Qur'an and the Bible

Gabriel Said Reynolds is professor of Islamic studies and theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of The Qur'ān and Its Biblical Subtext and The Emergence of Islam and the editor of The Qur'ān in Its Historical Context.

“Enormously helpful as a way not just into an unknown text but into another religious tradition.”—Adam Gopnik, New Yorker“Magisterial.”—Eric Ormsby, Wall Street Journal“Gabriel Reynolds’ The Qur’an & the Bible fills a gaping hole to revelatory effect. . . . It contributes hugely to the ongoing project of anchoring the qur’anic texts to the bedrock of late antiquity. The impossibility of understanding the Qur’an’s origins without reference to the context provided by Jewish and Christian scripture has never been more painstakingly demonstrated.”—Tom Holland, History Today, “The Best History Books 2018”“Consistently with his well-known scholarly approach, Reynolds concentrates his research and his analysis on the Qur’ānic text seen as a Late Antiquity product. . . . This book would have attained its goal even if it simply managed to encourage students to get deeply involved with both Qur’ānic and Biblical literature.”—Valentino Cottini, Islamochristiana“Gabriel Said Reynolds is one of the most accomplished, most exciting voices working in the field of Qur’ānic studies, and The Qur’ān and the Bible is his best book to date. This commentary will be read and re-read for years to come.”—Reza Aslan, author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth and God: A Human History“This book fills a gaping hole to revelatory effect. Essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between the Qur’ān and the religious context of late antiquity.”—Tom Holland, author of In the Shadow of the Sword“While both believers and adversaries tend to see Islam as a stand-alone religion, it actually rests on the Judeo-Christian tradition. Gabriel Said Reynolds demonstrates this with great erudition, by re-reading the Qur’ān in ‘conversation’ with the Bible, in this impressive and thought-provoking book.”—Mustafa Akyol, contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and author of Islamic Jesus“Gabriel Reynolds’s concise commentary on the Qur’ān text offers an indispensable key to many parallel Biblical and para-Biblical traditions and clarifies the Qur’ān’s unique relationship to these earlier traditions and texts.”—Fred M. Donner, University of Chicago“Gabriel Reynolds is one of the world’s leading Qur’ānic scholars, and this learned and readable commentary sheds great light on the religious impulses that shaped Islam at its beginnings and on the relationship between Muslims, Jews, and Christians in Muhammad’s day.”—Gary A. Anderson, author of Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition