An anachronism can be defined as the representation of an event, person, or thing in a historical context in which it could not have occurred or existed. If we, for example, saw a movie about ancient Rome in which the emperor took a call on his mobile phone, that would be anachronistic.
The Qur’an contains several examples of exactly this kind of thing happening. It seems that Muhammad, or whoever wrote the Qur’an, erroneously thought the world of previous centuries corresponded exactly with his own and that he wrote it on this basis. So far from being eternal, uncreated, and utterly reliable, it can be definitively shown that the Qur’an gets ancient history spectacularly wrong. Here are some of the many anachronisms that it contains:
The story of the Jewish patriarch Joseph being sold into slavery is dated to about 2000 BCE. The Qur’an relates this as follows: “[ Joseph’s] brethren sold him for a miserable price, for a few dirhams counted out: in such low estimation did they hold him.” (Qur’an 12:20) The word dirham is derived from the Greek drachma, and we get the first mention of the dirham/drachma at about the 12th century BCE. So according to the Qur’an, Joseph was sold into slavery using a currency that would not be in circulation for another 700-800 years.
The first recorded instance of the use of chain mail that we have comes from 5th century BCE Britain. David, King of Israel, lived about 500 years before this, on the other side of the known world, yet the Qur’an supplies him with a suit of armor made of chain mail: “We bestowed Grace aforetime on David from ourselves: ‘O ye Mountains. Sing ye back the Praises of Allah with him. and ye birds also. And We made the iron soft for him; Commanding, ‘Make thou coats of mail, balancing well the rings of chain armor, and work ye righteousness; for be sure I see clearly all that ye do.’” (Qur’an 34:10-11)
We have no references from any culture anywhere in the world to crucifixion as a method of execution before the 6th century BCE. Yet, the Qur’an tells of crucifixions in the time of Joseph (Qur’an 12:41) approximately 20 centuries BCE, and Moses (Qur’an 20:41) approximately 15 centuries BCE.
The ancient city of Samaria was founded by the Jewish king Omri (reigned 884-873 BCE) as a new capital for the Kingdom of Israel. The traditional date for the exodus of the Jews from Egypt is given as around 1400 BCE. Amazingly we see about seven centuries before anyone could have been called a Samaritan (because the city simply did not exist then), a Samaritan on the scene as the Jews leave Egypt. The Samaritan actually helps the Israelites to construct the Golden Calf and thus earns Allah’s wrath. He tells Moses: “We have tested thy people in thy absence: the Samiri (Samaritan) has led them astray.” (Qur’an 20:85)
Perhaps those who are so keen on the search for miracles in the Qur’an should cease looking for scientific miracles and instead concentrate on time travel!
For a much fuller discussion of Islam’s truth-claims, please see my book ‘Questioning Islam - Tough Question and Honest Answers About the Muslim Religion’
Kind reagrds,
Peter
If you received this article via email, please forward it to your friends who might be interested. Otherwise, use the button below to share it on social media.
Please use the button below to subscribe, or to support my work by upgrading to a paid subscription.