Opus 2023-318: The Danger of Tradition

I am coming across real parallels between Islam and Rabbinical Judaism.  

The Hadith and the Talmud are both transcribed oral traditions.  Both religions have a written source of truth.  For the Muslims it is the Koran.  For the Jews it would be what we traditionally call the Old Testament.  That is established.  Then we have the teachings that exist today in written form but were passed down orally for centuries before being recorded.  For Muslims this is the Hadith.  For Jews it is the Talmud.  Both oral traditions are vastly longer than the written originals.

Reading excerpts from Rabbis, you come across a lot of the medieval phrases that you find in the quotes of mullahs.  I would assume these were matters of etiquette and the culture of the Middle East.  

It is interesting also that Mohammad talked about the people of the Book, Christians and Jews.  He seemed to teach that there was a written source that came from God.  The problem, according to Mohammad, was that the Book had been perverted by Christians and Jews.

He may have had something there.
    
His knowledge of Christianity was formed by the works that were never accepted into the Christian canon.  The area he lived in was hotbed of gnostic heresy.  It makes me wonder if his knowledge of Judaism was based on the interpretations of the Rabbis.  Another complication would be the Septuagint.  There are numerous places where the Septuagint is different than the Hebrew text.  In other places it has sentences added.

I wonder if a Jew from the time of David would recognize modern Judaism in any of its forms.  I wonder the same about Islam.  We face the same temptation in the world of Christian theology.  Much of what we believe is based on tradition and hearsay rather than what the Bible text actually says.  It is a challenge to all of us.  It is a challenge that only we, as individuals, can answer.

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