an are compared, there are thousands of variant readings. There are 150 variant readings in the second Sura alone. Not to mention, there are also records of verses from early manuscripts that are not contained in modern versions. This is a point of contention between many sects. The Sunni believe the modern version of the Qur’an is the most correct. Shi’a Muslims use the modern version but accuse Caliph Uthman of removing verses that refer to Ali as the successor of Muhammad (Geisler and Saleeb 191-194). One of the difficulties facing the Qur’an is that until recently, no critical edition of the Qur’an has ever been attempted (Small 3).

                                                            ABDUL
So the Uthmanic recension isn’t a critical edition?

                                                            ROB
According to textual critics, no. Right now, the first attempt at creating a critical edition is underway and scholars are hoping to finish by 2019, but it could take longer (Schnöpf).

MICHAEL
Are you saying that the Qur’an is completely unreliable?

ROB
I wouldn’t say that, no. As a record of what Muhammad taught and believed, it is definitely a good source, but it fails the test of accuracy and preservation.

ABDUL
But the fact that the Qur’an has survived to this day should be an indicator of God’s divine preservation.

                                                            ROB
It could be, but think about how the Bible and Qur’an have been preserved. Both Islam and Christianity have zealous followers who want to preserve God’s Word. Christianity and Islam both have strong traditions of scholarship that has resulted in carefully copying and transmitting the Bible and Qur’an respectively over time. Despite that, only the Bible can claim 99 percent accuracy and the Qur’an can’t claim any level of accuracy. Even when the critical edition is released, how receptive will the current world Muslim community be? If God had preserved the Qur’an we would expect some measurable level of accuracy.

                                                            ABDUL
That’s where faith comes in. One must accept the validity and accuracy of the Qur’an on faith.

                                                            MICHAEL
Isn’t that the case with all religion? Isn’t it all just a matter of faith?

                                                            ROB
That depends on what your definition of “faith” is.

                                                            MICHAEL
(thinking)
I guess my definition is, “Believing in something you can’t explain.”

                                                            PETER
I agree with that. The Bible says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

                                                            ROB
Having “conviction of things not seen” is not the same as believing in things without evidence. Faith must have an object and there must be evidence supporting the object’s existence if we can’t see it. None of us have met George Washington, but we don’t blindly believe in his existence because we can examine the evidence and come to the conclusion that George Washington actually existed. We can apply that same kind of thinking to determining if we should put our faith in the Bible or the Qur’an. Paul actually wrote something that applies to both this discussion and whether or not there is any validity to the entire Christian faith. He said in I Corinthians 15:14, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” If we put our faith in something that isn’t true, then our faith has no value. It’s foolish.

                                                            ABDUL
Are you saying I’m a fool for believing in the Qur’an?

                                                            ROB
I’m not trying to be offensive, but I have to admit that it doesn’t make any sense to believe in something that the evidence doesn’t support.

                                                            ABDUL
But the Qur’an still has the more reliable account of the life of Christ. I mean the resurrection is just patently ridiculous.

                                                            ROB
And the virgin birth is more believable?

                                                            ABDUL
What do you mean?

                                                            ROB
Suras three and nineteen both affirm the virgin birth of Christ. Sura nineteen is almost an exact retelling of the annunciation in Luke 2. The Qur’an also affirms that Jesus lived a sinless life. If we’re going to reject the resurrection on the basis of logic, why not reject the virgin birth and the sinless life of Christ, two other things that are humanly impossible?

                                                            ABDUL
So you think the Bible is more accurate describing the life of Christ?




                                                            ROB
Of course I do. The Bible has a better evidence for accuracy and therefore better evidence for divine preservation. Even if the neither the Bible or the Qur’an claimed divine origin, I would still trust the Bible more because it was written just a few years after the ministry of Christ, whereas the Qur’an was written almost 600 years later and there are some pretty serious deviations between what the Bible says and what the Qur’an says, namely that Jesus was neither crucified nor resurrected.

                                                            MICHAEL
Whoa, what? I thought the crucifixion was pretty well established fact.

                                                            ABDUL
It’s not an established fact and it’s not just the Qur’an that says it either. There are Christian writings that the church has kept hidden from Christians that prove that Jesus was not crucified, but Judas.

                                                            PETER
(scoffs)
Where do you get that from?

                                                            ABDUL
There is a gospel that was purposefully kept secret from early Christians precisely because it tells the true story of Jesus. It is called the Gospel of Barnabas. In it, it tells that when Judas attempted to betray Jesus, he was transformed into the likeness of Jesus. Jesus was then carried away by four angels who took him to heaven. Judas was crucified in Jesus’ place and the disciples, thinking he really had died, stole him from the tomb which made many people believe that Jesus had risen from the grave. Then Jesus returned and revealed that he had not died. He commanded Barnabas to write an account of his life, but false disciples, like Paul perverted his teaching even teaching the heresy of the death and resurrection of Christ (Gospel of Barnabas).

