For Muslim friends
Jesus in the Bible
Muslims honour Jesus (ʿĪsā) as a great prophet and the Messiah, born of the virgin Mary. Christians love him too. The Bible tells his story through people who walked with him. If you have been told that the Bible was changed, that Jesus didn’t die on the cross, or that he foretold Muhammad, you deserve to see what the Bible actually says, and the evidence, and to judge for yourself.
What we share, and where we differ
What we share
- There is one God, the Creator of all.
- Jesus was born of the virgin Mary (Qur’an 19:16–22).
- He is the Messiah, and the Qur’an calls him a Word from God (Qur’an 3:45).
- He healed the sick and raised the dead by God’s power.
- Many Muslims, like Christians, believe he will return.
Where we differ
- Christians believe Jesus died on the cross and rose again on the third day.
- Christians call him the Son of God: not that God had a wife or a child, but that he is God’s eternal Word, who became a man ().
- Christians believe the Bible we read today is the Torah, Psalms and Gospel God gave.
What You May Have Heard
Each answer puts the Muslim view in its strongest form first, then shows what the Bible and the evidence say.
- Did Jesus foretell Muhammad as the Comforter?No. In John 14–16 Jesus names the Comforter (also translated Advocate or Helper; in Greek parakletos) as the Holy Spirit, who would be sent to the disciples in Jesus’ name, live in them for ever and glorify Jesus. That was fulfilled at Pentecost, weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, not six centuries later.
- Is Muhammad the “prophet like Moses” in Deuteronomy 18?No. Moses promised a prophet raised up “from among you, from your brothers”, and in Deuteronomy “your brothers” means fellow Israelites. The book itself defines what makes a prophet like Moses: knowing the LORD face to face and doing signs among the people. The New Testament sees the promise fulfilled in Jesus.
- Does the Old Testament name or foretell Muhammad?The passages usually offered, Song of Songs 5:16, the “Paran” verses, Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 29:12, don’t point to Muhammad when they are read in their context and in Hebrew. God did promise to bless Ishmael and make him a great nation, and the Bible keeps that promise in view, but the covenant line runs through Isaac.
- Doesn’t the Qur’an say the Bible was corrupted?The Qur’an actually honours the Torah and the Gospel, tells the people of the Gospel to judge by it, and says no one can change God’s words. The manuscripts we have from centuries before Muhammad contain the same Bible Christians read today. So if the Bible was changed, it would have to have happened before Muhammad’s time, which sits uneasily with what the Qur’an says.
- Isn’t the Qur’an better preserved than the Bible?In one sense, yes: the Qur’an was standardised within about 20 years of Muhammad’s death, and its text has been remarkably stable since. But it has a textual history too. The Bible is preserved differently, through thousands of early, independent copies that let scholars recover its wording with high confidence. Careful preservation shows faithful copying. It doesn’t show which message is true.
- Was the Gospel (Injil) a book given to Jesus?In the New Testament “gospel” means good news: the message that Jesus died for sins and rose again, which Jesus himself preached and the apostles proclaimed. No early source mentions a book revealed to Jesus. The four Gospels are accounts of his life by his followers, and they were in use for centuries before Islam.
- Isn’t the Gospel of Barnabas the true Gospel?The book called the Gospel of Barnabas survives only in Italian and Spanish manuscripts from the late Middle Ages or later, more than 1,400 years after Barnabas. It contains medieval details, geographical mistakes, and even contradicts the Qur’an by denying that Jesus is the Messiah. Many Muslim scholars also doubt it.
- Did Paul invent Christianity?No. Paul’s letters, the earliest Christian writings, pass on beliefs he had “received” from those before him, and he says Peter, James and John recognised his message. The worship of Jesus as Lord, his death for sins and his resurrection were the faith of the first Jerusalem believers, not Paul’s invention.
- Was Jesus a Muslim?Not in the sense Muslims usually mean. Jesus fully submitted to God, which is what the Arabic word muslim means, but he was a first-century Jew. The Gospels show him teaching things Islam denies: that he would die and rise again, that he could forgive sins, and that he is the Son of God.
- Do Christians worship Mary as part of the Trinity?No. Christians believe in one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and Mary is not part of the Trinity. Catholic and Orthodox Christians honour her highly and ask for her prayers, but their own teaching says worship belongs to God alone. Most Protestants keep devotion to Mary much more limited.
- Did Jesus really die on the cross?Yes. That Jesus was crucified and died is among the best-established facts of ancient history, accepted by historians of every belief. The Qur’an, written about 600 years later, says it only appeared so (Qur’an 4:157). Christians hold that the earliest witnesses are the better guide, and that Jesus’ death was the heart of his mission.
- Doesn’t “Son of God” mean God had a child?No. Christians agree with Muslims that God has no wife and did not father a child physically. “Son of God” describes an eternal relationship and a shared nature, not biology. The Bible uses “son of” in this way elsewhere, and Jesus’ hearers understood his claim to be Son as a claim to equality with God.
- Was Jesus sent only to Israel?During his earthly ministry Jesus went first to Israel, as God had promised. But in the same passage that says so, he heals a non-Israelite woman’s daughter, and after his resurrection he sends his disciples to all nations. From Abraham onwards God’s plan was to bless every nation through Israel.
- Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?Both believe in one God, the Creator, who spoke to Abraham, and Arabic-speaking Christians have always called God “Allah”. But Christians and Muslims describe God very differently: Christians know God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, revealed in Jesus. Christians disagree about whether to call this the same God described differently, or a different understanding of God.
Who Is Jesus?
- Did Jesus ever claim to be God?Not in the words “I am God, worship me”, but in ways his Jewish hearers understood clearly: he took God’s name, forgave sins, accepted worship, said he would judge the world, and said that seeing him was seeing the Father. His opponents tried to stone him for it and condemned him for blasphemy.
- Did Jesus really rise from the dead?Christianity stands or falls on this. Historians widely accept that Jesus died by crucifixion, that his followers sincerely believed they saw him alive afterwards, and that this belief began very early. Christians hold that the best explanation of those facts is that God raised him.
- If Jesus prayed to God, how can he be God?Christians believe Jesus is fully God and fully human. As a man he prayed, grew tired, and chose not to draw on everything he was, such as knowing the day of his return. The same Gospels show him claiming God’s place. Prayer shows his real humanity and his relationship with the Father, not that he was less than God.
- Isn’t the Trinity a contradiction?Christians believe in one God who exists eternally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is a mystery, but not a contradiction: God is one in one sense (his being) and three in another (persons). The doctrine was worked out to hold together everything the Bible says about God and about Jesus.
- Hasn’t the Bible been changed over the centuries?We have far more copies of the New Testament, and far earlier ones, than of any other book from the ancient world, and comparing them shows what was written with a high degree of confidence. Where copies differ, modern Bibles say so openly, and none of the differences overturns a central Christian belief.
Read Jesus’ Story for Yourself
Short passages from the Gospels, opened right here.
Written by Christians with respect for Muslim readers, drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s advisors. Qur’an references are given so you can check them.