Questions About the Bible and Answers: What Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Say

Judaism places the act of questioning scripture at the very heart of religious life. The Talmudic tradition — codified by sages like Rabbi Akiva in the 2nd century CE — treats vigorous debate over biblical texts not as doubt but as devotion. Questions about the Bible aren't just permitted; they're expected.

One of the most practically urgent questions the Hebrew Bible itself raises is: how do you know whether a prophetic oracle is genuinely from God? Deuteronomy addresses this head-on, asking "How can we know that the oracle was not spoken by GOD?" Deuteronomy 18:21 — and the answer it provides is essentially empirical: a prophecy that fails to come true wasn't divine. This is a remarkably rational framework for a pre-modern text.

Isaiah deepens the epistemological stakes. The rhetorical questions in Isaiah 40 — "Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning?" Isaiah 40:21 — presuppose that divine truth has been accessible all along, embedded in creation itself. The implication is that asking questions about God and scripture is a natural human response to observable reality, not a sign of faithlessness.

Isaiah 48 adds a fascinating wrinkle: some things are genuinely new revelations, created in the present moment so that no one can falsely claim prior knowledge Isaiah 48:7. This suggests the biblical authors were aware of the tension between tradition and fresh divine speech — a tension Jewish commentators like Rashi (11th century) and Maimonides (12th century) continued wrestling with for centuries.

The prophet Jeremiah frames the question even more directly in a liturgical context: "What did GOD answer you?" Jeremiah 23:37 — treating the act of seeking God's word as an ongoing, dialogical practice rather than a one-time deposit of truth.

Christianity inherits the entire Hebrew Bible as its Old Testament and adds the New Testament, making questions about the Bible central to Christian theology and practice. The same passages that Judaism wrestles with — Isaiah's rhetorical challenges, Deuteronomy's test of prophecy — carry over into Christian interpretation, though often reframed through a Christological lens.

Isaiah 40:21's series of pointed questions — "Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?" Isaiah 40:21 — is read by many Christian commentators, including John Calvin in the 16th century, as an indictment of human spiritual blindness and a call to recognize God's sovereignty through both creation and scripture.

The question of how to distinguish true prophecy from false, raised in Deuteronomy 18:21 Deuteronomy 18:21, became especially significant in early Christianity as the church debated which texts were canonical. Scholars like Origen (3rd century) and later the Council of Carthage (397 CE) worked to establish authoritative answers about which books belonged in the Bible — itself a response to the very question the text poses.

Isaiah 48:7's assertion that some revelations are genuinely new Isaiah 48:7 resonates with Christian claims about the New Testament as a fresh, fulfilling word from God — not contradicting the old but completing it. This is a point of significant internal debate: Protestant reformers like Luther emphasized sola scriptura, while Catholic and Orthodox traditions hold that scripture and church tradition together answer questions about biblical meaning.

Islam's relationship to the Bible is complex and worth understanding carefully. Muslims don't reject the Bible outright — they believe the Torah (Tawrat) and Gospel (Injil) were originally genuine divine revelations. But mainstream Islamic scholarship holds that these texts were corrupted over time, making the Qur'an the only fully reliable scripture available today.

Ibn Abbas, one of the most respected companions of the Prophet Muhammad, put it bluntly: "How can you ask the people of the Scriptures about their Books while you have Allah's Book (the Qur'an) which is the most recent of the Books revealed by Allah, and you read it in its pure undistorted form?" Sahih al Bukhari 7522 This isn't a dismissal of earlier scripture in principle — it's a practical argument that the Qur'an supersedes it in reliability.

The Qur'an itself challenges the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) on their use of scripture. Surah 3:65 asks pointedly: "O People of the Scripture! Why will ye argue about Abraham, when the Torah and the Gospel were not revealed till after him? Have ye then no sense?" Quran 3:65 This verse is often cited by scholars like Ibn Kathir (14th century) to argue that even sincere questions about the Bible can go astray when the questioner's framework is flawed.

Surah 68:37 presses the challenge further, asking: "Or do you have a scripture in which you learn" Quran 68:37 — a rhetorical question implying that certain claims made on the basis of earlier scriptures lack divine warrant. From an Islamic perspective, then, the best answers to questions about the Bible come from the Qur'an itself, not from the biblical text as currently preserved.

Classical Jewish Scripture acknowledges the core question: “How can we know that the oracle was not spoken by GOD?”, signaling that discernment about true and false messages is a legitimate concern within the covenant community. Deuteronomy 18:21 It also models how to question prophetic claims: “What did GOD answer you?” or “What did GOD speak?”, framing inquiry as focused on the divine response rather than human novelty. Jeremiah 23:37 Isaiah then challenges hearers with rhetorical questions that call people back to what has been known and taught “from the beginning,” encouraging memory over speculation when answering biblical questions. Isaiah 40:21

These passages together suggest that questions about the Bible should test claims, ask what God has actually said, and consult the oldest foundations of teaching. Deuteronomy 18:21 Jeremiah 23:37 Isaiah 40:21

Christians receive Israel’s Scriptures and hear Isaiah’s summons: “Have ye not known? … hath it not been told you from the beginning?”, which urges believers to anchor answers in the long-taught foundations rather than novel claims. Isaiah 40:21 Jeremiah likewise directs the shape of faithful inquiry: “What did GOD answer you? … What did GOD speak?”, emphasizing that responses to biblical questions must report God’s word, not merely human opinion. Jeremiah 23:37 When faced with new teachings, the biblical pattern is to ask whether they align with what has been “told … from the beginning,” resisting the lure of unprecedented messages that cannot claim that grounding. Isaiah 40:21 Isaiah 48:7

The Qur’an addresses debates involving the People of the Scripture, asking why they argue about Abraham when the Torah and Gospel came after him, thereby using chronology as an answer to scriptural controversy. Quran 3:65 It also presses a probing question: “Or do you have a scripture in which you learn,” urging people to ground their answers in an actual revealed book rather than conjecture. Quran 68:37 A report from Ibn ‘Abbas cautions Muslims against seeking answers from earlier scriptures when the Qur’an is available in its recited form, prioritizing the most recent revelation in resolving religious questions. Sahih al Bukhari 7522