                                                            PETER
That’s nonsense. There is no such thing.

                                                            ROB
Actually, what Abdul says is true. There is a work called the Gospel of Barnabas.

                                                            PETER
(aghast)
What? Are you agreeing with Abdul? Are you saying Jesus didn’t rise from the grave?

                                                            ROB
I’m not agreeing with Abdul’s theology, just affirming that there is a work that claims to have been written by Barnabas.


                                                            ABDUL
I’m surprised you are aware of it as the Church has gone to great lengths to hide it from Christians.

                                                            ROB
If the Church is trying to hide it, they’re not doing a very good job. I learned about it in a class I took in Bible college. Plus, since it’s in the public domain, you can probably download a copy from the internet.

                                                            PETER
I’ve never heard of it, but it’s a real thing?

                                                            MICHAEL
Yeah. That’s news to me too.

                                                            ROB
It is a real document, but it’s not an authentic gospel.

                                                            MICHAEL
What is it then?

                                                            ROB
It is essentially a compilation of biblical gospel stories with a few anachronisms thrown in. The main deviation is the end, which Abdul has already described where Judas is crucified instead of Jesus.

                                                            MICHAEL
Is any of it true?

                                                            ROB
The parts that retell the biblical gospel stories are, but like I said, there are some anachronisms and the ending is way off.

                                                            ABDUL
Of course you would say that. Why do you continue to lead people astray when you know the truth?

                                                            ROB
We need to look at the evidence again. The earliest copies of the Gospel of Barnabas are from the 17th century (Wiegers). While I will concede that there may have been an earlier Gospel of Barnabas, the one in circulation today could not have been written any earlier than the 7th Century CE and Barnabas died in the first century. So, I believe, as do most scholars familiar with the Gospel of Barnabas including prominent Islamic scholars, that the work was written in the medieval era and is not an authentic work of Christianity (Leirvik).

                                                            MICHAEL
Okay. I think you have convinced me that the Bible is accurate and that it accurately portrays what the first Christians believed, but I still have a hard time reconciling the resurrection with reality.

                                                            PETER
Well that one you have to accept on faith.

                                                            ABDUL
The apostles could have stolen the body.

                                                            ROB
They could have, in fact there are a lot of theories about Jesus’ resurrection conspiracy theories. The Bible tells us that the Jewish religious leaders promoted the idea that the disciples stole the body (Matt. 28:13). More recently, scholars have promoted other ideas about the resurrection of Jesus. The first is that Jesus was crucified, but didn’t actually die; He merely lost consciousness on the cross and the Roman guards thought he was actually dead.

                                                            MICHAEL
Jesus passing out is a possibility.

                                                            ROB
Not really.

                                                            MICHAEL
Why not?

                                                            ROB
A lot of research has been done by medical experts on this issue. There have even been books and peer reviewed papers published on the subject. The description of the process of Christ’s trial and crucifixion is historically accurate when it comes to how people who were condemned to crucifixion. The bible says Jesus was scourged which was done with a device called a flagellum which is several leather straps embedded with nails, glass, sharp bone, and any other combination of sharp objects. The subject is whipped across the back, buttocks, and thighs, and skin is literally ripped from the body. Often, victims of Roman scourging were disemboweled because the straps would wrap around the front of the body and even when that didn’t happen, many people died from scourging alone, possibly by hypovolemic shock or cardiac arrest (Retief and Cilliers).

                                                            MICHAEL
That’s horrific.

                                                            ROB
Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. The subject of crucifixion was required to carry the crossbar of the cross, called the patibulum to the place of crucifixion. Once at the crucifixion site, the subject would be nailed to the cross with large, square spikes that might not break a person’s bones, but would definitely spread the wrist bones apart and damage the median nerve which of course is painful in itself. The feet were then nailed to a podium called the sedile which was affixed to the upright portion called the stipes. The subject would grow tired and would hang from their hands, but that would make it hard to breathe, so they would lift themselves up by the feet to take a breath. That would get tiring and eventually, they wouldn’t be able to lift themselves up anymore and death, if not caused by shock or cardiac arrest, would be caused by asphyxiation. Depending on how badly a person was scourged, this process could last for days (Retief and Cilliers). The description of Jesus’ scourging is pretty extreme and even if he didn’t die in the process, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear to verify if he was dead the Bible describes “blood and water” coming out (John 19:34). When a person slowly asphyxiates, pericardial fluid, which is clear, builds up around the lungs and heart. If enough builds up to differentiante two fluids, it is clear that the subject most likely died of heart failure. Even if by some miracle Jesus wasn’t dead at that point, the wound from the spear would have been fatal (Thompson).

(The four men sit quietly for a moment. Even Abdul is touched by the description of the crucifixion)

                                                            MICHAEL
How does a person come back from that?

                                                            ROB
Humanly speaking, you don’t. But we can’t forget that there is an element of the supernatural involved.

                                                            MICHAEL
I can’t wrap my head around the supernatural, though. There has to be other explanations.

                                                            ROB

Most of the rest of the theories involve Jesus actually dying. One theory from the last century was by Kirsopp Lake who said that the women who went to visit Jesus tomb went to the wrong tomb, but this theory never really gained a following (Strobel 221). And yet another theory is that the post-resurrection stories were nothing but mass hallucinations (McDowell 272-279). With very few exceptions, most scholars throughout history do not deny that the tomb was actually empty (Perman).

                                                            ABDUL
What about the theory that Jesus’ disciples stole the body from the tomb?

                                                            ROB
There are a few problems with that theory. In fact, there are problems with any theory that results in an empty tomb, but doesn’t result in a resurrected Christ. Some people believe that the watch that was set at Jesus’ tomb were Roman soldiers. Those guys were highly trained and armed and the disciples, while armed, did not have the training to defeat the Roman soldiers without taking their own casualties (Gabriel and Metz). If the guard was made up of temple guards, they would still be more highly trained than the disciples. The second, and biggest problem with any theory that doesn’t result in a physical resurrection of Jesus is how the lives of the disciples were changed. Ten of the original twelve apostles died for their faith (McDowell). Now we know that there are people who will die for what they believe to be true, but only a very mentally disturbed person would die for what they know to be a lie. The same would be true if Jesus had merely swooned, somehow got out of his burial cloth, rolled away the sealed stone of the tomb, fought his way past the guards, and then stumbled his way back to where the apostles were. He wouldn’t have inspired much and definitely wouldn’t have changed the apostles lives to be willing to die for their beliefs.

                                                            MICHAEL
Okay, so the tomb was empty. That still doesn’t prove the Jesus rose from the grave.

                                                            ROB
By itself it doesn’t, no.

                                                            PETER
If the tomb doesn’t prove Jesus rose from the grave, what does?

                                                            ROB
There’s actually a lot of evidence. First, you have the gospel witnesses themselves. Matthew and John were both eyewitnesses. Luke wrote his gospel based on a variety of evidence and was very careful to place his account in a historical context. Sir William Ramsay who was a professor of archaeology at Oxford University in the late 19th and early 20th century said, “Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy...this author should be placed along with the very greatest historians” (Ramsay 222). By the way, Ramsay was raised as an atheist and actually entered the archaeological field to disprove Christianity. He was so impressed by the evidence in favor of Christianity, that he converted and remained a faithful Christian his entire life.

                                                            PETER
Wow!

                                                            ROB
And there’s still more. Mark wrote his gospel account based on information he learned from Paul who in turn learned it from the eyewitnesses themselves. He even discusses the witness evidence in his first letter to the Corinthians. He says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Cor. 15:3-8).

                                                            MICHAEL
So what’s the point?

                                                            ROB
The point is that there were people in the church who believed and were teaching that Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead (1 Cor. 15:12). Paul wrote to the Corinthians to address a lot of problems, but this was one of the main ones. Corinth was a very wealthy city (Cartwright). Many of the members of the church in Corinth were wealthy people and had the means to travel, if they weren’t traders who traveled regularly already (1 Cor. 1). When Paul tells the Corinthians about all the witnesses, he knows that there are members in the church who could easily verify what he is saying. Nobody in their right mind would mention witness testimony if they weren’t sure their story was going to be backed up. So, when you look at the empty tomb, the changed lives of the disciples, and the witness testimony, it’s very hard to deny the resurrection of Christ.

                                                            MICHAEL
I’ve never heard any of this before.

                                                            PETER
I have to admit, some of this is new to me too.

                                                            ABDUL
I would also like to hear more.

                                                            MICHAEL
Abdul! Are you saying you’re going to convert to Christianity?

                                                            ABDUL
What Rob has said is very compelling. I’m not ready to be baptized and join a church, but I think I would like to look at Rob’s evidence a little more closely. If what he can show me documentation that what he is saying is true, then I must admit, I will have to take the idea of converting very seriously.

                                                            PETER
Rob. Aren’t you going to say anything?

                                                            ROB
(slowly, shocked)
I’m kind of surprised. We’ve had so many conversations Abdul…

                                                            ABDUL
I’ve never really given you time to defend your position. I think if Michael wasn’t so open to hearing both sides, I wouldn’t have let you talk so much today.

                                                            ROB
Well, maybe we should have a more formal bible study. I have lots of resources at home and I can recommend some good books.

                                                            MICHAEL
I have to admit, this is all pretty powerful stuff. I mean, it really seems that the Bible presents Christ in a much more accurate way than the Qur’an and if you can show me the studies about Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, I would be a fool not to take Christianity seriously.

                                                            ROB
(clearly excited)
Would you be willing to come over tonight?

                                                            PETER
I’m down for that. I’ll bring snacks.

(ABDUL and MICHAEL look at each other, shrug, and nod their heads)

                                                            ABDUL
I have no objection to that.

                                                            MICHAEL
Yeah. I have nothing going on.

                                                            ROB
(with outstretched hands)
Can I pray with you guys?

(the four men grasp hands, bow their heads and ROB begins whispering in prayer)

                                                            (BLACKOUT)

                                                            (THE END)


Works Cited
Cartwright, Mark. “Trade in Ancient Greece.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ltd., 2017, www.ancient.eu/article/115. Accessed 15 April 2017.
Gabriel, Richard A. and Karen S. Metz. “The Military Revolution.” A Short History of War. U.S. Army War College, 1992.
Geisler, Norman L. and Abdul Saleeb. Answering Islam: The Crescent in the Light of the Cross. Baker Books, 1993.
The Gospel of Barnabas. trans. Londale and Laura Ragg. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1907
The Holy Bible. English Standard Version, Crossway Bibles, 2001.
Leirvik, Oddbjørn. "History as a Literary Weapon: The Gospel of Barnabas in Muslim-Christian Polemics." Studia Theologica, vol. 56, no. 1, June 2002, pp. 4-26.
McDowell, Joshua. The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001.
McDowell, Sean. “Did the Apostles Really Die as Martyrs for their Faith?” Biola Magazine. Biola University, 2017, magazine.biola.edu/article/13-fall/did-the-apostles-really-die-as-martyrs-for-their-f. Accessed 15 April 2017
The Noble Qur’an. Quran.com, 2016, quran.com. Accessed 8 April 2017.
Perman, Matt. “Historical Evidence for the Resurrection.” Desiring God. Desiring God, 12 Sept. 2017, http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/historical-evidence-for-the-resurrection. Accessed 15 April 2017
Ramsay, William. The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament. Hodder and Stoughton, 1915.
Retief, F.P. and L Cilliers. “The history and pathology of crucifixion.” South African Medical Journal. vol. 93, no. 12, 2003.
Schnöpf, Markus. “Corpus Coranicum: A digital landscape for the study of the Qu’ran.” Digital Humanities. University of Hamburg, 2012, www.dh2012.uni-hamburg.de/conference/programme/abstracts/corpus-coranicum-a-digital-landscape-for-the-study-of-the-quran. Accessed 8 April 2017.
Small, Keith. Textual Criticism and Qur'an Manuscripts. Lexington Books, 2011
Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ. Zondervan, 1998.
Taylor, Justin. “An Interview with Daniel B. Wallace on the New Testament Manuscripts.” The Gospel Coalition. The Gospel Coalition, Inc., 2017. blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/justintaylor/2012/03/21/an-interview-with-daniel-b-wallace-on-the-new-testament-manuscripts. Accessed 8 April 2017.
“Textual Criticism – What is it?” GotQuestions.org. Got Questions Ministries, 2002-2017, www.gotquestions.org/textual-criticism.html. Accessed 8 April 2017.
Thompson, Bert and Brad Harrub. “An Examination of the Medical Evidence for the Physical Death of Christ.” Apologetics Press. Apologetics Press, 2017, apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=145. Accessed 15 April 2017.
Wallace, Daniel B. “Dr. Wallace: Earliest Manuscript of the New Testament Discovered?” Dallas Theological Seminary. 9 Feb. 2012, www.dts.edu/read/wallace-new-testament-manscript-first-century. Accessed 8 April 2017.
Weldon, John G. “The Textual Reliability of the New Testament.” The John Ankerberg Show. Ankerberg Theological Research Institute, 2001, www.jashow.org/articles/bible/the-textual-reliability-of-the-new-testament. Accessed 8 April 2017.
Wiegers, Gerard A. "Muhammad as the Messiah: A comparison of the polemical works of Juan Alonso with the Gospel of Barnabas". Biblitheca Orientalis. vol. 52, The Netherlands Institute for the Near East, April-June 1995.

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